Trees as well known as those producing Brazil nuts, palm and cocoa are in danger, according to scientists from 21 countries. Deforestation declined in Brazil, but increases in Peru and Bolivia
More than half of the species of trees in the Amazon are threatened , warned a study in which more than 150 scientists from 21 countries participated.
So far there was no reliable estimate on how many tree species were threatened.
If the current rate of deforestation continues up to 57% of the Amazonian forest species for decades to meet the requirements to be classified as “endangered” in the Red List compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN for their acronym, the researchers said.
However, if protected areas and indigenous territories are preserved, the number of threatened species will not exceed one third of the total.
trees as well known and representative of the region and those producing Brazil nuts, palm hearts and açaí and cocoa are among the endangered species.
But you can still save the tree species threatened Amazon whether existing parks and reserves are properly managed,
said William Laurance of James Cook University in Australia, one of the authors of the study published in the journal Science Advances.
The areas and indigenous territories cover half the Amazon account and is very likely to contain a lot of the most endangered trees.
“Many of the species would be threatened are used by Amazonian daily residents and many others they are Key to the Amazonian economies, “said the environmentalist Nigel Pitman of the Field Museum in Chicago, another of the authors.
The trees are also important ecosystems by controlling erosion and moderate climate, he added .
The study compared data from nearly 1,500 sites with maps and current deforestation projections to estimate how many species have been lost and where.
The investigation covered almost 5.5 million square kilometers in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana.
The work was led by Pitman and Hans ter Steege’s Center for Biodiversity Naturalis in the Netherlands.
See also: Satellite images show the impressive deforestation in the Amazon in Peru
“Bomb Threat”
It is believed that the Amazon, the most diverse forest the planet, could house more than 15,000 different species of trees.
“We estimate that more than half of all species could become extinct,” said another author of the study, Carlos Peres, of the School of Environmental Studies, University of East Anglia in England.
” Fortunately protected areas and indigenous reserves now cover more than half of the Amazon basin and probably harbor a considerable percentage of the most threatened species “.
Peres warned that protected areas face a” blitz threats, from building dams to mining projects, droughts and fires. “
” Our research is a call to increase efforts to discover and protect this diversity before inevitably become extinct, “he said.
Laurance for his part said, “or we stand and protect these parks and indigenous reserves in critical condition or deforestation will destroy until we see large-scale extinctions”
Another. the study authors, Rafael Salomão, the Emilio Goeldi Museum in Belem, Brazil, warned that “the vast majority of protected areas in the Amazon do not have a plan or a budget management and have very few staff qualified resident”.
See also: Amazon receives distinction as natural wonder
Meat, soy and palm oil
The Amazonian forests have lost 12% of its land and projects you will lose 9 to 28% additional 2050
The Amazon rainforest covers an area of 6.1 million square kilometers and 60% are in Brazil. While Brazil has reduced deforestation in the last decade, logging is increasing in Boliva and Peru.
It is estimated that every day lost due to deforestation equivalent to about 4,500 football stadiums or three stages per minute area, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF for its acronym in English.
On the other hand, it is expected to demand for beef, soya and palm oil, one of the principals factors that drives deforestation, increase in coming years.
“It’s a battle to be waged in our time,” Laurance said.
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell 18% in the last 12 months, said this month the environment minister of that country, Isabella Teixeira.
She said that 4,848 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were destroyed between August 2013 and July 2014. The figure represents a fall compared to the same period last year, when 5,891 square kilometers were lost, on the eve of the adoption the controversial Forest Code.
The legislation, passed after more than a decade of pressure from organizations of farmers, eased restrictions on logging in the river banks.
Despite the fall over the previous year, Brazil “is still far from reaching its goal of minimal deforestation,” warned the British newspaper The Guardian Marco Lentini, the Brazilian office of the WWF.
Brazil pledged to cut deforestation 3,900 km per year by 2020.
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