Troubling surge in Amazon deforestation

Sunday, April 5, 2015, 4:18 PM - There's a troubling reality in the Brazilian region of the Amazon rain forest and it involves politics, progress and people hoping for a better life.

After a period of apparent success when it comes to deforestation between 2004 and 2012, the rates of forest loss in 2013 had a quick increment which at the time was referred to as a 'hiccup.' But between September 2014 and January 2015 the rate has more than doubled, according to ecologist Philip Fearnside. In a conversation with Yale Environment 360, Fearnside revealed that the data is showing a resurgence of Amazon deforestation and the solution is no longer as easy as it seems.

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Part of the problem a lack of information and the cause of that could be political according to Fearnside.

"The government this these figures before the recent election. The august and September data would normally have been released in October [before the October 26th presidential election]," Fearnside said. "They sat on the data and it was not disclosed until the end of November."

But why has deforestation bounce back? Fearnside thinks it could be tied to the rise and fall of the Brazilian currency. With a stronger Real it made less sense to continue to export a lot of the product obtained in the illegal deforestation.

The changing economy tied with the amnesty laws are forcing local residents to look back to the rain forest for progress. Fearnside is also critical of the new Forest Code which came into law back in 2012.

"It weakens critical environmental protections and also offers an amnesty for all those who violated environmental laws before 2008," he said. "So if you cleared illegally, you got away with it. And the expectations is that if you clear illegally now, sooner or later there will be another amnesty that will forgive your past crimes."

It's not just the illegal activities causing trouble for the biodiversity in the area.

"Even if you follow all the regulations to the letter and log legally, it's not sustainable," Fearnside said.

While forest fires have occurred occasionally during the last few centuries, they used to happen at a rate once every 500 years. Now major fires are occurring more frequently, especially during El Niño years.

"It happened in 1982, 1997, 2006," he said. "We had destructive forest fires in the northern part of the Amazon.

But deforestation is not just affecting the animals and plants in that ecosystem. It could be affecting nearby people too.

"There's a big drought in Sao Paulo," Fearnside explained. "It's not something that you conclusively pin on deforestation. But a lot of water in Sao Paulo comes from the Amazon."

As for advice, Fearnside says it's important to be realistic and not fall into pessimism.

"It's very important not to get fatalistic about this. There is a tremendous tendency with the Amazon to say the problems are so great, the forest is going to be cut down no matter what you do, so you might as well worry about something else," he said. "That's a self-fulfilling prophecy if you believe it.[...]It's very important that you keep focused on the problem.

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