Strengthening efforts pertaining to the preservation of the Amazonian rainforest to protect indigenous wildlife
Having been under the threat of deforestation for more than 50 years, the Amazonian rainforest is home to forest conversion, illegal logging, and hydroelectric power dams. Approximately 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been lost to these three forms of deforestation, posing a large threat to the rainforests’ indigenous mammals. Forest conversion, being the first to serve as an extreme form of deforestation, is a process that involves removing natural forests--such as the Amazon--to meet the needs of plantations, agriculture, cattle ranching, and mining. Illegal logging is the second act that is defined under deforestation, with its harvesting, buying, transporting or selling of timber being detrimental to a forest’s trees. By using sections of land for hydroelectric power projects, hydroelectric power dams also contribute to deforestation and cause mammals to lose their lives. These extreme forms of deforestation perpetuate the threats posed towards the wildlife in the Amazonian rainforest, and disrupt the peace given to the mammals in their own homes. There are approximately 40,000 plant species and 427 mammals in the Amazonian rainforest--Amazon plants, trees and mammals play critical roles in regulating the global climate and sustaining the local water cycle. In order to restore the peace within the ecosystem of the Amazonian rainforest, it is vital that the EC works to strengthen efforts to combat deforestation.
Guiding Questions:
What UN legislations have been made to control the cutting down of the Amazonian rainforest trees?
How effective has the “Brazilian Forestry Legislation” been in combatting forest conversion in the Amazon?
What corporations have been active recently in the Amazonian rainforest?
What can consumers do to decrease the logging of the Amazonian rainforest?
Why are the laws that are currently in place to control logging in the Amazonian rainforest often times broken?
Why is there an absence of a reliable legal chain of custody for mahogany in the Amazon?
What are alternative ways to create room for cattle ranching?
Why do corporations build hydroelectric power dams in the Amazonian rainforest?
What are alternative energy sources to hydropower dams?
Why is it significant to protect the Amazon from deforestation?