creasing Amazon-forest loss, say the authors, are rising deforestation and land speculation along new highways and planned highway routes, and the dramatic growth of Amazonian cattle ranching and industrial soybean farming. "Soybean farms cause some forest clearing directly," said co-author Philip Fearnside of Brazil's National Institute for Amazonian Research in Manaus. "But they have a much greater impact on deforestation by consuming cleared land, savanna, and transitional forests, thereby pushing ranchers and slash-and-burn farmers ever deeper into the forest frontier. Soybean farming also provides a key economic and political impetus for new highways and infrastructure projects, which accelerate deforestation by other actors."
Anticipating public alarm about the worsening deforestation trends, the Brazilian government recently announced new measures designed to slow Amazon forest loss. These measures include increased satellite monitoring of deforestation, and the involvement of additional government ministries--not just the Ministry of Environment--in efforts to reduce illegal deforestation and forest burning. "If implemented effectively, the government plans, along with the establishment of new protected areas in Amapa, Amazonas, and Acre, would be a move in the right direction," said co-author Leandro Ferreira of the Goeldi Museum in Brazil.
But the new measures do not go nearly far enough, say the team members, because they fail to address one of the most critical root causes of Amazonian deforestation: the alarming proliferation of new highways and infrastructure projects that penetrate deep into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. According to team-leader William Laurance, "If Brazil doesn't curtail the expansion of new highways and transportation projects, the net result will not only be further increases in Amazon forest destruction, but fragmentation of the surviving forests on an unprecedented spatial scale."
'"/>
Contact: Bill Laurance
laurancew@si.edu
11-507-314-9206
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
21-May-2004
Page: 1 2 Related biology news :1.
Marine researchers explore sediment highways2.
Broken arms and collateral damage: clues to predator-driven evolution3.
Ecology drives the worldwide distribution of human diseases4.
Espionage may have driven the evolution of bee language according to UCSD-led study in Brazil5.
Changes to insect-seeking calls of horseshoe bats may drive new species formation6.
Functional genomics enables easy target identification and drives drug discovery7.
Fat hormone leptin alters brain architecture and activity, which in turn drives feeding behavior8.
Combination therapy drives cancer into remission9.
Educational program increases some safety behaviors for older drivers10.
Its feast or famine: Predators may drive lemming cycles, Science researchers say11.
Northern climate, ecosystems driven by cycles of changing sunlight