Amazon Rainforest
<Map of theAmazon
Rainforest>
The Amazon rainforest, which is located in the Amazon River Basin, is the largest rainforest in the world. Occupying 1.4 billion acres, the Amazon rainforest is half of the world’s remaining rainforests. It stretches through nine nations in the South America—Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The Amazon rainforest is called the lung of the Earth because it creates ¼ of the air we breathe and contains the unparalleled biological diversity in itself. For that, the Amazon Rainforest holds natural and academic importance.
<Amazon
River and Rainforest>
<Amazon
Rainforest in 2012>
records
|
taxons
|
|
Bolivia
|
202,298
|
24,611
|
Brazil
|
228,426
|
40,044
|
Colombia
|
214,228
|
29,832
|
French Guiana
|
56,442
|
5,489
|
Guyana
|
61,018
|
7,366
|
Peru
|
350,179
|
32,102
|
Suriname
|
32,889
|
5,012
|
Venezuela
|
128,911
|
21,498
|
Total
|
1,274,391
|
165,954
|
<Biodiversity in the Amazon. Research by GBIF. May 2006>
<Gondwana>
History of the Amazon Rainforest
The
Amazon River once flowed westward to the Pacific Ocean when the South American
continent was attached to Gondwana. As the plates of the Earth moved, the
collision between the South American plate and the Nazca plate formed the Andes
fifteen million years ago. The rise of the Andes created a huge lake in South
America, creating a swamp in the region. Five million years later, the water
began to flow eastward, creating the Amazon River that flows today. The
abundance of the water was the start of the Amazon Rainforest. Likewise, as the
Atlantic Ocean widened, the climate became warm and wet. Consequently, the
Amazon Rainforest reached as far as 45 degrees latitude south, where Southern
Chile exists today. However, during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum), the sea
levels dropped and the sedimentation created many lakes and rivers in the
Amazon. The drop in the sea level allowed the animals to freely migrate between
North and South America. This accounts for high biodiversity in the Amazon. The
amount of rain decreased, and some rainforests were turned into savanna and
montane forest. The rainforests retreated to the point where the Amazon
Rainforest is today during this period.
<Today’s Rainforest: There still are some
rainforest in Chile from long time ago>
<Cattle Ranching in the Amazon>
http://rainforestconservationproject.wikispaces.com/file/view/amazon-cattle-ranching.jpg/229537114/amazon-cattle-ranching.jpg
Current Human Impacts
The
Amazon Rainforest has a long history of human settlement and development. The
indigenous people appreciated and used what nature provided them in harmony.
However, the recent development by human has been rather destructive in its
nature due to the high potential value from the industrialized agriculture
methods and commodities such as beef and soy. Today, the Amazon Rainforest is
being cleared for cattle ranches, mining, logging, and subsistence agriculture.
The clearing that accelerated around 1970s destroyed more than half of the
rainforests in the world. Even today, 150 acres of rainforest is burned every
minute; 150 acres is about 1/3 of UCLA campus. Although logging is one of the
main reasons of destroyed forest, the biggest cause of the deforestation of the
Amazon Rainforest is cattle ranching, which caused 65-70% of the deforestation.
Likewise, until mid 1990s, the Brazilian government encouraged the poor farmers
to burn the Amazon rainforest and use the land for subsistence farming such as
banana farm. During the 1990s, 48% of the deforestation happened because of the
farmers that moved into the Amazon Rainforest. Recently, the rise in soybean
price encourages the farmers to destroy the Amazon Rainforest for soybean farm.
Around 20% of the deforestation today is caused by the commercial agriculture
like soybean farm. Moreover, the global warming affects the deforestation of
the Amazon Rainforest. The increase temperature in the Amazon Rainforest
reduces the amount of rainfall across South America. Consequently, the drought
reduces the rainforest and increases the chance of fire, which is also a big
cause of the Amazon deforestation. According to Dr. Oliver L Phillips from
University of Leeds, the serious drought in the Amazon in 2005 led to an
exponential growth of carbon within the atmosphere. In his article, he warned
that the Amazon River and Rainforest are indispensable to keeping the Earth’s
carbon level at a normal point.
<Beef destroys Amazon>
<Rainforest size of UCLA campus is being
destroyed every three minutes>
The
Brazilian government is trying to reduce the deforestation rate in the Amazon
Rainforest, but it is a big dilemma for them because the development of the
Amazon Rainforest is closely related with their economic growth. For example,
high rate of deforestation from 1994 to 1998 paralleled with the economic boom
in Brazil. Nonetheless, the Brazilian government assigned 44% of the Amazon
Rainforest as the protected area. That is an area bigger than Greenland. The
ISA (Imazon and the Instituto Socioambiental) reports that the annual clearing
of the forest has decreased more than 75% since 2004 in Brazil. Also, 60% of
the terrestrial nature conservation is accounted for Brazil’s effort.
<Deforestation in Brazil rapidly decreasing
since 2005>
<What's going to happen in the Amazon?>
http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/070814-amazon-brazil_big.jpg
Outlook
The future of the Amazon Rainforest heavily depends
on Brazil because two-thirds of the Amazon Rainforest is in Brazil. At the
moment, although Brazil is expanding the protected area of the Amazon Rainforest,
the Amazon Rainforest’s future does not seem so safe because it still suffers
from the threat of illegal deforestation activities. According to IBAMA
(Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Nature), 80% of logging in
the Amazon Rainforest was unauthorized. Further deforestation in the Amazon
Rainforest is expected because of the poor management on the protected areas.
According to ISA, half of the protected Amazon Rainforest does not have a
management plan and council. Even if the protected area has a management plan
and council, the staff number is too low to manage the vast Amazon Rainforest;
one officer manages 1817 square kilometers of Amazon Rainforest. Poor
management and shortage of council led to easy illegal deforestation in Amazon
Rainforest. On top of the poor management, the global warming is affecting the
Amazon Rainforest; higher temperature around the globe will lead to decline in
rainfall in the Amazon basin and cause drought in Amazon Rainforest.
<2/3 of Amazon is in Brazil>
What can we do?
I chose to do my blog on the Amazon Rainforest because I watched a documentary about the Amazon Rainforest few years ago. I was expecting to see beautiful nature and some exotic animals that only reside in the Amazon. However, what they showed was shocking to me. They showed how humans exploited the Amazon Rainforest by burning them down and making farms there. They showed a baby monkey that lost its mother in the fire and was taken by some people for protection. That somehow got me and made me think that the Amazon Rainforest should be protected because it is the last garden of Eden on this planet.
Saving the Amazon Rainforest is not a rocket
science, but few individuals cannot do it by themselves. More interest groups should express
their interest in saving the Amazon, and the other nations should help Brazil
to balance its economic growth and development of the Amazon. Since Brazil is
expanding the protected area in Amazon, ensuring better management, law
enforcement, and sufficient staff numbers will definitely improve the
protection of the Amazon Rainforest by preventing further illegal logging and
cattle ranching. Also, educating and encouraging the local people because they
have suffrage in Brazil and can make the Brazilian government to ensure that
the protected areas are not farmed by illegal deforestation activities. As
individuals, they can decide to be vegetarian or at least avoid consuming beef
from Brazil, as cattle ranching are the biggest cause of deforestation in the
Amazon. Likewise, there are many other ways to save the Amazon Rainforest such
as sustainable development. Yet, the people’s awareness is not enough to
appreciated the Amazon Rainforest and save it from further deforestation. The Amazon Rainforest has an
uncontested nature’s diversity that surpasses any other rainforest and biome. It
should not be deprived of its beauty and should maintain its biodiversity. Although
the extinction of species is a natural process, the one that is happening in
the Amazon is systematic cause that the humans have started. If the ruthless
deforestation of Amazon Rainforest does not stop, the Earth may be a lonely
planet filled with just humans and cattle while the other beautiful species are
gone.
<His fate depends on us>
Reference:
Phillips, O.L, S.L Lewis
"Drought Sensitivity of the Amazon
Rainforest." Science. 323.5919 (2009): 1344-1347. Print.
Veríssimo, A., Rolla, A., Vedoveto, M. & de
Furtada, S.M. (2011) Áreas Protegidas na Amazônia Brasileira: avanços e
desafios [PDF]. Imazon/ISA.
Butler, Rhett A.
"Tropical Rainforest Conservation." Mongabay.com. San Francisco.
ABBIF. "Amazon Basin Biodiversity Information Facility (ABBIF) Feasibility Study Report." N.d. TS.
ABBIF. "Amazon Basin Biodiversity Information Facility (ABBIF) Feasibility Study Report." N.d. TS.
