The Battle to Preserve the Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest is a pivotal player in global climate health, yet the ongoing acceleration of deforestation is causing increasing concern. How are the governments of the region reacting to this challenge?

Summary

• In the face of mounting global apprehension, certain governments in the region have initiated efforts to bolster forest preservation, while others have prioritized economic development regardless of the consequences.
• Over the last half-century, between 17 and 20 percent of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, has been lost to deforestation. Brazil has experienced the most extensive deforestation, followed by Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru.
• The extensive deforestation imperils the Amazon’s capacity to mitigate climate change and poses a significant threat to its diverse biodiversity. It also endangers the livelihoods of tens of millions of people reliant on the forest for their sustenance.

Covering an expanse of approximately 2.3 million square miles (6 million square kilometers) across eight South American nations, the Amazon Rainforest stands as the world’s largest tropical forest. This sprawling ecosystem, predominantly comprising the Amazon River Basin, ranks among the most biodiverse regions on our planet.

It serves as the habitat for tens of millions of people, including around four hundred distinct Indigenous communities. Beyond its cultural and ecological significance, the Amazon plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate change by managing water and carbon cycles and absorbing greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the condition of the Amazon has witnessed a dramatic decline over the past few decades. During this period, factors such as urbanization, illicit logging and mining, expansive commodity agriculture, oil and gas exploration, and devastating forest fires have resulted in the depletion of nearly one-fifth of the rainforest.

The extent of this deforestation has raised alarm among scientists and led to global appeals for regional governments to address unregulated development and reinforce environmental safeguards. Nonetheless, responses from individual countries have been mixed, prompting experts to emphasize the need for more comprehensive efforts to safeguard the Amazon.

In relation to its geography, the vast expanse of the Amazon Rainforest, spanning roughly 2.3 million square miles, extends across eight South American countries. Brazil, which contains nearly two-thirds of the forest, shares this pristine wilderness with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela, and French Guiana, an overseas territory of France. The rate and extent of deforestation exhibit considerable variation from one country to another.

Over the last five decades, Brazil’s Amazon has witnessed the loss of nearly a fifth of its rainforest, equivalent to almost 300,000 square miles (777,000 square kilometers). This includes a staggering loss of over 5,000 square miles (13,000 square kilometers) in 2021, reaching a fifteen-year peak, with record-breaking figures observed in the first six months of 2022.

Experts highlight that various areas of the rainforest have also experienced “degradation,” signifying a decline in forest health and a higher likelihood of complete deforestation in these regions in the future. Large-scale deforestation in Brazil originated in the 1960s, but it escalated significantly during the tenure of President Jair Bolsonaro, particularly in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso.

Subsequent to Brazil, Bolivia has reported the second-highest deforestation rate, with the loss of over 25,700 square miles (66,700 square kilometers) of tree cover between 2001 and 2021, according to the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch.

The primary areas of tree loss were observed in the eastern departments of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Beni. Colombia and Peru also registered substantial forest loss during this period, amounting to nearly 19,000 and 14,000 square miles (49,300 and 36,200 square kilometers), respectively. Venezuela and Ecuador followed with forest loss, while French Guiana, with 95 percent of its territory covered by the Amazon, reported the lowest amount of deforestation, just over 300 square miles (785 square kilometers).

Forest Loss in the Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation is significantly eroding the Amazon’s resilience, undermining its ability to recover from various disturbances like droughts, fires, and landslides. If this trend persists, it could trigger a transformation of the Amazon’s historically wet, tropical climate into a drier state, a phenomenon referred to as “dieback.” When dieback reaches a critical threshold, the Amazon may pass a “tipping point,” leading to the transition from a lush rainforest to a dry savanna.

Scientists estimate this tipping point to occur between 20 and 25 percent deforestation. Current assessments indicate that between 17 and 20 percent of the Amazon has already been lost, though some experts believe the actual number is closer to 13 percent.

This shift to a savanna ecosystem would have devastating consequences for the Amazon’s extraordinary biodiversity and its crucial role in regulating regional and global climate systems while redistributing water throughout South America. Rhett Butler, the founder and CEO of Mongabay, an environmental science news platform, underscores the severe implications of this transformation.

The Amazon’s capacity to manage the carbon cycle is already showing signs of strain. Often dubbed the “lungs of the earth,” the Amazon generates between 6 and 9 percent of the world’s total oxygen.

Historically, it has acted as a vital carbon sink, absorbing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas responsible for global warming when released into the atmosphere. Recent research reveals that certain parts of the rainforest are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they can absorb, largely due to skyrocketing deforestation rates.

This shift has far-reaching consequences, including reduced rainfall in central and southern South America and an acceleration of the global average temperature increase.

In addition to deforestation, climate change itself poses a significant threat to the Amazon’s rich biodiversity, which encompasses thousands of plant and animal species, along with millions of insect species.

Climate change is leading to higher temperatures, more frequent wildfires, and shifting rain patterns, all of which endanger this diverse ecosystem. Already, the Amazon’s dry seasons have become lengthier, and droughts more prevalent, impacting water, food, and energy supplies, particularly hydroelectric power generation.

Brazil Leads in Amazon Deforestation

Tree cover lost from 2001 to 2021

In a similar vein, the livelihoods of tens of millions of urban residents, farmers, ranchers, and Indigenous communities are under significant threat. Among these Indigenous groups are those who have maintained a deep connection with the Amazon for countless generations, spanning thousands of years. However, their traditional ways of life face a multitude of challenges.

For example, the Awá community in Brazil has been subject to forced displacement, being compelled to leave their ancestral territories. Simultaneously, other Indigenous groups witness the encroachment of their lands by illegal loggers and gold miners, posing a severe threat to their age-old customs and the ecosystems they rely upon.

In response to these challenges, several Indigenous communities have taken proactive measures. They’ve established response teams and harnessed contemporary surveillance technology, including cameras and drones, to meticulously document and address the various threats to their lands. This innovative use of technology reflects their unwavering determination to safeguard their cultural heritage and the natural resources of the Amazon.

Motives for land clearance encompass:

Agriculture: Predominantly, deforestation in almost every Amazon nation is instigated by cattle ranching, where ranchers employ slash-and-burn techniques to clear extensive forested regions. An estimated 70 percent of the deforested land in the Amazon is repurposed for cattle pastures, which are subsequently transformed into farmland for cultivating cash crops like soybeans, coffee, maize, sorghum, and cotton. The desire for future land sale at a substantial profit also motivates many speculators to engage in land clearing.

Timber Harvesting: Although certain Amazon countries have regulations permitting logging in designated zones, a substantial portion of logging within the rainforest occurs illicitly. (A recent study found that 94 percent of logging in the Brazilian Amazon is conducted without legal authorization.)

Loggers often prioritize the extraction of valuable hardwoods before resorting to the burning of what remains. This practice elevates carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, accelerates biodiversity loss, and contributes to more frequent forest fires.

Infrastructure Development: The construction of roads facilitates access to previously remote parts of the rainforest, enabling easier poaching, mining, or logging deeper within the Amazon. Notable projects, such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway that traverses a substantial portion of Brazil, result in habitat fragmentation, traversing Indigenous territories, and intensifying deforestation by exposing more of the rainforest to exploitation.

Mining: The Amazon’s rich reserves of copper, tin, nickel, bauxite, iron ore, and gold have historically driven both legal and illegal extraction activities. While mining typically leads to less deforestation compared to agricultural practices, it can still contaminate nearby water and food sources.

Oil Extraction: The Amazon harbors significant oil reserves, particularly in countries like Ecuador and Peru. While oil exports can bolster a nation’s economy, the extraction process carries significant environmental consequences.

It entails deforestation to accommodate roads, drilling platforms, and pipelines, in addition to potential contamination from leaks, spills, or pipeline ruptures. In some instances, oil exploration zones overlap with protected areas and Indigenous territories.

In certain nations, governments have actively promoted actions that contribute to deforestation in the pursuit of economic growth, often at the expense of the Amazon’s ecological well-being.

For instance, following his inauguration in 2019, Brazilian President Bolsonaro took several measures that encouraged the development of the Amazon. He sent a proposal to Congress that aimed to open Indigenous lands to commercial exploitation, further announced plans to extend the BR-163 highway, a crucial transportation artery cutting through the forest.

Additionally, he weakened existing environmental safeguards and approved substantial reductions in the combined environmental budgets for 2021 and 2022.

In Bolivia, President Evo Morales Ayma signed legislation in 2019, permitting farmers and ranchers to burn and clear more forested areas for agricultural purposes, a move criticized for contributing to the country’s surge in wildfires that summer.

Agriculture, which accounted for nearly 13 percent of Bolivia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, has been the primary driver of deforestation within the country’s Amazon region.

Back in 2015, Morales issued a decree opening up over 92,700 square miles (240,000 square kilometers) of land, including at least half of the nation’s protected areas, to oil and gas extraction. Currently, researchers estimate that 27 percent of Bolivia’s protected lands are under threat of being utilized for oil and gas development.

Similarly, during his presidency from 1990 to 2000, Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori initiated policies that opened the country’s Amazon region to small-, medium-, and large-scale agricultural activities while promoting foreign investments in the area. Subsequently, Peru witnessed an increase in the number of agro-industrial companies operating in the rainforest.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, known for its substantial mineral production including bauxite, diamonds, and gold, the demand for natural resources has driven deforestation. In 2016, President Nicolás Maduro established the Orinoco Mining Arc, with an estimated potential value of $2 trillion. Since its inception, mining activities have extended beyond the project’s original boundaries, encroaching upon protected areas such as the Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How Much of the Amazon Is Protected?

Amazon area by country in 2019 (square kilometers)

Numerous initiatives dedicated to safeguarding and conserving the Amazon have been enacted at the local level. In Guyana, vast stretches of ecologically pristine forests that encompass roughly 90 percent of the country have been diligently maintained, resulting in a low rate of deforestation. Indigenous communities are at the forefront of these conservation endeavors.

The South Rupununi District Council (SRDC), representing the Wapichan people, conducts patrols in remote rainforest areas to identify and report incidents of illicit activities to government authorities. Moreover, Guyana has established a robust land titling system for Indigenous groups, securing their legal rights to the land they inhabit.

This stands in contrast to countries like Brazil and others where such rights have faced consistent erosion. As Kid James, a program coordinator for the SRDC, emphasized in 2021, “Once [a] title is given to a community, it’s absolute and forever.”

Other nations have sought to strike a balance between Amazon preservation and economic growth. In Colombia, the government has emphasized the development of a “bioeconomy,” centered on renewable resources.

Bogotá has actively encouraged regenerative agroforestry, a farming approach that mimics natural ecosystems. In some communities, farmers employ regenerative techniques to cultivate marketable native crops like cacao, coconut, guava, and hibiscus.

This sustainable agricultural approach not only yields profits for small-scale farmers but also aids reforestation efforts, offering a viable economic model as an alternative to monoculture farming and cattle ranching.

Colombia is one of the few countries worldwide and the sole one in the Amazon region to implement a carbon tax. This tax incentivizes companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions or transition to more efficient processes and cleaner fuels.

Introduced in 2016, the results have been mixed. While it has generated some additional tax revenue, the program has inadvertently created millions of surplus carbon credits, leading to no net emissions reductions and causing an estimated loss of $25 million in potential revenue.

In Ecuador, the government’s Socio Bosque program provides annual payments to low-income landowners who commit to preserving their forests. The program’s objective is to combat deforestation while simultaneously alleviating poverty. As of 2020, it had led to over 2,600 conservation agreements covering more than 6,000 square miles (16,000 square kilometers) of forest, representing approximately 15 percent of Ecuador’s territory. However, the program heavily relies on international funding, and in 2019, President Lenín Moreno approved a 71 percent reduction in program funding amidst a series of environmental budget cuts, resulting in a loss of more than $16 million in support.

Simultaneously, certain countries have taken steps to combat illegal activities in a bid to address the prevailing impunity related to environmental crimes. In Colombia, a 2021 law introduced stricter penalties and longer prison sentences for unlawful activities linked to deforestation.

Peru has repeatedly deployed its military to lead operations against illegal gold mining and other illicit activities in the Amazon, although with limited success, as the region’s armed forces often lack the experience or training to act as environmental enforcers.

Brazil has dispatched federal police and environmental officials to patrol the rainforest; however, they frequently encounter staunch resistance, and there are insufficient personnel to cover its expansive territory.

A concerted global effort is underway to safeguard the Amazon rainforest before it reaches a critical tipping point. Following the 2022 reelection of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, as the President of Brazil, Germany and Norway have announced their intention to resume contributions to the Amazon Fund, established in 2008 to promote the sustainable use of the rainforest.

The two countries had previously contributed over $1.2 billion to the fund, supporting numerous diverse projects in the region, before it was shelved during the Bolsonaro administration in 2019. Brazil’s prior success in reducing deforestation, exemplified by a more than 70 percent drop in deforestation rates during Lula’s presidency from 2003 to 2010, serves as a model for neighboring countries, as highlighted by Mongabay’s Butler.

At the latest UN climate talks in November 2022, the leaders of Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia announced a new collaborative effort aimed at securing funding to restore ecosystems critical to addressing climate change in their respective countries.

Several major global initiatives are driving these conservation efforts. The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) involves private sector companies and donor countries issuing emissions reduction credits to incentivize governments to reduce emissions and protect intact forests.

Additionally, there is the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a public-private partnership seeking to mobilize significant corporate financing to support the preservation of tropical rainforests worldwide. In 2021, Ecuador became the first Amazonian country to sign a LEAF agreement. However, critics have since raised concerns about the program’s effectiveness in preventing extractive industries from infringing upon Indigenous land rights.

As emphasized by Butler, it is crucial to recognize that progress has been made in the past, and there remains an opportunity to address the challenges confronting the Amazon. The collaborative efforts of nations, organizations, and individuals are vital in the ongoing endeavor to preserve this critical ecosystem.