Dear “Earth Talk”: It seems like the
Amazon rainforest is not in the news nearly as much as it used to be. Have
the environmental problems there been resolved? — Justin Tucker,
Oakland, Calif.
Just because the Amazon is not in the headlines today
as much as when the media first covered its widespread destruction in the
’80s does not mean that environmental problems there have been
solved. In fact, the nonprofit Rainforest Action Network estimates that
more than 20 percent of the original rainforest is already gone and that,
without stricter environmental laws and more sustainable development
practices, as much as half of what remains could disappear within a few
decades. Researchers such as Britaldo Soares-Filho of
Brazil’s Federal University of Minas Gerais concur with such
findings. Soares-Filho and his team of international researchers recently
reported in the journal Nature that without further protections more than 770,000
additional square miles of Amazon rainforest would be lost and at least 100
native species would be profoundly threatened by the resulting loss in
habitat. One of the driving forces behind the destruction is
the poverty in the region. Looking for ways to make ends meet, poor
inhabitants clear tracts of rainforest for its timber value, often with
government permission, and then further despoil the cleared land through
destructive farming and ranching practices. In some cases corporate
conglomerates such as Mitsubishi, Georgia Pacific, and Unocal are
underwriting the conversion of Amazon rainforest into corporate-sponsored
farms and ranches. In an effort to provide solutions, Soares-Filho and
his associates plotted different scenarios to show how policy changes could
have dramatic effects across the vast Amazon River basin. “For the
first time,” he told reporters, “we can examine how individual
policies ranging from the paving of highways to the requirement for forest
reserves on private properties” could determine the future of the
Amazon. With new checks in place, UFMG researchers believe
that nearly 75 percent of the original forest could be saved by 2050. They
also point out that because trees absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide,
industrialized countries such as the United States should have a keen
interest protecting the forest so as to combat global warming. Stemming the tide of destruction in the Amazon is a
complicated task, but some concerned government officials, international
policy-makers, and environmentalists are making strides. Groups such as RAN
and the like-minded Rainforest Alliance have mobilized thousands of
activists around the world to put pressure on corporations and governments
in the region (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela all
have Amazonian regions) to clean up their acts. Only if they do will we
preserve the rainforest for its own sake, as well as for its important
contribution to medicine and other applications. Meanwhile, Brazil recently announced plans to expand
protections of its portion of the Amazon, telling reporters in March that
it would declare 84,000 square miles of the rainforest a protected area
within the next three years. But whether leaders there have the clout to
enforce such protections remains to be seen.
For more information:
Rainforest Action Network, www.ran.org; Rainforest Alliance,
www.rainforest-alliance.org.
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2006.
