Rainforests play a crucial role in sustaining life on Earth. They provide a fluorishing habitat for 50% of animal and plant species as well as important ecosystem services for humans, regulate temperature and weather patterns, and are critical in maintaining the the planet’s limited supply of drinking and fresh water. The three largest rainforest basins, the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia have a total forest area of about 1.3 billion hectares (one-third of the total forest area of the planet).
The tropical forests of the Amazon basin, covering 800 million ha and stretching across nine nations of the South American continent, constitute the largest rainforest of the world. Of the three rainforest basins, the Amazon basin suffered the largest net loss in forest area – about 3.6 million hectares annually between 2000 and 2010, mostly to accommodate the expansion of cattle and soybean production. The annual rate of change in forest area in the region was -0.45% between 1990 and 2000 and -0.44% between 2000 and 2010. 62% of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil and this is where 80% of deforestation in the region has taken place. Although deforestation rates in the country have declined recently, the area of rainforest lost each year is still massive.
The tropical forests of the Amazon basin, covering 800 million ha and stretching across nine nations of the South American continent, constitute the largest rainforest of the world. Of the three rainforest basins, the Amazon basin suffered the largest net loss in forest area – about 3.6 million hectares annually between 2000 and 2010, mostly to accommodate the expansion of cattle and soybean production. The annual rate of change in forest area in the region was -0.45% between 1990 and 2000 and -0.44% between 2000 and 2010. 62% of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil and this is where 80% of deforestation in the region has taken place. Although deforestation rates in the country have declined recently, the area of rainforest lost each year is still massive.
Deforestation has many negative effects at local, regional, and even global scales. Forest dependent people lose essential ecosystem services (many of which are also important on regional and global levels), might experience changes in local climate, increase in fire frequency and loss of biodiversity, and may even be displaced from their towns and villages. Large-scale deforestation can also have global impacts, such as changes in precipitation patterns in other parts of the world, although these complex effects are more difficult to predict.
With current rates of deforestation in the Amazon and the possible devastating effects of climate change on these forest ecosystems some scientists (such as Dr. Philip M. Fearnside of the National Institute for Research in the Amazon and James Alcock from Pennsylvania State University) fear that in a worst-case scenario most of the Amazon rainforest could disappear by the end of the century with unfathomable consequences for the ecological balance of our planet.
No comments:
Post a Comment