Deforestation of the Amazon: May 2012

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Facts

10 Terrifying and Informative Facts about Deforestation and the Amazon Rainforest

1. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year.

2. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

3. We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.

4. The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.

5. The Amazon rainforest has been described as the “lungs of our planet” because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest.

6. One-fifth of the world’s fresh water is in the Amazon basin.

7. Some trees in the Amazon alone host up to fifteen hundred species, and astounding abundance of different life-forms in a small space.

8.There are 300 non-lizard reptile species, 175 lizard species, 500 mammalian species, and 1/3 of the world’s birds in the Amazon Rainforest. There are also 30 million insect species.

9. In every 2.47 acres of Amazonia, there are 1500 plant species, 750 tree species, and 900 tons of living plants. 438,000 species of plants have been registered as having economic or social interest.

10. It is estimated that in rainforests around the world, 150 acres of rainforest are burned every minute.

How to

How Can You Help Save the Rainforests?

~ Once you have a cause and you’re educated, you can change the world. ~

· Become educated on what organization/companies participate in deforestation, and then contact them with your fears and concerns. Also getting a large group to boycott products made by these companies will show them that if they do not stop their part in deforestation people will not by their products. It is not the small-scale unsustainable use by local people that is causing the majority of damage, but rather the large-scale plundering of resources by multinational companies such as Mitsubishi and Texaco, as well as misguided aid projects. As consumers, we are directly linked to this chain of destruction. As consumers we have the ability to demand more responsibility and foresight on behalf of the corporations exploiting the earth's resources.

· Get the word of deforestation out to government and the public, to the people local to the Amazon. They need to know that they will make much more money by not deforesting and actually using the copious amounts of natural resources of the rain forest. Governments need money to service their debts, squatters and settlers need money to feed their families, and companies need to make profits. The simple fact is that the rainforest is being destroyed for the income and profits it yields, however fleeting. Money still makes the world go around . . . even in South America and even in the rainforest. But this also means that if landowners, governments, and those living in the rainforest today were given a viable economic reason not to destroy the rainforest, it could and would be saved.

· Once you have the attention of the local people and government give them the facts that will make them want to end deforestation, like facts about how much money they can make. The latest statistics prove that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. This value provides an income not only today, but year after year - for generations. These sustainable resources - not the trees - are the true wealth of the rainforest

· Once you are educated on the problem of the rainforests spread the word to not only areas local to the Amazon, but to your own local communities; friends and local government officials. Learn more about forests through books, magazines, videos, and the Internet. Tell your friends about your deforestation concerns and let them know how they can get involved. Write an article or opinion piece for your local newspaper. Write or visit your elected officials to tell them you are concerned about deforestation.

· Not only do you need to get the facts out about money but also about all the medical and pharmaceutical benefits the rainforest hold. These are more important the then facts about money because these could be the difference between life or death, a cure or no cure, The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. Not only does the rain forest benefit cancer research and drugs but all medical research and drugs in general. Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

· Learning what products to buy and not buy will help end deforestation. Products made using sustainable rainforest products will boost the Amazons local economy and help put an end the cutting down or trees. Sufficient demand of sustainable and ecologically harvested rainforest products is necessary for preservation efforts to succeed. Purchasing sustainable rainforest products can effect positive change by creating a market for these products while supporting the native people's economy and provides the economic solution and alternative to cutting the forest just for the value of its timber.

· Once you learn about what products to buy and not buy then there needs to be a demand for those sustainable rainforest products. Each and every person in the United States can take a part in this solution by helping to create this consumer market and demand for sustainable rainforest products. By purchasing renewable and sustainable rainforest products and resources and demanding sustainable harvesting of these resources using local communities and indigenous tribes of the rainforests, we all can be part of the solution, and the rainforests of the world and their people can be saved.

· As hard as this one might be, decreasing your consumption of beef can help reduce deforestation. U.S. fast food restaurants and processed beef products often use beef from cows raised in Central and South America on land cleared of rainforests to graze cattle. Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has been particularly severe, where many millions of hectares have been converted to pasture. Between 1990 and 2000 the region lost an area of forest twice the size of Portugal. Decreasing your consumption of beef will help reduce pressure to clear more forests for cattle.

· Realizing that we as consumers have to take some of the blame for deforestation is a major step towards helping end deforestation. Of course we are not single handedly causing deforestation but are actions are affecting it. Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as "environmental villains" of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. But despite the levels of deforestation, up to 60 percent of their territory is still covered by natural tropical forests. In fact, today, much of the pressures on their remaining rainforests comes from servicing the needs and markets for wood products in industrialized countries that have already depleted their own natural resources. Industrial countries would not be buying rainforest hardwoods and timber had we not cut down our own trees long ago, nor would poachers in the Amazon jungle be slaughtering jaguar, ocelot, caiman, and otter if we did not provide lucrative markets for their skins in Berlin, Paris, and Tokyo.

Video

Interview

This interview was conducted with Elizabeth McGovern a science teacher of biology for the Worcester Public School System.

The latest statistics prove that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the landowner $60 per acre; if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if medicinal plants, fruits, nuts, rubber, chocolate, and other renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the landowner $2,400 per acre. With this being a fact why do you believe deforestation still takes place?

-Unfortunately the timber industry has brainwashed people into believing that they can make money by cutting down trees and farming the land, when in fact it is the timber industry who make the largest portion of the money. Also most of the poor only know how to farm, they have not been trained in harvesting the land for sustainable crops.

One way each and every person in the United States can take part in this solution to save the rainforests is by helping to create a consumer market and demand for sustainable rainforest products. Do you know of any other ways people of the United Stated can help save the rainforests?

-By refusing to purchase wood that is taken from the rain forest. Also by only buying goods that are made from sustainable rainforest products and refusing to by good that are not.

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. How do you believe the world would be impacted without rainforests?

-The rainforests are the earth’s lungs, that is to say after the ocean they are the largest carbon dioxide sink and they give back oxygen. Because they are mostly found in the tropics this happens year round.

More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin. What impact does deforestation have on not only these species and water base but the rest of the world?

-There is the possibility that one of those species could be a plant that could cure cancer or heart disease. Without these plants possible cures would never be found.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest. What do you know about the benefits of the rainforest when it comes to making medical drugs?

-I know that the breast cancer drug taxol is made from yew trees that are found only in the temperate rain forest of the Pacific northwest.

Tom Lovejoy, who now runs the Heinz Foundation, initial work focused on traditional academic study, such as bird banding has done more work than most popularizing the cause of the Amazon, both internationally and within Brazil. He has done many things to help the Amazon, one of the more popular things he did was write the article “Highway to Extinction” which questioned the construction of the TransAmazon Highway. What do you believe other foundations run by big corporations can do to help the rainforests?

-I think that they should ban the use of any non sustainable resource taken from the rainforest. Also as Lovejoy did these corporations should publicize what is happening in the rainforests and what can be done to change it.

Restoration seeks to remove the pressures which are altering or removing the rainforests, and then deliberately manage the forest that remains in such a way as to encourage natural self-repair by the ecosystem. Do you think there is enough restoration taking place or do you think more should be taking place?

-There should be more. Presently there is more restoration taking place then in the past but more is needed.

Deforestation can also trigger global climate change by altering atmospheric circulation patterns (via changes in the earth’s latent heat flux) and altering atmospheric chemistry (via changes in greenhouse gases). What do you know about the correlation between deforestation and global warming?

-As I mentioned earlier the rainforest is the second largest co2 sink, if it goes then the level or atmospheric co2 will rise tremendously. This is a big correlation to global warming because greenhouse gases cause global warming and 72% of greenhouse gas emissions are co2.

All forms of life within the rainforest are highly interdependent, so that even small changes in the habitat or species can have serious knock-on effects throughout the ecosystem. With that being said how does the extinction of a specie or the clearing of certain trees negatively affect other species?

-It will interfere with the food web, once one chain within the web is gone the entire web can collapse. This can cause more species to go extinct which will just continue this trend.

To end deforestation a wide variety of solutions have been suggested, including more research and development on tropical resources, more and better educated about the forests, more and better forest conservation and restoration schemes, more widespread use of debt-for-nature swaps, increased commodity prices for and import restrictions on timber, and increased co-operation between to seek viable and sustainable uses of the rainforest. What do you think works/will work best to end deforestation?

-Education! If more people become aware of how this can affect them then they may start to do something about it.