(MET’s Institute of Engineering, Bhujbal Knowledge City, MET

league of colleges, adgaon, Nashik)

TELEPHONE- 0253-2303515,e-mail:principal_ioe @bkc.met.edu
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CERTIFICATE
This is certify that, the seminar report on

AMAZON RAINFOREST
Has been satisfactorily completed by
Mr. NILESH BANG
MISS. PRAJAKTA CHAVAN
Mr. PRAJAL DESHMUKH
MISS.MRINAL GITE
In partial fulfillment of term work in CIVIL from semester pattern during
academic year 2010-2011

SEMINAR GUIDE HEAD OF CIVIL DEPT.

(PROF. S.S PATIL ) (PROF.K.S CHOBE)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is proud prevelege to present seminar report on AMAZON
RAINFOREST.
I would like to thank our seminar guide S.S PATIL for his
Guidance & constant support that help us out of many difficult
situations.
I would also like to thanks our H.O.D.PROF.K.S.CHOBE
Whose constant inspiration & help pulled us out of many problems.
I would also like to thanks all staff members of Civil Department who
have directly or indirectly helped in the completion of this seminar.
At the last I would also like to thanks my parents & classmate for
being a strong support for me.
 1 INTRODUCTION

Fig.1.1MAP OF AMAZON RAINFORESTS

The Amazon rainforest (in Portuguese, Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia; Spanish: Selva
Amazónica or Amazonia), also known as Amazonia or Amazon jungle, is a moist broadleaf
forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses seven
million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers
(1.4 billion acres) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine
nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest,
followed by Peru with 13%, and with minor amounts in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia,
Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations bear the name
Amazonas after it. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and it
comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

The Amazon rainforest was short-listed in 2008 as a candidate to one of the New7Wonders of
Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation. As of February 2009 the Amazon
was ranking first in Group E, the category for forests, national parks and nature reserves.

The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. The basin -- roughly the size
of the forty-eight contiguous United States -- covers some 40% of the South American continent
and includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia,
Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France.

Reflecting environmental conditions as well as past human influence, the Amazon is made up of
a mosaic of ecosystems and vegetation types including rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous
forests, flooded forests, and savannas. The basin is drained by the Amazon River, the world's
largest river in terms of discharge, and the second longest river in the world after the Nile. The
river is made up of over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles, and two of
which (the Negro and the Madeira) are larger, in terms of volume, than the Congo (formerly the
Zaire) river. The river system is the lifeline of the forest and its history plays an important part in
the development of its rainforests.
 2 HISTORY

The rainforest likely formed during the Eocene era. It appeared following a global reduction of
tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened sufficiently to provide a warm,
moist climate to the Amazon basin. The rain forest has been in existence for at least 55 million
years, and most of the region remained free of savanna-type biomes at least until the current ice
age, when the climate was drier and savanna more widespread.

Following the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the
wetter climate may have allowed the tropical rainforest to spread out across the continent. From
65–34 Mya, the rainforest extended as far south as 45°. Climate fluctuations during the last 34
million years have allowed savanna regions to expand into the tropics. During the Oligocene, for
example, the rainforest spanned a relatively narrow band that lay mostly above latitude 15°N. It
expanded again during the Middle Miocene, then retracted to a mostly inland formation at the
last glacial maximum. However, the rainforest still managed to thrive during these glacial
periods, allowing for the survival and evolution of a broad diversity of species.

During the mid-Eocene, it is believed that the drainage basin of the Amazon was split along the
middle of the continent by the Purus Arch. Water on the eastern side flowed toward the Atlantic,
while to the west water flowed toward the Pacific across the Amazonas Basin. As the Andes
Mountains rose, however, a large basin was created that enclosed a lake; now known as the
Solimões Basin. Within the last 5–10 million years, this accumulating water broke through the
Purus Arch, joining the easterly flow toward the Atlantic.

At one time Amazon River flowed westward, perhaps as part of a proto-Congo (Zaire) river
system from the interior of present day Africa when the continents were joined as part of
Gondwana. Fifteen million years ago, the Andes were formed by the collision of the South
American plate with the Nazca plate. The rise of the Andes and the linkage of the Brazilian and
Guyana bedrock shields, blocked the river and caused the Amazon to become a vast inland sea.
Gradually this inland sea became a massive swampy, freshwater lake and the marine inhabitants
adapted to life in freshwater. For example, over 20 species of stingray, most closely related to
those found in the Pacific Ocean, can be found today in the freshwaters of the Amazon.

About ten million years ago, waters worked through the sandstone to the west and the Amazon
began to flow eastward. At this time the Amazon rainforest was born. During the Ice Age, sea
levels dropped and the great Amazon lake rapidly drained and became a river. Three million
years later, the ocean level receded enough to expose the Central American isthmus and allow
mass migration of mammal species between the Americas.

The Ice Ages caused tropical rainforest around the world to retreat. Although debated, it is
believed that much of the Amazon reverted to savanna and montane forest (see chapter 3-Ice
Ages and Glaciation). Savanna divided patches of rainforest into "islands" and separated existing
species for periods long enough to allow genetic differentiation (a similar rainforest retreat took
place in Africa. Delta core samples suggest that even the mighty Congo watershed was void of
rainforest at this time). When the ice ages ended, the forest was again joined and the species that
were once one had diverged significantly enough to be constitute designation as separate species,
adding to the tremendous diversity of the region. About 6000 years ago, sea levels rose about
130 meters, once again causing the river to be inundated like a long, giant freshwater lake.

Fig2.1.FIRE AND SMOKE PLUMES

 These images shows fires and smoke plumes near the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. Fire
locations are superimposed in red on the true-color image, taken by the Moderate-resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Terra satellite on May 2, 2001. Fire locations are
superimposed in red on the true-color image. Virgin forest is dark green, while land cleared for agriculture
is lighter green or brown. Fire is the principle method used to clear new land. Although peak burning
season is July through September, there are already 20 or more fires that can be seen burning in this
image. The deforestation of the Amazon River Basin is one of the world's best-known environmental
problems. MODIS will help scientists study the region in several ways. MODIS' thermal detectors can
directly detect fires, as shown above.  Specifically, the instrument can measure the intensities of fires,
thus enabling scientists to more accurately estimate their rates of combustion and the amounts of
emission products--such as smoke, greenhouse gases, and aerosol particles--they release into the
atmosphere.
 3 ETYMOLOGY

The name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with a tribe of
Tapuyas and other tribes from South America. The women of the tribe fought alongside the men,
as was the custom among the entire tribe. Orellana's descriptions may have been accurate, but a
few historians speculate that Orellana could have been mistaking indigenous men wearing "grass
skirts" for women. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the ancient Amazons of Asia and
Africa described by Herodotus and Diodorus in Greek legends.

Another etymology for the word suggests that it came originally from a native word amazona
(Spanish spelling) or amassona (Portuguese spelling), meaning "destroyer (of) boats", in
reference to the destructive nature of the root system possessed by some riparian plants.
 4 FACTS OF AMAZON RAINFORESTS

Fig4.1.ACTUAL FACT OF AMAZON RAINFORESTS

 More than 20% of Earth's oxygen is produced in this area, thus the name "Lungs
of the Planet"

 With 2,5 million square miles, the Amazon rainforest represents 54% of the total
rainforests left of the planet

 Amazon rainforest birds account for at least one third of the world's bird species,
being toucan the most popular icon

 More than half of the world's estimated ten million species of plants, animals and
insects live in the tropical forest. Read more at Amazon rainforest animals

 70% of plants found to have anticancer properites are found only in the
rainforest

 The number of edible fruits found in the rainforest is estimated in 3,000. Amazon
natives consume more than 1,500, but only 200 are cultivated for use today

 An estimated 90% of Amazon rainforest plants used by Amazon natives have not
been studied by modern science

 In 1500 there were an estimated 6 to 9 million Amazon natives. By 1900 the

number has gone down to one million lelf in Brazil.
 5 AMAZON RAINFOREST

Fig5.1.MAP OF AMAZON RIVER

Today the Amazon River is the most voluminous river on Earth, eleven times the volume of the
Mississippi, and drains an area equivalent in size to the United States. During the high water
season, the river's mouth may be 300 miles wide and every day up to 500 billion cubic feet of
water (5,787,037 cubic feet/sec) flow into the Atlantic. For reference, the Amazon's daily
freshwater discharge into the Atlantic is enough to supply New York City's freshwater needs for
nine years. The force of the current -- from sheer water volume alone -- causes Amazon River
water to continue flowing 125 miles out to sea before mixing with Atlantic salt water. Early
 sailors could drink freshwater out of the ocean before sighting the South American continent.

Fig5.2.AMAZON RIVER

The river current carries tons of suspended sediment all the way from the Andes and gives the
river a characteristic muddy whitewater appearance. It is calculated that 106 million cubic feet of
suspended sediment are swept into the ocean each day. The result from the silt deposited at the
mouth of the Amazon is Majaro island, a river island about the size of Switzerland.

The Amazon River in South America is the second longest river in the world after the
Nile. It is 4,080 miles long and runs from the Andes Mountains in Peru through
Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean. It contains more water than any other river in the world-
more than the Mississippi, the Nile and the Yangtze combined. In one second the
Amazon pours more than 55 million gallons, or 600,000 cubic meters of water, into
the Atlantic Ocean, which dilutes the ocean's saltiness for 100 miles from shore.

This river system is one of the world's most important river systems. The Amazon
River makes up for 1/5 of the earth's fresh water. Each year the Amazon River
empties tons of solid particles into the Ocean. This contains lots of fish food.

The Amazon is the widest river in the world. Many kilometers from its mouth it can
be as wide as 11 kilometers, and 40 kilometers in the wet season; at the place where
it meets the Atlantic, it is as much as 325 kilometers. It is interesting that it is
widening by as much as 2 meters a year due to waves from ships breaking down the
banks. Compare the Amazon to the width of the Bow River in Calgary, which is only
350 feet, or 107 meters wide, as it leaves the city limits. This means that the Amazon
is from 100 to 3,000 times wider near its mouth than the Bow River in Calgary!

Fig5.3.AMAZON RIVER

The Amazon got its name from the Spanish explorers. Female warriors called
"Icamiabas", meaning "women without husbands" attacked Francisco Orellana.
Orellana named the river "Rio Amazonas" after these women whom he compared to
the Amazons of ancient Greek mythology.

The Amazon River basin is the home of so many animals- especially "extreme"
creatures, like catfish which, in the U.S., grow up to 40 lbs., but in Brazil have been
measured up to 200 lbs. There is also the anaconda, the largest snake in the world and
the piranha, the most ferocious fish in the world. The Amazon River has 2,000
different species of fish, an extreme number for any given area.
 6 THE AMAZON RAINFORESTS...
THE LAST FRONTIER ON EARTH

Fig6.1.TODAYS AMAZON RAINFORESTS

If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world. The Amazon Rainforest,
the world's greatest remaining natural resource, is the most powerful and bio-actively diverse
natural phenomenon on the planet. It has as been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because
it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide
into oxygen. It is estimated that over twenty percent of earth's oxygen is produced in this area.

The Amazon rainforest covers over 1.2 billion acres representing two-fifths of the enormous
South American continent and is found in nine South American countries: Brazil, Columbia,
Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and the three Guyanas. With 2.5 million square miles of
rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest represents 54 percent of the total rainforests left on the
planet.

The life force of the Amazon Rainforest is the mighty Amazon River. It starts as a trickle high
in the snow-capped Andes mountains and flows over 4,000 miles across the South American
continent until it enters the Atlantic ocean at Belem, Brazil where it is 200 to 300 miles across,
depending on the season. Even 1,000 miles inland, it is still 7 miles in width. The river is so
deep that ocean liners can travel 2,300 miles inland, up its length. The Amazon River flows
through the center of the rainforest and is fed by 1,100 tributaries, seventeen of which are over
1,000 miles long. The Amazon is by far the largest river system in the world and over two-
thirds of all the fresh water found on earth is in the Amazon basin's rivers, streams and
tributaries. With so much water its not unusual that that the main mode of transportation
throughout the area is by boat. The smallest and most common boats used today are still made
out of hollowed tree trunks, whether they are powered by outboard motors or more often by
man-powered paddles. Almost 14,000 miles of Amazon waterway are navigable and several
million miles through swamps and forests are penetrable by canoe. The enormous Amazon
River carries massive amounts of silt from run-off from the rainforest floor. Massive amounts of
silt deposited at the mouth of the Amazon river has created the largest river island in the world,
Marajo Island, which is roughly the size of Switzerland. With this massive fresh water system,
it not unusual that the life beneath the water is as abundant and diverse as the surrounding
rainforest's plant and animal species. Over 2,000 species of fish have been identified in the
Amazon Basin - more species than the entire Atlantic Ocean.

The Amazon Basin was formed in the Paleozoic period, somewhere between 500 and 200
million years ago. The extreme age of the region in geologic terms has much to do with the
relative infertility of the rainforest soil and the richness and unique diversity of the plant and
animal life. There are more fertile areas in the Amazon River's flood plain, where the river
deposits richer soil brought from the Andes, which only formed 20 million years ago. The rich
diversity of plant species in the Amazon Rainforest is the highest on earth. Experts show that
one hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants
and it is estimated that one hectare of Amazon rainforest contains about 900 tons of living
plants. Altogether it contains the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the
world. The Andean mountain range and the Amazon jungle are home to more than half of the
world's species of flora and fauna and one in five of all the birds in the world live in the
rainforests of the Amazon.. To date, some 438,000 species of plants of economic and social
interest have been registered in the region and many more have yet been cataloged or even
discovered.

Once a vast sea of tropical forest, the Amazon rainforest today is scarred by roads, farms,
ranches and dams. Brazil is gifted with a full third of the world's remaining rainforests and
unfortunately, it is also one of the world's great rainforest destroyers, burning or felling over 2.7
million acres each year. Today, more than 20 percent of rainforest in the Amazon has been
razed and is gone forever. This ocean of green nearly as large as Australia, is the last great
rainforest in the known universe and it is being decimated like the others before it. Why? Like
other rainforests already lost forever, the land is being cleared for logging timber, large scale
cattle ranching, mining operations, government road building and hydroelectric schemes,
military operations, and the subsistence agriculture of peasants and landless settlers. Sadder still,
in many places the rainforests are burnt simply to provide charcoal to power industrial plants in
the area.
 7 WILD LIFE IN AMAZON RAINFORESTS

The Amazon rainforest is the home of over 300 species of mammals, thousands of freshwater
fish, tens of thousands of trees and nearly a hundred thousand other plant species.
Also there are so many species of insects that experts agree they will find them all!
Some say it is 20,000. Others say it is nearer to millions! New species of wildlife are still being
discovered today!

Fig7.1.GRAPH SHOWING % OF ANIMALS LIVE IN AMAZON

RAINFORESTS

Coati
 The coati is a small carnivorous mammal and is
related to the raccoon. It measures around 1-1/2 to 2 feet in length. The females live in bands of
around 20, while the males will live alone. They tend to eat invertebrate animals, including
millipedes, earthworms, and termites. They also like lizards and mice. Thought they will
rummage through vegetation of the understory for food, they are excellent climbers and will
climb for their meals. The life expectancy of a coati may be around 14 years.

Fig7.3.JAGUAR

Weighing up to 90 kilograms and

measuring up to 75 centimetres at the
shoulder. The Jaguar is the largest
member of the cat family outside Asia
and Africa.
 Fig.7.4MACAW
Macaws are members of the parrot family.

Fig7.5.PIRANHA

The Amazon is home to the piranha,

one of the world's most terrifying fish.
Up to 60 centimetres long, piranhas
hunt in shoals, or packs, and can kill
cattle or humans and strip the flesh
from their bones in a few minutes.
You wouldn't want one of these in
your fish tank!

Fig7.6.FROGS
The rainforest atmosphere is so damp that a wide
variety of frogs can thrive without living dose to
rivers or streams. The huge horned frog is found only
In The Amazon forest is the only place in the world
where the Giant Horned Frog is found.

Fig7.7.TOUCAN
The toucan is found in the wild
nowhere else in the world. Its huge
beak, which can be as long as 20
centimetres enables it to eat large fruit.
 Fig7.8.ANACONDA
An Anaconda at rest.
When it is hungry, it will uncoil itself
and lie still in the water with only its
eyes above the surface, waiting for
prey.
Many stories are told about anacondas
attacking fishermen, but it is rare for
anacondas to attack humans unless
they are being directly assualted or
agitated.

Three-toed sloth

The sloth will spend most of its life hanging

upside down. It is related to the anteater and the armadillo, and is a member of the Edentata order
which means "without teeth". However, sloths do have teeth in the cheeks. Sloths are nocturnal,
eat mainly leaves and shoots, and will live most of its life (approx. 11 years) in the trees. They
are so slow in movement that algea will sometimes grow on them. This, however, can act as
camouflage. Sloths can't move fast, but their defense would be to claw or bite its predators. It
isn't known, however, if this is much of a defense against animals like the jaguar.
 8 VARIOUS TREES IN AMAZON RAINFORESTS

Fig8.1.TREES IN AMAZON RAINFORESTS

Trees in the Amazon rainforest are older than originally believed according to new research
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team of American and
Brazilian researchers using radiocarbon dating methods to study tree growth in the world's
largest tropical rainforest found that up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in
diameter are more than 300 years old. Some of the trees are 750 to 1,000 years old says
Susan Trumbore, a professor of Earth system science at University of California at Irvine
and one of the authors of the study.

"Little was known about the age of tropical trees, because they do not have easily identified
annual growth rings," said Trumbore in a media statement. "No one had thought these
tropical trees could be so old, or that they grow so slowly."

According to Trumbore, the finding may have important implications for the role the
Amazon plays in determining atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Because Amazon
forest trees are old and slow-growing says the researcher, they have less capacity to absorb
atmospheric carbon than previous studies have predicted.
"In the Central Amazon, where we found the slowest growing trees, the rates of carbon
uptake are roughly half what is predicted by current global carbon cycle models," Trumbore
said. "As a result, those models -- which are used by scientists to understand how carbon
flows through the Earth system -- may be overestimating the forests' capacity to remove
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."

The growth rates measured by the team for trees in the Central Amazon are among the
slowest in any forest on Earth. Trumbore says slow growth is likely due to the nutrient-poor
soils of the Central Amazon combined with the low light conditions created by the shade of
the forest canopy.

The slow-growing nature of Amazon trees may also mean that it takes longer for forests to
recovery from logging.

The impact of logging activity in the Amazon region may be longer-lasting than we think,"
Trumbore added, "because it may take centuries for these forests to grow back to their full
size."

The long recovery time after logging is a particular concern after a study released by the
Carnegie Institution found that "selective logging" is degrading Brazil's Amazon rain forest
twice as fast as deforestation figures suggest. Using remote-sensing technology, the
Carnegie Institution team determined that conventional analysis missed much of the
degradation that occurs beneath the rainforest's protective canopy.

The new research was conducted as part of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere

Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). Supported by NASA, the LBA is a Brazilian-led international
scientific program with the goal of studying how the Amazon forest affects global climate
and carbon dioxide. This specific study was a cooperative effort among researchers at the
University of Sao Paulo, University of Acre and the Institute for Amazonian Research in
Brazil, and UCI and Tulane University in the U.S. Radiocarbon measurements were made at
the W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility at UCI.
 9 DEFORESTATION

Fig9.1.GRAPH SHOWING DEFORESTATION

Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas. The main sources of
deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of the land. Prior to the
early 1960s, access to the forest's interior was highly restricted, and the forest remained basically
intact. Farms established during the 1960s were based on crop cultivation and the slash and burn
method. However, the colonists were unable to manage their fields and the crops because of the
loss of soil fertility and weed invasion. The soils in the Amazon are productive for just a short
period of time, so farmers are constantly moving to new areas and clearing more land. These
farming practices led to deforestation and caused extensive environmental damage. Deforestation
is considerable, and areas cleared of forest are visible to the naked eye from outer space.

Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to
587,000 km2, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. Seventy percent of
formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, is used for
livestock pasture. In addition, Brazil is currently the second-largest global producer of soybeans
after the United States. The needs of soy farmers have been used to validate many of the
controversial transportation projects that are currently developing in the Amazon. The first two
highways successfully opened up the rain forest and led to increased settlement and
deforestation. The mean annual deforestation rate from 2000 to 2005 (22,392 km2 per year) was
18% higher than in the previous five years (19,018 km2 per year). At the current rate, in two
decades the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40%.

Fig9.2.PIE-CHART SGOWING DEFORESTATION

Deforestation presents multiple societal and environmental problems. The immediate and long-
term consequences of global deforestation are almost certain to jeopardize life on Earth, as we
know it. Some of these consequences include: loss of biodiversity; the destruction of forest-
based-societies; and climatic disruption.
 Fig9.3.SHOWS QUARREL BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMALS
clearing of virgin forests, or intentional destruction or removal of trees and other vegetation for
agricultural, commercial, housing, or firewood use without replanting (reforesting) and without allowing
time for the forest to regenerate itself. Deforestation is one of the major factors contributing to the
greenhouse effect and desertification.

Environmental issues effect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. The
reason for this is simple. A single disruption in the Earth?s delicate balance can mean certain destruction
of the very place that cradles the lives of many species. What is not so simple is finding alternatives to the
now dangerous and confronting acts of planet degradation that have been afflicted on the planet over
recent years. One such issue that requires consideration is deforestation. Trees have been or are being cut
down at increasingly high rates. If this is not stopped many unfavorable side effects could result.  
 10 CONSERVATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Fig10.1.MAP SHOWING CHANGE IN CLIMATE DUE TO DEFORESTATION

Environmentalists are concerned about loss of biodiversity that will result from destruction of the
forest, and also about the release of the carbon contained within the vegetation, which could
accelerate global warming. Amazonian evergreen forests account for about 10% of the world's
terrestrial primary productivity and 10% of the carbon stores in ecosystems—of the order of
1.1 × 1011 metric tonnes of carbon. Amazonian forests are estimated to have accumulated
0.62 ± 0.37 tons of carbon per hectare per year between 1975 and 1996.

One computer model of future climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions shows that
the Amazon rainforest could become unsustainable under conditions of severely reduced rainfall
and increased temperatures, leading to an almost complete loss of rainforest cover in the basin by
2100. However, simulations of Amazon basin climate change across many different models are
not consistent in their estimation of any rainfall response, ranging from weak increases to strong
decreases. The result indicates that the rainforest could be threatened though the 21st century by
climate change in addition to deforestation.

In 1989, environmentalist C.M. Peters and two colleagues stated there is economic as well as
biological incentive to protecting the rainforest. One hectare in the Peruvian Amazon has been
calculated to have a value of $6820 if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and
timber; $1000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested); or $148 if used as
cattle pasture.
 Fig10.2.PICS OF CLIMATE IN AMAZON RAINFORESTS

As indigenous territories continue to be destroyed by deforestation and ecocide, such as in the

Peruvian Amazon indigenous peoples' rainforest communities continue to disappear, while
others, like the Urarina continue to struggle to fight for their cultural survival and the fate of their
forested territories. Meanwhile, the relationship between nonhuman primates in the subsistence
and symbolism of indigenous lowland South American peoples has gained increased attention, as
has ethno-biology and community-based conservation efforts.

From 2002 to 2006, the conserved land in the Amazon rainforest has almost tripled and
deforestation rates have dropped up to 60%. About 1,000,000 square kilometres (250,000,000
acres) have been put onto some sort of conservation, which adds up to a current amount of
1,730,000 square kilometres (430,000,000 acres).
 11 SAVE AMAZON RAIN FORESTS

Fig11.1.SAVE AMAON RAIN FORESTS

A look at emerging mechanisms to protect the world's largest rainforests. A

broad array of articles on solutions to Amazon deforestation can be found at
the conclusion of this piece.

Environmentalists have long voiced concern over the vanishing Amazon

rainforest, but they haven't been particularly effective at slowing forest loss.
In fact, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in donor funds that have
flowed into the region since 2000 and the establishment of more than 100
million hectares of protected areas since 2002, average annual deforestation
rates have increased since the 1990s, peaking at 73,785 square kilometers
(28,488 square miles) of forest loss between 2002 and 2004. With land
prices fast appreciating, cattle ranching and industrial soy farms expanding,
and billions of dollars' worth of new infrastructure projects in the works,
development pressure on the Amazon is expected to accelerate.

Given these trends, it is apparent that conservation efforts alone will not
determine the fate of the Amazon or other rainforests. Some argue that
market measures, which value forests for the ecosystem services they
provide as well as reward developers for environmental performance, will be
the key to saving the Amazon from large-scale destruction. In the end it
may be the very markets currently driving deforestation that save forests.

IS FOREST CARBON THE ANSWER?

Hope for avoiding the worst outcomes in the Amazon increasingly rests on
the belief that markets will soon pay for the services provided by healthy
rainforests. These services—which include biodiversity maintenance, rainfall
generation, carbon sequestration, and soil stabilization, among others—have
traditionally been
undervalued by markets,
but there are signs that the
situation is changing. A
major development was the
decision at the 2007 United
Nations Framework
Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) talks in
Bali, Indonesia, to recognize
forest conservation as a
means for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions Fig11.2.AMAZON RAINFORESTCANOPY IN PERU
from deforestation, which
accounts for roughly one-fifth of emissions—more than the entire
transportation sector.

Excluded from receiving carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, the
"reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation" (REDD) mechanism
found new life in 2005 as a result of efforts by the Coalition for Rainforest
Nations, a group of tropical countries that seek to be paid for the carbon
stored in their forests. The idea has since gained momentum as a wide
range of interests, including the private sector, development experts,
policymakers, and environmentalists, have embraced REDD as a means to
fund forest conservation and poverty alleviation efforts to the tune of billions
of dollars per year while, at
the same time, fighting
climate change. REDD was
a hot topic of discussion at
last month's UNFCCC
meeting in Poznan, Poland.

Still despite its promise,

REDD remains
controversial and faces
many challenges, including
concerns over land rights;
the establishment of
baselines to measure
reductions in deforestation rates; "leakage" when conservation measures in
one area shift deforestation to another; providing sufficient incentives in
Fig11.3.PIE CHART SHOWING CARBON

MARKETING ACTIVITY

"low-deforestation" countries which might lose out from REDD; and ensuring
that local people see benefits. Further, because REDD is not yet sanctioned
under an international framework on climate, credits from avoided
deforestation are limited to voluntary markets where they are worth
substantially less than carbon credits in compliance markets. For example,
credits on voluntary markets like the Chicago Climate Exchange currently
trade at an 80-90 percent discount to the European Union's Emission Trading
Scheme (EU ETS). A political framework on REDD, coupled with binding
limits on greenhouse gas emissions and measures to address the underlying
drivers of deforestation, will be critical to getting REDD off the ground.

How REDD Works

REDD operates on the premise that developing countries should be

compensated for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation.
Beyond this, the details – including the forests and countries included in the
scheme, reference levels for measuring emissions reductions, distribution of
funds, and financing – are still being negotiated during a series of UNFCCC
meetings culminating in this year's Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen
(COP-15). In essence REDD projects draw funding from a pool of money
generated through donations, investors seeking to profit from the sales of
carbon credits, or auctions of carbon credits in compliance markets,
depending on the model. The funds are used to finance initiatives that
promote direct forest conservation, reduce emissions from deforestation and
degradation, and/or possibly involve enhancement of carbon stocks through
reforestation or other activities. Ostensibly REDD offers the potential to
make forest conservation pay for itself, but as past adventures in
conservation have shown, it takes more than money to make conservation
effective – namely forest preservation efforts must directly benefit local
communities. Development experts say that REDD initiatives are doomed if
they exclude local people and fail to address the underlying drivers of forest
degradation and destruction.
 Fig11.4.NATIONAL GHG EMISSIONS FROM INDUSTRIAL SOURCES AND
LULUCF SOURCES,2000

National GHG emissions from industrial sources (electricity generation,

transportation, buildings, etc) and Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry
(LULUCF) 2000
To date discussions laying the groundwork for proposed forest conservation
financing schemes like REDD have largely excluded those who will be most
affected by their implementation: rural populations living in and around
forests, including indigenous people. As a result, while such mechanisms
could ultimately benefit forest-dwellers, many indigenous groups strongly
oppose measures to use forests as giant carbon offsets. Their opposition will
likely continue until they play a greater part in determining policy.
Chief among their concerns is the potential for a "land grab" whereby
governments, carbon traders, and speculators secure rights of the
ecosystem services provided by forests without the consent of the people
who live within the forests. In places where land rights are poorly defined,
such claims could be used to evict forest people from lands upon which they
have been living for generations. Therefore the development of policy
mechanisms like REDD will involve thorny issues like traditional land rights
as well as broader questions on how compensation will be structured and
what measures will effectively conserve forests without driving more people
into poverty. In the end, there is little doubt that support from forest people
will be critical in making "avoided deforestation" schemes a reality.
These points were recently emphasized in a set of guiding principles for
including forests in climate change issued last month by the Forests Dialogue
on Climate Change, a coalition consisting of more than 250 representatives
of governments, forestry companies, trade unions, environmental and social
groups, international organizations, forest owners, indigenous peoples and
forest-community groups.

"REDD and other climate change mitigation and adaptation measures will
only achieve lasting results if they are adapted to conditions on the ground
and help meet the needs of local people," said Forests Dialogue in a
statement. "Mechanisms to engage and build capacity among local
stakeholders so they can participate effectively in decision-making are of
fundamental importance."
Dr. Daniel Nepstad, a leading tropical forest ecologist who now heads up
conservation at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, says that while
these fears are valid, REDD may offer a better alternative than the status
quo – which has long led to the displacement of native peoples from their
lands at the hands of developers.
"REDD can benefit biodiversity conservation as well as indigenous and rural
peoples," Nepstad wrote in a report co-authored last year with Stephan
Schwartzman of Environmental Defense and Paulo Moutinho of the Instituto
de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM). "To succeed, national REDD
programs must be consistent with UNFCCC and other UN principles, be
transparent and have the active involvement of indigenous peoples and
forest communities."
"Rejecting REDD will not defend indigenous rights. Substituting official aid
from developed countries for carbon market funding will not be a better, less
risky alternative for reducing deforestation. Indigenous rights abuses, often
caused by the same activities that drive deforestation, must be addressed
directly."
Still other groups are taking a harder line, opposing any incorporation of
REDD into international climate policy until the rights of forest people are
determined and other issues are worked out.
"To attain sustainable forest and climate initiatives, forest peoples must be
fully consulted about their design," said Tom Griffiths of Forest Peoples
Program, an indigenous rights' organization. "International donors must also
ensure that human rights and forest sector reforms are guaranteed before
any international funding is released to developing countries for their
national actions on forest and climate issues.'
"It is alarming that such dangerous forest carbon trading proposals are
getting traction at the UN talks while so many critical questions are left
unanswered," Kate Horner, Friends of the Earth US climate campaigner, said
in a statement following the group's release of a critique on the World Bank's
Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, an initiative to kickstart REDD projects.
"We fear that this could be disastrous for biodiversity, the rights of forest-
dependent communities around the world and even our climate. If forest
carbon trading proposals are accepted, it would create the climate regime's
largest loophole by allowing rich countries to buy their way out of emission
reductions."
 12 WHAT CAN COMMON PEOPLE DO FOR SAVING THE AMAZON
RAINFORESTS

Fig12.1.SHOWING PLANTATION OF TREE

Saving the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil

Between May 2002 and May 2003, Brazil [Map] lost more than 24,000 square
kilometers of forest - an area larger than Israel and since 1978, over 500,000 square
kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. Why is Brazil losing so much
forest? What can be done to slow deforestation?

What can be done to save the Amazon rainforest in Brazil?

Today Brazil faces an enormous challenge: how to balance economic growth with
the preservation of the Amazon rainforest.
 1. Rehabilitation and increased productivity of formerly forested lands
2. Expansion of protection areas
3. Development based on concepts of sustainable use of some existing forest
4. Land policy reform
5. Law Enforcement

Rehabilitation and increased productivity of formerly forested lands

In reducing the loss of tropical rainforests we must not only be concerned with the
transformation of existing natural ecosystems, but also the more rational utilization of
already cleared and degraded areas. To lessen future forest loss we must increase and
sustain the productivity of farms, pastures, plantations, and scrub-land in addition to
restoring species and ecosystems to degraded habitats. By reducing wasteful land-use
practices, consolidating gains on existing cleared lands, and improving already
developed lands we can diminish the need to clear additional rainforest.

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY:

Increasing productivity of cleared rainforest lands is possible using improved technology

to generate higher yielding crops. Taking advantage of improved germplasm developed
through careful selection can produce grasses and crops that will grow on degraded
forest soils. While technology may have accelerated the development and
impoverishment of tropical rainforests, it will be one of the keys to saving them.
When it comes to cattle pasture, Judson Valentim of the Brazilian Farm Research
Corporation (Embrapa), suggests that "the use of so-called alternative technologies,
such as non-plowing farming, could increase productivity in areas that have already
been cleared ... Proper use of the area of the rainforest already cleared (deforested or
destroyed) in the Amazon could solve many problems. He points out that 20 percent of
the area could produce 50 million tons of grains annually. Another 20 percent could be
used for small farmers (around 900,000 of them if each got 20,000 hectares)."
Valentim continues, "The remaining 60 percent would be used to raise 100 million head
of cattle. And all that, without cutting down a single, additional tree or burning so much
as one hectare." [Marrying Growth and Preservation in Brazil's Amazon]
One promising area of research looks at ancient societies that lived in the Amazon
rainforest before the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century. Apparently these
populations were able to enrich the rainforest soil, which is usually quite poor, using
charcoal and animal bones. By improving soil quality, large areas of the Amazon that
have been deforested could be used to support agriculture. This could help reduce
pressure on rainforest areas for agricultural land. Further, the "terra preta" soil could be
used to help fight global warming since it absorbs carbon dioxide, an important
greenhouse gas.

HABITAT AND SPECIES REHABILITATION:

There is still time to save some of the most threatened species and ecosystems
that have been pushed so close to extinction that they will perish unless we
intervene. In Brazil, tremendous progress has been made in restoring the
population of the Golden Lion Tamarin which resides in the dwindling Atlantic
forest. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the species has
recovered "from a low of 200 wild animals recorded in the early 1970s ...[to its]
1,000th wild birth in March 2001."
The restoration of entire ecosystems is most possible in regions where parts or at
least remnants of the original forest still remain and there are few human
population pressures. Small clearings surrounded by forest recover quickly and
large sections may recover in time especially if we provide some assistance in
the reforestation process. After several years, a once barren field can once again
support vegetation in the form of pioneer species and secondary growth.
Although the secondary forest will be low in diversity and poorly developed, the
forest cover will be adequate for some species to return (assuming they still
exist). In addition, the newly forested patch can be used for the sustainable
harvest of forest products and low intensity logging.
Tracts of replanted forest may have ecological returns in addition to economic
ones. In the short term, forests absorb large amounts of atmospheric carbon and
the more trees that are replanted, the more atmospheric carbon will be
sequestered. Replanting and rehabilitating secondary forests around the world
has tremendous potential for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore,
rehabilitated forest lands can attract ecotourists and sustain some native forest
wildlife.

Expansion of protection areas

The extension of protection to critically important habitats within the Amazon region is
key to maximizing survival of biodiversity in Brazil. Paramount to the success of
conservation efforts:

1. prioritizing areas for protection -- i.e. focusing on biological hotspots

2. ensuring sufficient enforcement agencies and funding exist for the maintenance
of protected areas
3. encouraging the involvement of locals -- the fate of protected areas rests largely
in the hands of local people and only by improving their living condition can we
expect conservation efforts to be successful. Conservation cannot come at the
expense of local people; local people must be made both partners and
beneficiaries in conservation, and not enemies of it.
4. involving indigenous people in park management. Indigenous people know more
about the forest than anyone and have an interest in safeguarding it as a
productive ecosystem that provides them food, shelter, and clean water.
Research has found that in some cases, "indigenous reserves" may actually
protect rainforest better than national parks in the Amazon.

Law Enforcement

Brazil has a number of laws on the books that theoretically should slow Amazon
deforestation and encourage sustainable use of forest resources. The problem is,
IBAMA, Brazil's Environmental Protection Agency, is woefully under funded -- in 2003,
the entire budget for environmental law enforcement in Brazil was $9.5 million. $9.5
million to police Earth's 5th largest country (roughly the size of Australia, Spain, and
Germany combined) having the world's biggest expanse of tropical wilderness.
Between the lack of resources, rampant corruption, and questions as to whether IBAMA
even has any legal authority to enforce the law, the agency only collects 6.5% of the
fines it imposes.
IBAMA estimates that 80% of all logging in the Amazon is illegal, but there's relatively
little it can do about it. To effectively enforce existing environmental law, IBAMA is going
to need more resources.
 13 RECENT ARTICLE

Deforestation causes 25% of greenhouse gas emissions 12/09/2005

Yesterday the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) offered to
provide forestry data and technical assistance to countries looking to mitigate greenhouse
gas emissions through the reduction of forest loss.

Future forests may absorb more carbon dioxide than current forests 12/07/2005
Forests of the future may grow faster and absorb more carbon in a carbon dioxide enriched
environment according to a new study by researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE).

Temperate forests may worsen global warming, tropical forests fight higher temperatures |
12/05/2005
Growing a forest might sound like a good idea to combat global warming, since trees draw
carbon dioxide from the air and release cool water from their leaves. But they also absorb
sunlight, warming the air in the process. According to a new study from the Carnegie
Institution's Department of Global Ecology and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
planting forests at certain latitudes could make the Earth warmer.

70 years after logging, forests don't hold as much carbon as original forests | 12/05/2005
New research out of Ohio State University suggests that following logging, temperate
forests take long periods of time to recover their carbon storing capacity. The scientists
examined forests of the upper Great Lakes region, which were 90% logged at the turn of
the century, and found that they store only half the carbon the original forests contained.
Poor forest management is blamed for the shortfall.

Elevated atmospheric CO2 increases soil carbon | 12/05/2005

An article in the current issue of Global Change Biology indicates that soils in temperate
ecosystems might contribute more to partially offsetting the effects of rising atmospheric
CO2 concentrations than earlier studies have suggested.

Vegetation growth in Arctic could add to global warming | 9/8/05

Warming in the Arctic is stimulating the growth of vegetation and could affect the delicate
energy balance there, causing an additional climate warming of several degrees over the
next few decades. A new study indicates that as the number of dark-colored shrubs in the
otherwise stark Arctic tundra rises, the amount of solar energy absorbed could increase
winter heating by up to 70 percent. The research will be published 7 September in the first
issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, published by the American
Geophysical Union.
 14 CONCLUSION
Brazil is a land of remarkable beauty and unsurpassed biological diversity. For this
reason, deforestation in the Amazon is especially troubling. While environmental losses
and degradation of the rainforests have yet to reach the point of collapse, the continuing
disappearance of wildlands and loss of its species is disheartening.
Biodiversity is makes life on Earth livable for our species. By extinguishing hotbeds of
biodiversity like the Amazon rainforest we are destroying a part of ourselves.
Biodiversity will recover after humanity is gone, but in the meantime, the continuing loss
of our fellow species will make Earth an awfully crowded, but lonely place.
Past extinctions have shown it takes at least 5 million years to restore biodiversity to the
level equal to that prior of the extinction event event. Our actions today will determine
whether Earth will be biologically impoverished for the 500 trillion or more humans that
will inhabit the earth during that future period.
The extinction event that is occurring as you read these words rivals the extinctions
caused by natural disasters of global ice ages, planetary collisions, atmospheric
poisoning, and variations in solar radiation. The difference is that this extinction was
conceived by humans and subject to human decisions. We are the last, best hope for
life as we prefer it on this planet.
15 REFRENCES