According to a report from Globo Amazônia, the study conducted by Gilvan Sampaio of National Institute of Special Research (INPE) found that the vegetation of the Amazon will be particularly impacted by rising global temperatures in the years to come, in addition to the continued threats posed by deforestation and fires.
Photo courtesy of Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace
In short, it's going to be very difficult to protect Florida's natural wonders and the health of our economy from climate change unless we protect the world's rainforests.
Map Card courtesy of Striderv/Flickr
Last week Brazil's National Space Agency INPE reported a 51 percent drop in Amazon deforestation in the six months ended February 2010 compared with the year earlier period. But the seemingly happy news for environmentalists may be premature.
Photo courtesy of apoloniox70/Flickr
The park, in Mato Grosso, is one of the most biodiverse reserves in the region. But lack of management means it remains under serious threat from fire and illegal logging. Little is known about the botanical diversity of the region, and regional capacity for research is limited.
Photo courtesy of E Bowen-Jones/FFI
Up until now, indigenous tribes were aware of deforestation taking place on protected land but had little recourse to combat the problem--now they can twitter about it instantaneously.
Photo courtesy of Ricardo Funari/Flickr
Lovejoy, head of the committee responsible for this major scientific investigation, said the Amazon has already lost 17 to 18 percent of its forests. Furthermore, "it has a remarkable hydrogeological system where the forest generates at least half of its own rainfall."
Photo courtesy of Lalo de Almeida/NY Times
The Brazilian government bears some resemblance to the movie's corporate raiders. Its plans to sell off the mighty river to the highest bidder will result in forced evictions and drastic disruptions of cultures and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. The Amazon is as threatened as the Na'vi's land, and many Amazonian tribes have made it clear they will fight for their homelands.
Photo courtesy of AP/20th Century Fox
‘The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples’ asserts that ‘many of these communities are now on the brink of what some describe as genocide’, and highlights as particularly threatening the construction of dams and the clearing of forests for logging, mines and soy plantations.
Photo courtesy of Chany Crystal/Flickr
Figures that are quite alarming, like the fact that 17 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been decimated and 74 million hectares of Indonesian forests were completely destroyed, tend to lose their potency due to their unimaginable scope.
Photo courtesy of Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace
In the next generation, Central and South America will be the next battle fields for rich countries fighting over natural resources which they need to continue growing and keeping up with their consumerists, excessive ways of life. Minerals, oil, drinkable water, natural gas, forest and bio-tech resources are widely available in areas kept in balance by Native peoples for thousands of years.
Photo courtesy of AP/20th Century Fox
The Renascer Extractive Reserve was created as a conservation area within the ZEE on June 5, 2009 after a decade of struggle. The communities of the region began lobbying for the creation of a reserve when major logging companies such as Madenorte moved into the region in the late 1990s, occupied the territory, and policed its boundaries with threats and violence.
Photo courtesy of Alberto Cesar/Greenpeace
In Brazil, the cattle industry was walloped by a Greenpeace report that linked some of the world's most prominent brands — Nike, Toyota, Prada, and others — to destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
[Photograph by: Leonardo Freitas]
Indigenous peoples living in the Amazon Basin would make effective use of the funding that forest credits could generate, says Beto Borges with the conservation group Forest Trends.
[Photograph by: Leo Wery]
Perhaps the biggest worry for environmentalists is the planned pavement of the BR 319 motorway between Porto Velho and Manaus, which leads through one of the most pristine areas of the Amazon with a high biodiversity and many endemic species.
[Photograph by: Iberê Thenório/Globo Amazônia]
Researchers at Swansea University’s School of the Environment and Society say that deforestation and wood burning can lead to a lack of rainfall due to smoke in the atmosphere.
[Photograph by: leoffreitas]
Despite increased public awareness of the importance of tropical rainforests, deforestation rates are actually on the rise, mostly due to activities such as commercial logging, agriculture, cattle ranching, dam-building and mining, but also due to subsistence agriculture and collection of fuel wood.
[Photograph by: Dado Galdier/AP]
