11 Protecting the Amazon | Environmental Problem Solving in an Age of Climate Change: Volume 1

The Amazon rainforest covers more than 2 million square miles or about 518 million hectares (ha) of northern South America and has long been recognized as a critically important biodiversity hotspot. The Amazon rainforest also plays an important role in weather and climate. Aside from producing almost half of its own rainfall due to evapotranspiration, it also delivers precipitation to critical dry regions across South America, supporting agricultural production. The Amazon also has a significant role in the global carbon cycle, with the potential to act as either a carbon source or sink, with implications for global climate trends.

While deforestation in the Amazon has been an ongoing concern for decades, many experts now believe we are approaching a tipping point. Unchecked agricultural expansion, mining, and logging are pushing this biome to the point where it may no longer be able to sustain itself (e.g., continue to produce the rainfall needed to maintain its current structure). Many predict a “state shift” that will result in a vast area of tropical grassland and the corresponding loss of the many ecosystem services the forest provides. In this unit, you’ll consider ways to protect and preserve the Amazon rainforest.

The Problem

Globally, tropical forests are disappearing at a rate of about 13 million ha per year, an area approximately the size of Greece.

The resulting loss of ecosystem services these forests provide has impacts both locally and globally.

The world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, is in particular trouble.

Widely recognized as a biodiversity hotspot and key regulator of both regional weather patterns and global climate, the forest has been transformed by a host of human activities.

Deforestation and climate change may already have pushed the Amazon close to a critical threshold of dieback from which it cannot recover.

This inability to recover from disturbances like fires and logging and the on-going stress caused by climate change may push the rainforest past a tipping point , resulting in the forest becoming a grassy savannah with reduced capacity to generate rainfall, store carbon, or produce the suite of other ecosystem services on which we depend.

While the focus of this unit will be on climate change and the Brazilian rainforest because the vast expanse of forest generates much of its own weather , it is important to consider other threats facing the forest.

Cattle ranching: with Brazil as the world’s top exporter of beef historically, cattle ranching has accounted for more than three quarters of the Amazon’s deforestation.

Current estimates are that beef and soy production to feed cattle are driving accelerating rates of deforestation in the Amazon.

Industrial logging: Fueled by the high demand for a range of timber products, illegal logging is common in the Amazon.

It is estimated that one third of tropical deforestation is caused at the local level by people who need the resources provided by the forest for their survival.

Large swaths of forest have been cleared for growing soybeans, starting oil palm plantations, and for similar large –scale agribusiness efforts in the Amazon.

Ironically, the loss of forest driven by large-scale agriculture is actually creating conditions unsuitable for crop cultivation .

Gravel deposits throughout the river channels and floodplains of the Amazon basin contain gold. In addition to removing forests to mine these deposits ,

But increased frequency and intensity of drought, reduced humidity due to forest loss, and increased human activity have resulted in significant fire threat across the Amazon .

The Role of Climate Change

But recent studies indicate that the Amazon rainforest is now emitting more CO₂ than it is able to absorb .

This conversion of one of the world’s largest carbon sinks to a net carbon source could have significant implications for the rate and extent of climate change .

Of particular concern is the link between ocean temperature and drought which results in cascading effects on the region’s ecosystem , killing trees and leaving forests more vulnerable to fire.

Solutions

While each of the solutions below has the potential to protect critical expanses of the Amazon rainforest, its fate has become a political football , with the leaders of South American nations showing widely varying levels of commitment to its protection.

Agroforestry mixes cultivated crops among the tree species, while polycultural management creates a patchwork of perennial crops, annual crops, pastureland, secondary growth, and forest.

Olhos D’Agua (“Tears in the Eyes”), an agroforestry operation of 350 ha, features a complex system of trees and crop species, including high-quality cocoa beans.

Carbon offsets: carbon emitters in developed nations can invest in programs that protect existing forests or replant previously deforested areas and claim carbon credits to offset their CO₂ emissions.

In a related program, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) offers incentives for countries to protect their valuable forest resources using sustainable management approaches.

Successful application of these techniques can cut waste from logging by up to 50% and allow for a rapid return to baseline forest function (Miller et al. 2011).

In the Amazon, the Voluntary Environmental Agents Program (VEA Program) has empowered local communities in the Brazilian Amazon for the past 25 years.

Soy moratorium: implemented in 2006, the Amazon Soy Moratorium (ASM), in which international soy traders agreed to a ban on the purchase of soybeans from lands deforested after 2008, has been maintained by global commodities traders.