The Deforestation of The Amazon Explained
The 1st wave of Amazonian deforestation began in the ‘70s when Brazil’s government saw potential profit in the natural resources of the rainforest. Ever since then, mining and logging have been a threat to maintaining its ecosystemic equilibrium.
Rainforests are one of our most important defences against climate change, they act as a ‘carbon sink’ and can store up to 2 billion tonnes of carbon. The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth despite 18% of of having been destroyed due to deforestation. At current rates of deforestation, 27% of the rainforest will be without trees by 2030. But why are trees so important for the rainforest? Well remember when I mentioned that rainforests are our biggest combatant against climate change - This is because rainforests are able to be self-sustaining by being self-watering as each tropical rainforest has its own hydrological cycle. Tropical rainforests are humid and this humidity causes frequent and intense rainfall. This is absorbed by the vegetation and then released into the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration. This is why rainforests can generate up to 25% of their own rain. When this vegetation is cut down however, through activities such as logging, ranching, mining, and creating space for agriculture, the rainforest looses significant amounts of trees and vegetation and fewer of these means less transpiration. Once this drops below a certain point, the rainforest’s hydrological cycle will be severely disrupted to the point of it no longer being able produce enough rainfall to sustain itself and we soon could be witnessing the rainforest morph into a much drier ecosystem with far fewer trees in a process known as ‘Dieback’. This would release large amounts of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere and lead to a loss of the biodiverse species that inhabit the rainforest. One in every ten known species resides in the rainforest making the Amazon the greatest collection of life on our planet.
Why is nothing being done about this? The endangerment of the Amazon rainforest had first been realised in the 80’s roughly ten years after a land rush sparked in Northern Brazil in the area surrounding the rainforest when the Brazilian government built a highway stretching across the rainforest in order to make it’s natural resources accessible. Brazil’s government offered free land across this highway to cultivate land and the country’s economy and this sparked a mass migration from the south-east of Brazil to the northern part of the country where the rainforest is located. The new settlers changed the landscape by rapidly clearing the rainforest around them for land needed for cow breeding and pastures. This aggressive expansion struck deeper into the Amazon and caused significant amounts of the rainforest to be cleared. Overtime this trail of forest clearing came to be known as the ‘arc of deforestation’ in the 80s. Clearance of the rainforest by settlers who needed land to create pastures and grow soybeans was often done illegally and soon became recognised as a profitable pattern, only causing the arc to expand.
Over the years, many activist groups and environmental campaigners across Brazil have spoken out against illegal mining and logging activity in the rainforest done by criminal organisations only to be silenced. It seems that the economic benefits of illegal logging and mining activities act as an incentive for the Brazilian government to turn a blind eye to the activities damaging the rainforest. Amazonian trees end up in decks and flooring in Japan, Europe, the USA and Australia and more than 75 million dollars of Brazilian timber products are imported by Australia each year. Meanwhile, Indigenous Amazonian tribes are being pushed out by loggers and nothing is being done about it. When people do speak out about this, they can end up being killed. The case of Dilma Ferreira is a very tragic one. Ferreira was a well-known environmental campaigner who was assassinated in her home in March of 2019. For more than three decades she fought for the rights of Indigenous people affected by the Tucuruí mega-hydroelectric dam project on the Tocantins River of the Brazilian Amazon, a dam that caused the displacement of an estimated 32,000 people as well as an immeasurable amount of damage to the rainforest. Her only crimes were defending the forest and reporting illegal logging and they cost her her life. Unfortunately Ferreira’s story is just one of many, over the past decade more than 300 Brazilians have been killed for trying to protect the rainforest.
On the matter of infrastructure projects in Brazil that are funded by the BNDS, a Brazilian bank that is concerned with the country’s national and international development, Brent Millikan at International Rivers says that “Infrastructure projects should be serving the interests of the Brazilian people, but what we see is that a lot of times, theres a huge lack of transparency in terms of terms of how decisions are being made…. and how are they taking into account the social and environmental risks and impacts of the projects that they are funding”. The Brazilian government’s brutal cracking down on activists and campaigners against logging and mining only proves that the battle to protect the homes and rights of indigenous communities and the environmental integrity of the rainforest is still an ongoing one, but there are little things we can do be on the right side of this battle.
Anthropologist Lara Pietricovsky at the INESC says that “There isn’t only one form of development… we need to respect the rights of populations living in these areas that up until now have been responsible for the forest’s survival, then we need to find project mechanisms that can be applied in a sustainable form.”. But what could these sustainable forms look like? Some campaigners have suggested agroforestry systems (combining agriculture and trees) and organic farming techniques to help farmers minimise deforestation and prevent soil degradation. But other sustainable actions include:
Supporting community-based tourism initiatives, also known as ecotourism. This means learning about the Amazon directly from the local people so that local communities can economically benefit from the forest, while also creating incentives for conserving the biodiversity.
Raising awareness about the importance of the Amazon's biodiversity and advocating for its protection through social media campaigns, writing to government officials, or participating in environmental protests can help garner attention and action towards safeguarding the Amazon.
Not all logging is bad or destructive, sustainable forestry practices like selective logging and the use of certified timber can contribute to the safeguarding of the Amazon while also being a sustainable source of income for people who make a living from logging.
These mechanisms can ensure adherence to sustainable practices and prevent activities such as illegal logging and land encroachment. Ultimately the goal is to preserve the Amazon's ecological integrity be while supporting the well-being of its inhabitants and the collective efforts of people globally to support conservation efforts and make sustainable choices can play a vital role in doing this.
Useful Links:
Read about the work of climate activists like Emergildo Criollo - https://ifnotusthenwho.me/who/emergildo-criollo/
The Amazon isn't "Burning" - It's Being Burned - https://youtu.be/zhESYHHbzsc
A Guide to Ecotourism - https://www.originaltravel.co.uk/travel-blog/ecotourism-in-the-amazon-rainforest.
https://amazonwatch.org/
Amazon statistics - https://earth.org/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-facts/
Graham Hancock on The Amazon and what is yet to be discovered within it - https://grahamhancock.com/the-amazon-mystery/
