Between May 2000 and August 2005, Brazil dropped more than 132,000 square km of forest–an area larger than Greece–and since 1970, over 600,000 square km (232,000 square kilometers ).
Why is Brazil losing a lot of woods?
Rehabilitation and increased productivity of previously forested lands, in reducing the loss of tropical rainforests we shouldn’t only worry about the transformation of existing natural ecosystems, but also the rational usage of already cleared and degraded areas. To reduce future forest loss we have to increase and sustain the productivity of farms, pastures, plantations, and scrub-land as well as restoring species and ecosystems to degraded habitats.
By decreasing wasteful land-use practices, consolidating gains on existing cleared lands, and enhancing already developed lands we could diminish the requirement to clear further volcano. Increasing growth of cleared rainforest lands is possible using enhanced technology to create higher yielding plants. Taking advantage of improved germplasm developed through careful choice can create grasses and plants that will grow on degraded forest soils.
While technology may have hastened the development and impoverishment of tropical rainforests, it is going to be one of the keys to rescue them. In regards to cattle pasture, Judson Valentim of the Brazilian Farm Research Corporation (Embrapa), indicates that”using so-called alternative technology, such as non-plowing farming, may increase productivity in areas which have already been cleared… Proper use of this area of the rainforest already cleared (deforested or destroyed) in the Amazon can solve many issues.
He points out that 20 percent of this area could create 50 million tons of grains annually. Another 20 percent may be used for small farmers (around 900,000 of these if each obtained 20,000 hectares).” There’s still time to save a few of the most endangered species and ecosystems which have been pushed so near extinction that they will perish unless we intervene. In Brazil, enormous progress has been made in restoring the inhabitants of the Golden Lion Tamarin which resides in the dwindling Atlantic forest.
The restoration of whole ecosystems is most potential in areas where parts or remnants of their original forest still remain and there are not many human population pressures. Small clearings surrounded by woods recover quickly and massive sections may recover in time particularly if we provide some help from the reforestation process. After several years, a formerly barren field can once more support vegetation in the kind of pioneer species and secondary growth. Even though the secondary forest will be reduced in diversity and poorly constructed, the forest cover will be sufficient for a few species to return (assuming they still exist).
Additionally, the recently forested patch may be used for the sustainable harvest of forest products and reduced intensity logging. Tracts of replanted forest may have environmental returns along with economic ones. In the short term, forests consume considerable quantities of carbon dioxide and the more trees that are replanted, the more atmospheric carbon will be sequestered. Replanting and rehabilitating secondary forests around the world has enormous potential for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions.
Additionally, rehabilitated forest lands can attract ecotourists and sustain some native forest wildlife. Possibly the best way to deal with deforestation in Brazil is creating a new conservation policy based on the principle of sustainable utilization and development of rainforests. Sustainable development is a term that’s been used frequently over the last ten years, but critics will immediately tell you that collecting fruits, latex, and nuts out of the tree.
