Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest has been one of the biggest most critical issues we are facing. This report explores the root causes, consequences, and potential solutions of deforestation, guided by the frameworks of Political Ecology and Land Change Science. The main threats to the Amazon Rainforest are primarily driven by industrial agriculture, which includes cattle ranching, soybean farming, logging, and mining. Between 2000 and 2020, land clearing for agricultural purposes increased by 50%, with cattle-raising accounting for 75% of the deforestation.

The numerous consequences of deforestation in the Amazon include habitat fragmentation, loss of species, and soil degradation. It also plays a huge role in climate change. However, deforestations impacts go beyond environmental changes as they lead to risking the human health as well, such as increased flooding. Our analysis further highlights the socio-economic drivers of deforestation, and the significance of global demands when it comes to environmental degredation.

In addressing these issues, restoration efforts have offered various solutions. Programs such as those led by the Amazon Conservation Association have restored degraded lands with over 250,000 trees and have taken advantage of modern technology to track their progress and work towards restoring the environment. It is very important to integrate community-based approaches to help our ecosystem. Ultimately, balancing economic development with environmental preservation is crucial to protect the Amazon Rainforest.

Deforestation has been a major global issue that has endless negative impacts on our Earth as it threatens biodiversity, disrupts the ecosystem, and accelerates climate change. One of the most evident examples of this issue can be found in the Amazon rainforest, a region that has been a source of maintenance for ecological balance but is now facing severe forest loss due to human activities.

This is a before-and-after picture of a road through the forest area of Mato Grosso, the third-largest state in west-central Brazil (2008). It is essential for us to understand the human-environment interactions that cause deforestation, and what its impacts are, as well as how we can lessen it.

It’s also important for us to understand that deforestation is deeply rooted in:

When people clear out forests it is not to destroy the environment, but to fulfill the global demands of resources like soy and beef. Driven to benefit society through economic gain, deforestation’s negative impacts of damaging the ecosystem end up harming us in the long term instead.

As a society, we are seeking to find a balance between economic development and preserving our ecosystem. This issue directly connects to discussions in Political Ecology (refers to how political, economic, and social factors affect the environment) and Land Change Science (refers to the physical patterns and changes in the land to study deforestation). Our research question guiding our study is How has the deforestation in the Amazon impacted biodiversity loss, and what are we doing to save and restore the environment? The objective is to explore the causes of deforestation, its impacts on the Amazon rainforest and biodiversity, and our next steps towards the fixation of this issue.

Solving the problem of deforestation is not easy by any means, and working with people from different fields is essential in coming up with good solutions. For example, governments, companies, and local communities need to work together to find ways to keep growing economies while also protecting the environment. It's really important to include local communities in these efforts because deforestation directly impacts them and they also have more knowledge that can be useful when it comes to land protection. What happens to the Amazon rainforest in the future depends on how well the world works together to find new ways to deal with the challenges of deforestation.

When it comes to a problem as big as deforestation, collaboration is crucial in creating solutions and protecting the Amazon, as well as help with conservation. Government efforts include investing in the enforcement of environmental regulations, and working towards creating incentives for businesses to adopt sustainable practices. Consumers can also make a difference by supporting companies that are committed to sustainable methods and choosing environmentally friendly options in their daily lives.

The Amazon Rainforest is a large tropical rainforest that spans across many nations in northern South America, including Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Suriname, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, and French Guiana. It rests in the drainage basin of the Amazon River and surrounds its tributaries as well. It spans 2,300,000 square miles, or 6,000,000 square kilometers, comprising nearly 40% of Brazil’s total land area. Its northern border is comprised of the Guiana Highlands, its western border is the Andes Mountains, its southern border is the Brazilian Central Plateau, and finally, the eastern border is the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest river basin in the world, its growth being mainly attributed to high rainfall, temperatures, and humidity. The Amazon is one of the richest and most biodiverse territories in the world, housing several million species of insects, plants, birds, jaguars, manatees, tapirs, red deer, capybaras, rodents, and monkeys. For this reason, it plays a major role in the ecosystem, and preserving it is essential. However, the size of the Amazon rainforest has shrunk over time due to the clearance of trees as a means of obtaining lumber, creating pastures for farmland, as well as accommodating human settlements. The means by which the trees are being cleared often take place through fires, with nearly 75,000 fires taking place in 2019 alone, an 85% increase from the year before it, primarily at the hands of Brazilian governmental bodies. This poses a direct threat to biodiversity, and therefore the environment at large. In response to these threats, in the 1990s multiple nations, Brazil included, came together to devise legislation and procedures that would help preserve the Amazon Rainforest and the wildlife that resides within it.

To examine, interpret, and explain the issue of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, we have used 2 primary frameworks: Political Ecology and Land Change Science.

Political Ecology is a framework that focuses more on human-environment issues, where it dives into the political, economic, and social causes of deforestation. Through this framework, we can understand how policy changes or global demands for agricultural products like soy and beef affect land use and changes in the environment.

This framework also focuses on and analyzes how decisions made by those in power affect local communities, who often have no say in the management of the land and forests. This results in the rights and needs of local populations being ignored, making the impact of deforestation even worse. Political Ecology typically relies on qualitative analysis of policies, governance, and social factors rather than graphs and data.

Land Change Science is a framework that focuses on studying the physical patterns of lands to get a better understanding of the trends and changes in the Amazon rainforest. This approach helps us track how the land is changing by using data and maps, giving us a better idea of how human activities are changing the environment.

This framework uses tools like remote sensing, satellite imagery, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to track deforestation rates and land-cover changes over time. These tools also help us predict future changes and find ways to reduce the harm caused by deforestation. These tools also help us study areas that are difficult to reach, allowing us to see how the forest is changing even in the most remote places. This helps us understand the threats to biodiversity with habitat disruptions as well.

With the combination of these two frameworks, we are able to get a more complete picture of the issue of deforestation as we are examining both human behaviors as well as physical land changes. With the two approaches, we can also seek better solutions that deal with not only the effect of deforestation, but also the causes of it. It is essential for us to look at complex issues like this with several approaches to be able to create an actionable solution that is able to efficiently tackle the problem from different angles. Furthermore, the comprehension of the causes and effects of deforestation in the Amazon lead to more effective ways in restoring and protecting our ecosystem for future geneations.

Deforestation in the Amazon is primarily due to industrial agriculture such as cattle ranching, soybean farming, and extracting resources through lumber and mining. These two agricultural activities lead to extensive amounts of forest clearing to be able to create croplands and pastures. Additionally, logging and mining contribute to deforestation as well, particularly the extraction of valuable resources such as timber, gold, and other minerals. Between 2000 and 2020, cutting down trees to make space for farms and pastures increased by 50%. By 2020, cattle-raising (shown in yellow) occupied 122 million hectares, causing 75% of the deforestation (See Figure 1).

Studies at the University of Connecticut also point out that weak governance and lack of enforcement of current environmental regulations contribute to the ongoing destruction of the Amazon. While these activities may have economic benefits, in the long term they pose a massive threat to biodiversity, climate change, and human health. In a meta-analysis of 274 pairwise comparisons of soil biodiversity, 60% and 51% of responses of soil macrofauna and microbial community attributes were negative and were highly vulnerable to the displacement of forests due to agriculture. By clearing primary forested areas and turning them into pastures, there was an overall decrease in taxonomic richness as well as a notable loss of macrofauna - See Figure 2 (Society for Conservation Biology, 2018). In Figure 3 you can see the locations from which they took soil samples.

In addition to biodiversity loss, deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest also impacts climate change due to the fact that the Amazon plays a major role in regulating the earth’s climate. Clearance of forests can lead to intensification of natural disasters such as droughts, compromised rain patterns, heat and cold waves, catastrophic storms, as well as a rise in overall global average temperatures. On top of intentional forest clearing by fire, deforestation of the Amazon also makes these areas vulnerable to wildfires due to the fact that the degraded plant material is more flammable. Particulates that are emitted from fires can have serious human health impacts such as DNA damage, gene mutations, inflammation, respiratory illnesses, and cancer (SciElo Brasil, 2020). Deforestation in these regions also has immediate impacts on human life by increasing the risk of infectious diseases such as parasites, fungal infections, viral infections, and bacterial infections. All of which are largely due to habitat loss, pathogen spillover, and increased risk of flooding and water contamination (SciElo Brasil, 2020). Despite the economic appeal of forest clearing, in the long run, it has and will come around to harm human settlements and communities in surrounding areas and beyond. Not only this, but the displacement of wildlife due to habitat loss from deforestation and wildfires will lead to humans and domestic animals such as cats and dogs having more frequent encounters with potentially threatening wildlife and any pathogens or diseases they may be carrying as well, creating even more risk for potential viral, bacterial, or fungal infections for both humans and domestic animals both in the home and in agricultural spaces such as farms (SciElo Brasil, 2020).

Our research question—How has deforestation in the Amazon impacted biodiversity loss, and what are we doing to save and restore the environment?—has been addressed through an analysis of both the causes and consequences of deforestation, as well as efforts to mitigate its impacts. Our findings confirm that deforestation in the Amazon, driven by industrial agriculture and resource extraction, significantly threatens biodiversity and exacerbates climate change. The destruction of the Amazon has led to habitat loss, decreases in species richness, and increases in natural disasters, impacting both local and global ecosystems. Reforestation efforts and advanced technologies like GIS and satellite imagery offer promising solutions by enabling real-time monitoring and more effective enforcement of environmental regulations. By understanding as well as addressing the socio-economic factors of deforestation through frameworks such as Political Ecology and Land Change Science, we can develop more comprehensive strategies to reduce the impacts of deforestation in the Amazon and promote conservation.

Reforestation is one of the more direct approaches. These projects aim to help sequester carbon, restore habitats, and improve water quality. A great example is the Amazon Conservation Association. Through community-based restoration efforts, they have reforested degraded land with over 250,000 trees in the Manu National Park Buffer Zone in Peru. These efforts not only help restore the ecosystem but also provide economic benefits to local communities by creating jobs and promoting sustainable land use practices. Reforestation projects focus on planting native species, which are crucial for maintaining the ecological balance and ensuring the survival of local wildlife. Native trees are better adapted to the local environment and provide essential ecosystem services. Moreover, reforestation efforts contribute to the overall global fight against climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing it in their biomass and soil. This process, known as carbon sequestration, helps reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, thereby mitigating global warming. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reforestation and afforestation are among the most cost-effective strategies for carbon sequestration.

Additionally, using advanced technology methods has proven useful in conserving the Amazon. Satellite imagery, GIS, and drones have been used to find and analyze deforestation in the Amazon in real time which allows for more immediate action. Using such technology, the Amazon Conservation Association has exposed over 2.5 million acres of deforestation, and by partnering with Peruvian government officials, police, judges, etc. they have trained them to use drone and satellite imagery to prosecute offenders. With this, several incidents of illegal mining and logging have been prevented. Adding on to these points, The Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) is a project that was initiated in 2015 by the Amazon Conservation Association, it is a vital initiative that aims to help monitor and report on deforestation and fires in the Amazon Basin using the same technology mentioned previously. It combines satellite imagery, remote sensing, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), MAAP provides real-time data on deforestation hotspots and their drivers with three main objectives being: documenting urgent deforestation cases and identifying direct causes, such as gold mining, oil palm plantations, and small-scale agriculture, understanding larger-scale deforestation patterns through comprehensive reports, and improving policy and conservation action by informing policymakers, law enforcement, and civil society. MAAP collaborates with partners in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia to expand its coverage and impact, making it an important tool in exposing illegal activities and supporting efforts to combat deforestation in the Amazon. Through its high-impact reports and real-time monitoring, MAAP raises awareness and drives effective conservation actions to protect one of the world's most biodiverse and ecologically significant regions. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being increasingly used to enhance forest monitoring and conservation efforts. AI algorithms can analyze large datasets from satellite images and drones, which helps identify patterns and anomalies that may indicate deforestation. These types of technology also enable faster and more accurate detection of illegal activities, allowing for timely intervention and enforcement (Abdenur, 2020).

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