Plants and trees help animals survive in the Amazon. The Amazon is referred to as the "lungs of the planet".
About 35 species of animals die each day. This can result in a huge loss of animals. Unfortunately there are more and more species becoming endangered in the Amazon rainforest.
Some of the top reasons for the population decline of so many of these animals are deforestation, illegal poaching, environmental changes (such as global warming), and excessive hunting and fishing (both legal and illegal).
Many animals of the Amazon face the threat of illegal capture for pet trade. The Scarlet Macaw is a perfect example of a beautiful bird that often gets caught and sold depleting the natural population in the Amazon.
It is estimated that about 20% of the rainforest has been destroyed due to deforestation since the 1960s. If the trend continues, some estimates indicate that over half of the remaining rainforests could be gone in the next seventeen years. This would mean the end of countless species and a significant decline of the remaining species.
It is not only humans impacting the population of the Amazon animals, but also environmental factors such as a decrease in precipitation and global warming that negatively affect the animals.
Some of the currently endangered animals include the jaguar, gorilla, poison Dart frog, hyacinth macaw, golden-lion tamarin, and the three-toed sloth.
There is a perceived danger of the dangerous human elements (drug lords, and so on) in and around the Amazon.
Tourism has certain negative effects on any destination, but is also beneficial for the local communities of the Amazon. It generates an income and decreases the necessity they may feel to smuggle valuable (and threatened or endangered) animals to other parts of the world for the financial gain they stand in line to gain.
Today, more than 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed and is gone forever. The land is being cleared for cattle ranches, mining operations, logging, and subsistence agriculture. Some forests are being burned to make charcoal to power industrial plants. More than half of the world's rainforests have been destroyed by fire and logging in the last 50 years. Over 200,000 acres are burned every day around the world, or over 150 acres every minute. Experts also estimate that 130 species of plants, animals, and insects are lost every day. At the current rate of destruction, it is estimated that the last remaining rainforests could be destroyed in less than 40 years.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's government reported Thursday that annual destruction of its Amazon rainforest jumped by 28 percent after four straight years of declines, an increase activists said was linked to recent loosening of the nation's environmental law meant to protect the jungle.
However, the destruction was still the second-lowest amount of jungle destroyed since Brazil began tracking deforestation in 1988.
The increase in deforestation came in the August 2012 through July 2013 period, the time when Brazil annually measures the destruction of the forest by studying satellite images. The country registered its lowest level of Amazon felling the year before.
The Amazon rainforest is considered one of the world's most important natural defenses against global warming because of its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide. About 75 percent of Brazil's emissions come from rainforest clearing, as vegetation burns and felled trees rot.
That releases an estimated 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, making Brazil at least the sixth-biggest emitter of the gas.
Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said Thursday that the most recent figures show 2,256 square miles (5,843 square kilometers) of rainforest were felled. That's compared to the 1,765 square miles (1,571 square kilometers) cleared the previous year.
Environmentalists blame the increase on a loosening of Brazil's environmental laws. They also say that the government's push for big infrastructure projects like dams, roads and railways is pushing deforestation.
A bill revising the Forest Code law passed Congress last year after more than a decade of efforts by Brazil's powerful agricultural lobby to make changes to what has been one of the world's toughest environmental laws, at least on paper.
The changes mostly eased restrictions for landowners with smaller properties, allowing them to clear land closer to riverbanks and other measures. Perhaps the most controversial portion of the new law was what activists say was an amnesty, allowing those who illegally felled land to not face penalties if they signed an agreement to replant trees, which many environmentalists question could be enforced.
Paulo Adario, coordinator of Greenpeace's Amazon campaign, said that it was scandalous that there was such a spike in the destruction.
"The government can't be surprised by this increase in deforestation, given that their own action is what's pushing it," he said. "The change in the Forest Code and the resulting amnesty for those who illegally felled the forest sent the message that such crimes have no consequences."
Adario also said the Rousseff government's strong push for infrastructure projects in the Amazon region was leading to increased deforestation, and Thursday's government report showed that much of the destruction was centered along a government-improved roadway running through the states of Para and Mato Grosso.
Better roads make it easier to illegally extract timber from the jungle and push more soy farmers and ranchers, who clear trees so they can work land and plant pasture, into previously untouched areas.
Oh, no! Sorry Amazon.
About 35 species of animals die each day. This can result in a huge loss of animals. Unfortunately there are more and more species becoming endangered in the Amazon rainforest.
Some of the top reasons for the population decline of so many of these animals are deforestation, illegal poaching, environmental changes (such as global warming), and excessive hunting and fishing (both legal and illegal).
Many animals of the Amazon face the threat of illegal capture for pet trade. The Scarlet Macaw is a perfect example of a beautiful bird that often gets caught and sold depleting the natural population in the Amazon.
It is estimated that about 20% of the rainforest has been destroyed due to deforestation since the 1960s. If the trend continues, some estimates indicate that over half of the remaining rainforests could be gone in the next seventeen years. This would mean the end of countless species and a significant decline of the remaining species.
It is not only humans impacting the population of the Amazon animals, but also environmental factors such as a decrease in precipitation and global warming that negatively affect the animals.
Some of the currently endangered animals include the jaguar, gorilla, poison Dart frog, hyacinth macaw, golden-lion tamarin, and the three-toed sloth.
There is a perceived danger of the dangerous human elements (drug lords, and so on) in and around the Amazon.
Tourism has certain negative effects on any destination, but is also beneficial for the local communities of the Amazon. It generates an income and decreases the necessity they may feel to smuggle valuable (and threatened or endangered) animals to other parts of the world for the financial gain they stand in line to gain.
Today, more than 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed and is gone forever. The land is being cleared for cattle ranches, mining operations, logging, and subsistence agriculture. Some forests are being burned to make charcoal to power industrial plants. More than half of the world's rainforests have been destroyed by fire and logging in the last 50 years. Over 200,000 acres are burned every day around the world, or over 150 acres every minute. Experts also estimate that 130 species of plants, animals, and insects are lost every day. At the current rate of destruction, it is estimated that the last remaining rainforests could be destroyed in less than 40 years.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil's government reported Thursday that annual destruction of its Amazon rainforest jumped by 28 percent after four straight years of declines, an increase activists said was linked to recent loosening of the nation's environmental law meant to protect the jungle.
However, the destruction was still the second-lowest amount of jungle destroyed since Brazil began tracking deforestation in 1988.
The increase in deforestation came in the August 2012 through July 2013 period, the time when Brazil annually measures the destruction of the forest by studying satellite images. The country registered its lowest level of Amazon felling the year before.
The Amazon rainforest is considered one of the world's most important natural defenses against global warming because of its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide. About 75 percent of Brazil's emissions come from rainforest clearing, as vegetation burns and felled trees rot.
That releases an estimated 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, making Brazil at least the sixth-biggest emitter of the gas.
Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said Thursday that the most recent figures show 2,256 square miles (5,843 square kilometers) of rainforest were felled. That's compared to the 1,765 square miles (1,571 square kilometers) cleared the previous year.
Environmentalists blame the increase on a loosening of Brazil's environmental laws. They also say that the government's push for big infrastructure projects like dams, roads and railways is pushing deforestation.
A bill revising the Forest Code law passed Congress last year after more than a decade of efforts by Brazil's powerful agricultural lobby to make changes to what has been one of the world's toughest environmental laws, at least on paper.
The changes mostly eased restrictions for landowners with smaller properties, allowing them to clear land closer to riverbanks and other measures. Perhaps the most controversial portion of the new law was what activists say was an amnesty, allowing those who illegally felled land to not face penalties if they signed an agreement to replant trees, which many environmentalists question could be enforced.
Paulo Adario, coordinator of Greenpeace's Amazon campaign, said that it was scandalous that there was such a spike in the destruction.
"The government can't be surprised by this increase in deforestation, given that their own action is what's pushing it," he said. "The change in the Forest Code and the resulting amnesty for those who illegally felled the forest sent the message that such crimes have no consequences."
Adario also said the Rousseff government's strong push for infrastructure projects in the Amazon region was leading to increased deforestation, and Thursday's government report showed that much of the destruction was centered along a government-improved roadway running through the states of Para and Mato Grosso.
Better roads make it easier to illegally extract timber from the jungle and push more soy farmers and ranchers, who clear trees so they can work land and plant pasture, into previously untouched areas.
Oh, no! Sorry Amazon.