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FACULTY OF SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF PLANT SYSTEMATICS, ECOLOGY AND
THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
NATURE CONSERVATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and the largest river basin on the
planet. More species are found there than anywhere else. The region is believed to be
home to 10% – 1 in 10 – known species on Earth. Of plant species found in this region,
75% are unique to the Amazon, and there are 3,000 species of fish, the largest number
of freshwater fish species in the world.
It is also a massive carbon sink, meaning it absorbs more carbon dioxide than it
emits, one of the reasons why, in the past, it used to be called the world’s "lungs". But
nowadays, the forest may only be soaking up half as much carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere as it did twenty years ago, and one of the main reasons for that is
deforestation. (WWF, )
2. CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION
Brazil lies near the centre of international attention as the country having the world’s
largest continuous tropical rainforest (Borner et al., 2010), covering an area of
approximately 5 million km2 or about 61% of Brazil’s territory (Sparovek et al., 2010). Due
to the rapid loss of these forests, Brazil has been considered until recently one of the
largest contributors to carbon emissions from lost biomass (Kintisch, 2007).
Most of the literature points that cattle ranching, farming and infrastructure projects
are the leading direct drivers of deforestation, that is, the conversion of forested areas to
other land uses. The two other sources of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon are
mining and timber activities.
Mining activities do not seem to have had a major impact on the total area of forest
cleared, although they are largely responsible for the exponential rise of malaria in the
Basin (Moran, 1993).
Dams are also a big concern, given the fact that Brazil produces more than 70
percent of its energy from hydropower, mostly coming from the Amazon. But the
rainforest’s major dams often flood large swaths of land, displacing nearby communities
and triggering plant decomposition.
1. Table: Extracted from "Deforestation and Land Use in the Brazilian Amazon" (Moran, 1993)
Deforestation rates in the Amazon have declined over the last decade, but continue
at an alarming rate. Brazil is responsible for half of the deforestation in the Amazon, but
deforestation in the Andean Amazon countries – namely Bolivia and Peru – is increasing.
Deforestation is mainly concentrated in 25 “sub-fronts” that span across multiple countries
(WWF).
The areas showing the greatest deforestation rates are those that have more roads.
The strong correlation between the location of deforestation fronts and the presence of
existing roads or projections of new roads suggests that in the near future there will be
isolated deforestation fronts becoming connected along major infrastructure development
routes.
3. EFFORTS TO SLOW DOWN DEFORESTATION
Brazil has already set aside nearly half of its Amazonian land in reserves, including
indigenous territories and extractive reserves, where residents may cultivate non-timber
products, helping to stem deforestation.
Detailed analyses of publicly available satellite photos show that Brazil has reduced
deforestation in the Amazon enough over the past five years to lower heat-trapping
emissions more than any other country on Earth. This success demonstrates the
enormous potential of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as
well as conserving and re-growing tropical forests (the international effort known as
REDD+).
Between 2005 and 2010, Brazil nearly met its goal—a full decade ahead of
schedule. Data from 2009–2010 showed that Brazil’s area of deforestation, which
averaged 19,508 square kilometers (km2) per year during the baseline decade of 1996–
2005, had dropped 67 percent, to just 6,451 km 2. UCS analysis of this change, using a
formula for converting deforested area to CO2 emissions based on the work of the
research institute IMAZON, estimated a reduction in Brazil’s global warming pollution of
nearly 1 billion tons.
Norway plays a vital role in creating an economic incentive for Brazil’s actions.
Norway’s funding of REDD+ for the first five-year period reflects a financial investment
that goes far beyond that made by any other country, amounting to about $100 per year
from each Norwegian citizen.12 Both Brazil and Norway—the former tropical and
developing, the latter boreal and developed—have provided examples to the rest of the
world that are worth emulating. They have shown how we can act to deal with global
warming if we have the political will to do it.
In all its immensity and complexity, the Amazon is essentially a single ecological
unit. The biome can not be conserved through activities only in the national scope, due to
the multinational nature and at multiple scales of the pressures suffered by the region.
The different interdependent parts of the biome need to be addressed to ensure the
viability of the entire ecological system and the range of environmental goods and services
it provides to local populations, countries in the region and the world.
Based on a vision of the Amazon on the biome scale, the WWF Network's
Amazônia Viva 2016 report presents a series of recommendations for specific issues (e.g,
conservation and climate units, aquatic connectivity, sustainable financial flows, reduction
of deforestation), combining development and environmental conservation, so that this
integrated approach prevails in national and regional planning. WWF is developing tools
and approaches to land and water use planning, based on the biome perspective. These
tools and approaches provide opportunities to plan and implement land use plans
differently and ensure a more sustainable path for Amazonian development.
The key principles for a sustainable future in the Amazon require a biomedical
perspective and a landscape approach. The "national parts" of the Amazon depend on
the integrity of the biome as a whole for long-term ecological sustainability, maintaining
the hydrological cycle and resilience to climate change. Cross-border initiatives are
important as rivers, ecosystem services and species in the region ignore borders between
countries.
The perspective of the biome and the proposed landscape approach must
permeate the development plans of the region, in line with the precepts defined in the
scope of the international commitments assumed by the countries of the region and the
world, which serve to guide actions for the fulfillment of the needs and respect for the
rights of the populations of the Amazon, as well as the sustainable management of their
natural resources.
Examples include the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (ODS),
the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the United Nations Program on Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), the UN Convention on
Watercourses (which has not yet been implemented in the Amazon), the Minamata
Convention on Mercury, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, and the Amazon Cooperation Treaty. Strategic regional partners include the
Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), REDPARQUES (Latin American
network of conservation unit systems), among other actors.
5. REFERENCES
Moran, E.F., 1993. Deforestation and land use in the Brazilian Amazon. Human
Ecology 21, 1–21.