Tom: How does this fit into the equation? From Stanford: An Update on the Destruction of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest
stanford.edu
By Jessica Shyr
The Amazon rainforest is one of the world’s natural wonders. It is almost unbelievable that an area that has probably some of the world’s poorest soils could have such a flourishing diversity of plants and animals. There are about 350 million acres of Amazon rainforest. Yet, because of poor economic circumstances and the greed of wealthy foreign powers, seventeen million hectares of rainforest are destroyed each year.
Deforestation has been described as the deliberate and permanent destruction and conversion of forestland for other uses. The three main causes of deforestation are logging, cattle ranching, and farming. Forest and woodland use take up about 557,667 thousand hectares (T Ha) of land, permanent pasture occupies 185,600 T Ha, and cropland uses 58,667 T Ha of Brazil’s land (Wilkie, 65). Deforestation is a major economic and environmental problem in the Amazonas, the largest state of Brazil. It is the primary source of timber in the world and an area greatly used for pastures and cropland. Each year about four million to six million hectares are destroyed in Amazonas. The main reason that Brazil and other Amazon regions turn to exploitation of their natural resources is their financial situations. Brazil and these other countries are in states of enormous financial debt and this adds pressure to cut and clear rainforests to finance debt repayments. International companies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) promote forest destruction so that debtor countries can cash in their forest resources to maximize foreign exchange earnings. The IMF feels such an urgent need to pay back wealthier countries that it does not realize how its demands are affecting these still developing nations. The general welfare of the Amazon regions is sacrificed in their foreign relations and these regions are impoverished to make wealthier nations even richer.
LOGGING
Because there is a constant worldwide demand for fine furniture and other wood products, logging is the primary cause of rainforest destruction. The contribution of wood from Amazonas to Brazil’s overall wood production has exploded from fourteen to eighty-five percent in the past two decades. Furthermore, the devaluation of the real, Brazil’s currency, has caused wood exports from the country to increase by 20% in 1999. Amazonas is the current target of transnational companies (TNC) to be a key source for tropical timber. These large companies come from foreign nations and forcefully occupy rainforest land. Because of them, the United States, Asia, and some large European countries control almost half of Amazonas export value.
There are some immense problems that disturb the stability of the Amazonas through logging. A problem of logging is the remoteness of the logging sites. Because many sites are situated in remote areas of the rainforest there is a weak presence of federal environmental agencies. They cannot enforce regulations if they are not aware of certain companies present in the Amazonas. Due to the lack of regulation, many irregular practices occur. The companies are often dishonest when they report fiscal information to Brazil’s government. They do not always report all the wood they have attained and how much profit they make each month. All the damage is not always reported in deforestation figures as well. Studies show that about eighty percent of logs cut in Amazonas are of illegal origin and TNCs often destroy law-protected species and take trees from law-protected areas. Local areas are not profiting from the business of logging and foreign concern rather than that of Brazil dominates their lucrative export market. First of all, land is sold extremely cheap at about $405 per acre (Blahnik, 2). Also, less that a third of sawmills in Amazonas are involved in secondary wood production, and the ones who do work only offer poor quality jobs.
CATTLE RANCHING
The second major cause of deforestation and exploitation of the Amazon rainforest is cattle ranching. Workers mistakenly turn to ranching because they find security and flexibility in owning land. While using the land for cattle, they can also extract other resources such as rubber, nuts, and trees. Land is cheap to buy, and because the cattle place high demand of the land, ranchers then resort to moving onto new plots after the cattle have drained the first ones.
There are just as many reasons why cattle ranching proves to be unsustainable for the welfare of Brazil and the rainforest. Pastures require open spaces of grassland, and this demands the need for further deforestation. In this practice transnational companies are again the main benefactors and profits are not invested in local areas of Amazonas. Cattle sales only repay about twenty-five percent of production costs (Clayton-Niederman, 1) . Raising cattle is also a danger because it causes environmental damage. Cattle emit methane and the fertilization of their pastureland emits nitrous oxide. The emissions are both harmful greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere.
FARMING
Only twenty percent of the nutrients of the rainforest are in the soil (Rainforest Information, www.quilcene.wednet.edu). Yet, many farmers turn to it for their way of life. Crops do not grow well and because farmers are poor, they cannot afford to buy land. So, they contribute to the destruction of remote rainforest areas. When the forests are cut down, the soil erodes quickly and soon only dry desert remains. Land cannot be reused year after year, so new land is cleared every year.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has a devastating effect on not only the rainforest climate, but also the world’s climate as a whole. Reducing the number of trees and surrounding vegetation contributes to abnormal weather patterns in other countries. This can negatively affect those countries’ agricultural and environmental well being as well. Another major dilemma is the conversion of the Amazon rainforest from a sink to a source of carbon. When intact the Amazonas would be an annual sink of ½ billion tons of carbon. However, as the forest is destroyed, carbon is released and adds to the total emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Forest destruction causes anywhere from half a billion to four billion tons of carbon to be released into the atmosphere (Bunyard, 2). One hectare contains about one hundred to two hundred tons of carbon. It was reported in 1998 that almost nine million hectares of tropical forest were destroyed by fire. From that source alone, about one to two billion tons of carbon were emitted. This amount is equivalent to a third of the total emissions from fossil fuel burning in the world (Bunyard, 2). Also, when rainforest is converted into pasture, fertilization causes three times as much nitrous oxide to be emitted into the air. And due to modern methods of feeding cattle, added protein supplements increase the amounts of methane gas the cattle release.
SOLUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
There are quite a few alternatives to logging, cattle ranching, and heavy farming in the Amazonas and other regions of the Amazon rainforest. First of all there are resources and export products that do not require mass devastation and exploitation of the forests. Rubber is a large export production and its source is the rainforest. Rubber tapping does not damage the rainforest and it is not necessary to cut down rubber trees to extract the latex from them. The National Council of Rubber Tappers set a goal for the year 2000 to designate ten percent of Brazilian Amazon as extractive reserves (www.greenpeace.org). Many non-timber forest products can be harvested. These include fibers, fruits, seeds, flowers, nuts, and honey. The fruits of Acai Palm make wine rich in minerals. It is the most important non-wood forest product in terms of money. Forty million dollars worth was produced in 1995. Acai palmhearts are a delicacy and in 1995, 8.9 million dollars worth were produced. This tree must be chopped down, but replanting this tree is easy and it regenerates quickly.
More that two-thirds of all mass-produced drugs are derived from medicinal plants in the rainforest. Almost seven hundred species with pharmaceutical effects and economic value have been identified in the Amazon. Eco-tourism is being encouraged more now as well. It is especially beneficial because this practice would guarantee low environmental impact on the rainforest and environmentally friendly technologies and accommodations would be provided for visitors. Adventure tourism could also be promoted. It could include rafting, trekking, birdwatching, and other forms of wildlife observation (www.greenpeace.org). Intensified regulation of transnational companies could cut down on illegal logging and ranching activity. Moratoriums (temporary cessation) on more species of trees and areas of the rainforest should be observed until a conservation plan has been created and the whole area has been divided into use- and non-use zones. Along with this, certified written agreements entailing caustic circumstances and large fines should be created with each TNC documenting that the ecosystem will remain intact and not destructively altered. The Brazilian government should have detailed accounts of every single company using their land and should take firm and urgent action to stop illegal practices. Strict penalties should be enforced for deviant practices (www.greenpeace.org). More sawmills and pulp production factories should be built in regions closely surrounding the Amazon. They would help create more jobs for the local people who are currently homeless and unemployed. These factories could employ from five hundred to two thousand natives. Within five years, these factories would end up paying for themselves and would benefit companies looking to maximize profit in the future (Blahnik, 4).
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
More and more, the government and societies in general are beginning to realize the extent of the destruction and the threat it poses for the world. There have been many potentially helpful steps taken just in the past six months that can decrease and prevent future reckless deforestation. In September of 1999, President Cardoso of Brazil approved an environmental regulatory code that includes a fine for offenders of up to 26.6 million dollars (EFE News Services, 1). In October of 1999, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced its approval of a loan to Brazil of 196 million dollars to support professional training programs and promotion of eco-tourism in the Amazon (EFE News Service, 3). Also in October, the World Bank sponsored "The first workshop of sustainable forest production in the Amazon." It teaches loggers how to select, cut, and transport tropical hardwood with minimal damage to the areas around it. These logging practices cost more, but will cut the final bill by wasting less in the long run (EFE News Services, 2).
In December 1999, discussion involving the Kyoto Protocol proposed the possibility of emissions trading. Brazil could earn credits to sell to other countries that have assumed commitments to reduce their emissions of ozone-depleting gases (Osava, 1). Most recently, in February of 2000, Greenpeace arrived in Brazil and launched protest against illegal deforestation. They plan to track down illegal loggers and denounce them publicly (EFE News Services, 5).
In conclusion, the future and the solutions to the detrimental problem of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest are not out of human control. They can only be fixed if humans want them to be, and they depend on the decisions made by the government and society. However, nothing can truly help the situation until large companies and the consumers who motivate them to take selfish actions realize and acknowledge that there is a problem. Most of these destructive practices are done for the instant benefits and present monetary gains, but if the rainforests are not self-sustainable or still around in a few decades, then every country and company that relies on the rainforest now will lose massive amounts of money, jobs, and resources. And unfortunately, the world will lose one if its most precious natural wonders.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blahnik, Tate. "Deforestation an the Lumber Industry." Previous EDGE Research
Paper.
Bunyard, Paul. "Eradicating the Amazon rainforests will wreak havoc on climate."
Ecologiest, March-April 1999.
Clayton-Niederman, Zara. "Forests for Cattle: Are Developing Countries Trading Away
their Future?" Previous Edge Research Paper.
"Environmental Updates from September 1999 through March 2000." EFE News
Services, 1999-2000.
Osava, Maria. "Glimmer of hope for the Amazon." Inter Press Service, Dec. 17, 1999.
Rainforest Information, www.quilcene.wwednet.edu.
www.greenpeace.org
Wilkie, James W. Statistical Abstract of Latin America. UCLA Latin America Center
Publications; Los Angeles. 1999. |
