Brazil must target smallholders to curb rising deforestation

Tejash Sikka
Author: -
Published: Monday October 20, 2014
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/oct/20/brazil-smallholders-curb-rising-deforestation

Summary: On Monday, this article was released stating that Farmers' contributions to deforestation is rising and that it must be dealt with if America is to hold on to its recent grains. Efforts by the government caused a 77 percent decrease in deforestation in the Amazon between the years 2004 and 2011, but the rate of progress has slowed and deforestation is rising. The report stated that between 2004 and 2011, landowners exceeding 500 hectares (1,235 acres) of owned property were held responsible for about 48 percent of the deforestation in the Amazon. Areas owned by people who possess land smaller than a farm still accounted for 12 percent of the forests destroyed during the same period. However, since 2005, the contribution to yearly deforestation by the largest landowners has decreased by 63 percent, while that of the people possessing land smaller than a farm has increased by 69 percent, the report said. In 2013, deforestation rates had increased by 28% compared with the year before. Part of the reason of the rise of deforestation was that multiple conservation areas had been scaled down or had their protection status changed. According to Godar, projects in the Amazon since 2009, such as the building of new roads and dams, may also be contributing factors to Brazil’s increasing deforestation rates. Godar explained that further reductions in deforestation in the Amazon are difficult, because deforestation is occurring in smaller and more remote areas, and is therefore harder to catch or spot, and is more costly to handle. 

Connection: This article connects to chapter 36, because it mentions ideas about the carbon cycle and greenhouse effect, biodiversity, and conservation of land. This article relates to the carbon chemical cycle and the greenhouse effect because plants, when dead, release a gas called carbon dioxide, and when humans cut down the forests, all of the carbon dioxide gets released into the air. This is where the greenhouse effect come into play. The greenhouse effect is the process by which atmospheric gases trap heat. Carbon is a greenhouse gas, so it traps in heat in the Earth's atmosphere, which makes the climate of the Earth hotter overtime. This article relates to conservation of land because it stated that the building of new roads and dams are contributing factors to deforestation rates. All these new roads and dams being built are destroying many habitats, and making many kinds of animals endangered. This article relates to biodiversity because the Amazon rain forest is a tropical rain forest, and tropical rain forests have the greatest diversity of life. Tropical forests have an estimated 50 percent of all known species on Earth, and getting rid of those forests means getting rid of biodiversity, because of all the species' habitats getting destroyed, and all of the species getting killed in the process of deforestation. This is how the article relates to the fields of study that we have been learning about in biology this term.