HALF OF TREE SPECIES IN THE AMAZON AT RISK OF EXTINCTION, SAY SCIENTISTS
If deforestation continues at current rate, 57% of the 15,000 tree species will be in danger, including Brazil nut, cacao and açai
Damian Carrington Friday 20 Nov, 2015
(…) The world’s most diverse forest has endured decades of deforestation, with loggers, farmers and miners responsible for the removal of 12% of is area. If that continues in the decades ahead, 57% of the 15,000 tree species will be in danger, according to researchers. However, if existing protected areas and indigenous territories across the vast area suffer no further damage, the number of species at risk would be restricted to a third of the total.
Protected areas and indigenous territories now cover over half of the Amazon basin. Bur forests and reserves still face a barrage of threats, from dam construction and mining, to wildfires and droughts intensified by global warming.” (…),
If Brazil can restrict its deforestation to current levels and other countries improve to match that, protected areas could remain largely untouched. BuT Rafael Salomão, of Emílio Goeldi Museum in Belem, Brazil, and a member of the research team, said: “The vast majority of protected areas in the Amazon have no management plan or budget and few resident qualified personnel.”
Furthermore, demand for beef, soy and palm oil, which drives much deforestation is likely to rise rapidly as the global population grows, increasing the pressure to clear more forest. “It’s a battle we’re going to see play out in our lifetimes,” said William Laurence, of James Cook University in Australia, who was also part of the study.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, compared almost 1,500 forest surveys from across the Amazon with maps of current and projected deforestation. From this, the scientists could estimate how the overall populations of the different trees species have changed and how they may change in the future.
They used these population changes to work out how threatened the species were according to the criteria used by IUCN (International Unit for Conservation of Nature) to draw up its “red lists” of endangered species. To be placed on the red list of species requires detailed analysis of past and projected population changes. (…)
If the Amazon nations are unable to check deforestation between now and 2050, the scientists estimate that 63% of wild Brazil nut trees will be lost. But if protected areas are left intact, the loss falls to 32% - a major decline, nevertheless, which would still class the species as vulnerable extinction. […].
Disponível em http://w w w .theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/20/half-treespecies-amazon-risk-extinction-study. Acesso em nov. 2018.
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