ALERT UPDATE
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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY
Amazonian Deforestation Accelerating
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TAKE ACTION – Just Updated!
Amazon Rainforest Threatened by Massive Road & Infrastructure
Development - http://forests.org/emailaction/brazil.htm
January 17, 2002
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org
An independent scientific investigation recently published in the
scientific journal “Environmental Conservation” indicates that the
rate of Amazonian deforestation has increased sharply since 1995,
returning to the catastrophic levels of the 1970s and 1980s. “Forest
destruction from 1995 to 2000 averaged almost two million hectares a
year... ... equivalent to seven football field(s) a minute,” said
team leader William Laurance.
The research team’s findings are important because the Brazilian
government plans to invest over $40 billion in new highways,
railroads, hydroelectric reservoirs, power lines, and gas lines in
the Amazon over the next few years. About 5000 miles of highways
will be paved. The government claims that these projects will have
only limited effects on the Amazon. But the researchers assert these
giant transportation and energy projects will have a tremendous
impact on these important rainforests; initiating large-scale forest
invasions by loggers, hunters, and slash-and-burn farmers.
Forests.org first brought these planned new and massive Amazonian
infrastructure projects to the attention of the international
community this past July. We have just updated the alert that you
can use to protest this measures, which can be found at:
http://forests.org/emailaction/brazil.htm .
This new scientific study clearly indicates that the threats to
Amazonian forests are growing. “The scariest thing is that many of
the highways and infrastructure projects will penetrate right into
the pristine heart of the Amazon,” says Laurance. “That could
increase forest loss and fragmentation on an unprecedented scale.”
The team’s findings are described in a paper that just appeared in
the journal Environmental Conservation (William F. Laurance, Ana K.
M. Albernaz, and Carlos Da Costa. 2001. Is deforestation accelerating
in the Brazilian Amazon? Environmental Conservation 28:305-311).
The future of the grandest forest ecosystem is seriously in doubt.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Smithsonian Researchers Show Amazonian Deforestation
Accelerating
Source: Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu/) via
ScienceDaily Magazine, Copyright 2002
Date: January 15, 2002
A research team of U.S. and Brazilian scientists has provided
compelling evidence that rates of forest destruction in the Brazilian
Amazon have accelerated over the last decade.
The team, led by William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute, analyzed deforestation estimates produced by
Brazil’s National Space Agency that were based on detailed satellite
images of the Amazon since 1978.
Contrary to the claims of the Brazilian government that threats to
Amazonian forests have fallen in recent years because of improved
environmental laws and public attitudes, the Smithsonian team asserts
that rates of deforestation have risen sharply since 1995.
“Forest destruction from 1995 to 2000 averaged almost two million
hectares a year,” said Laurance. “That’s equivalent to seven football
field a minute, and it’s comparable to the bad old days in the 1970s
and 1980s, when forest loss in the Amazon was catastrophic.”
The research team’s findings are important because the Brazilian
government plans to invest over $40 billion in new highways,
railroads, hydroelectric reservoirs, power lines, and gas lines in
the Amazon over the next few years. About 5000 miles of highways will
be paved. The government claims that these projects will have only
limited effects on the Amazon.
But the research team disputes these assertions. “There’s no way you
can criss-cross the basin with all these giant transportation and
energy projects and not have a tremendous impact on the Amazon,” says
Laurance.
“When you build a new road in the frontier, you almost always
initiate large-scale forest invasions by loggers, hunters, and slash-
and-burn farmers.”
Although new environmental laws in Brazil are designed to slow forest
loss, the research team claims that most laws are rarely enforced.
That, in concert with a rapidly growing population and dramatically
expanding logging and mining industries, means that threats to
Amazonian forests are growing.
“The scariest thing is that many of the highways and infrastructure
projects will penetrate right into the pristine heart of the Amazon,”
says Laurance. “That could increase forest loss and fragmentation on
an unprecedented scale.”
The team’s findings are described in a paper that just appeared in
the journal Environmental Conservation (William F. Laurance, Ana K.
M. Albernaz, and Carlos Da Costa. 2001. Is deforestation accelerating
in the Brazilian Amazon? Environmental Conservation 28:305-311).
###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###
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