Trouble in the Tropics: Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest By: Ben Carlson

The image to the left is an outline of the Amazon rainforest (also termed Amazonia) from the Earth Observatory. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Amazonia expands across nine rapidly developing countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. It composes about 40% of South America and about half of the worlds remaining rainforest with about 1.4 billion acres of forest. It also contains one in ten known species on Earth and contains 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, (WWF). When the rainforest is destroyed and developed this carbon is released into the atmosphere. The Amazon rainforest has also been termed the lungs of the Earth because of the large amount of oxygen it releases into the atmosphere. This blog will discuss causes of the rapid deforestation and the impacts it will have on the world, as well as some policies regarding deforestation and carbon emissions with relationship to personal field study experiences. The main causes of deforestation in the Amazon include: cattle ranches, small and largescale agriculture, logging, mining, general development like road building and urbanization, dam construction for hydroelectric power, and fires. The changes in agricultural patterns in southern Brazil combined with subsidies and tax incentives which make clearing financially attractive are by far the leading cause of deforestation in Brazil, the country that contains the majority of the Amazon rainforest (Fearnside 1987). Brazils cattle industry is continuing to expand and the government is in full support of this trend to bring further income into the country. There are far more incentives to clear land for agriculture and pasture than there are regulations in place to prevent deforestation (Binswanger 1991). The two pie graphs below are comparing causes of deforestation from 2000-2005, both in the Amazon (right) and in all tropical forests on Earth (left). As you can see, cattle ranching is the largest cause on both charts with it causing 40% of tropical deforestation on Earth and 60% in Amazonia. This cause is likely to increase with the rising population as there are more and more mouths to feed. I urge you all to take notice of where your beef comes from and try to only purchase from countries with stricter policies in place. I do realize the difficulty of this as I have just started this myself. It requires a great deal of further research if you wish to eat out because many large companies will buy their beef from the

cheapest source, which normally relates to relaxed regulations and non-sustainable ranching practices.

As mentioned previously the Amazon rainforest is home to 1 in every 10 identified species known to exist on Earth. It also is a large producer of many goods we use today in our daily lives such as medicines, fruits, coffee and rubber. These are two huge reasons that the Amazon rainforest should be concerned that I will not discuss any further. Instead there is a different reason to conserve the rainforest that I will discuss along with a possible conservation policy which I have more experience with.

The pictures above are an attempt to display the thickness of the canopy layer of a rainforest to an area of deforestation. They are not the best pictures, likely because they were actually taken by me, someone who has no photography background and a digital camera that is mediocre at best. In the winter of 2011-2012, during my undergraduate career, I traveled to the

tropics for a field course which focused on studying the carbon sequestration (storage) potential for different types of rainforest habitats. Carbon stored in an area is related to its biomass. What we did was measure the biomass of 20 different plots of different habitats including: old growth, second growth, plantation, field and pasture. Areas of the rainforest that had original growth could store substantially more carbon than the areas that had been developed. If an area had been burned it had 83% less biomass than a second growth forest (Gerwing 2002). Further research is necessary on the carbon sequestration levels of a forest before carbon trading can be used effectively (Laurance 2007). For those of you that dont know, carbon trading is when a country that produces over its limit of carbon pays a different country that doesnt come close to reaching their limit for their unused carbon emissions. This payment ensures that the country will not develop that portion of the forest. This policy also attempts to keep countries accountable for their carbon emissions. It is policies such as this that I believe are a good step in the right direction towards conserving the rainforest. It will also take stricter regulations on development in the host country, stricter trade agreements, and people everywhere to start watching their consumer habits to make an even bigger and better impact.

References Binswanger, Hans P. "Brazilian policies that encourage deforestation in the Amazon." World Development 19.7 (1991): 821-829. Fearnside, Philip M. "Causes of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon." The geophysiology of Amazonia: vegetation and climate interactions. (1987): 37-53. Gerwing, Jeffrey J. "Degradation of forests through logging and fire in the eastern Brazilian Amazon." Forest ecology and management 157.1 (2002): 131-141. Laurance, William F. "A new initiative to use carbon trading for tropical forest conservation." Biotropica 39.1 (2007): 20-24. Sorrell, Steven, and Jos Sijm. "Carbon trading in the policy mix." Oxford Review of Economic Policy 19.3 (2003): 420-437. "THREATS TO RAINFORESTS FROM HUMANKIND." Mongabay.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.