Photo Courtesy: latimesblogs.latimes.com/.../lion-tamarin.html

There are many endangered species due to the deforestation of the Amazon, but one primate stands out today. The golden-headed lion tamarin survives in only a single protected reserve in the largely degraded Atlantic forest in Brazil (mongabay.com). Some are found in unprotected patches threatened by urbanization and agricultural expansion. Today, a natural gas pipeline is being built right through the monkey's habitat. Activists are trying to find forest large enough to house populations of the tamarin.

Less than 7 percent of the original Atlantic Forest remains. What does that mean for the golden-headed lion tamarin? Researchers only found four areas of land big enough to house the tamarins in. But still disease and fire can take place. Sadly, the researchers expect deforestation to continue in the region. Shade-grown cocoa, a good habitat for golden-headed lion tamarins and many other species, is also threatened to be cleared for plantations given the low price of cocoa (mongabay.com).

Is Livestock Bad for the Environment?

Photo courtesy: http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/wp-content/uploads/new-image.JPG

Most people do not think about livestock contributing to the greenhouse gas crisis. I was surprised how much impact they had.

Livestock production has increased dramatically over the last thirty years, due to the massive demand for meats. Meat used to be known as a "treat" to have in a meal in different parts of the world, but now people eat it all the time. According to mongabay.com, two recent studies looked at the global impact of the livestock industry, one alleges that its environmental impacts in relation to greenhouse gas emissions has been overestimated, while the other takes a holistic view of the industry's environmental impact.

The first study questions livestock's share of emissions: According to Dr. Frank Mitloehner, from the University of California-Davis, meat-eating does not cause high amounts of carbon emissions. This is based on faulty data, at least in terms of comparing the importance of cutting down meat consumption to making the transition from fossil fuels to green energy.

He doesn't suggest that we cut down on meat and diary, that will only end badly for poor countries. Instead the industrialized world must focus on the way it produces and consumes energy. He advises that "the developed world should focus on increasing efficient meat production in developing countries where growing populations need more nutritious food. In developing countries, we should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices to make more food with less greenhouse gas production."

The second study still thinks livestock is the problem: While livestock is not the biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions, it does put a large strain on the environment. Some examples are pollution, water-consumption, deforestation, and land-use. According to "Livestock in a Changing Landscape, a report by scientists, "livestock impact on land-use is massive. Currently, a quarter of the world's land is used for 1.7 billion livestock animals. This ongoing shifting from wild lands to pasture has impacted biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide. For example, cattle ranching in Brazil has led both directly and indirectly to deforestation in the Amazon rain forest".

Amazonian Experts Argue BU Press Release

A few days ago Boston University issued a press release on a scientific study about the Amazon's resilience to drought. The press release stated that the study had exposed the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's) theory that climate change could turn approximately 40 % of the Amazon into Savannah due to declining rainfall. According to Mongabay.com, nineteen of the world's top Amazonian experts have issued responses to the press release saying it was "misleading and inaccurate".

The study was about how the forest's level of greenness had not changed during the 2005 year drought. It was originally published in Geophysical Research Letters. It wasn't the study itself that upset Amazonian experts, but the press release, 'New Study debunks Myths about Amazon Rain Forests'. Th experts say there is no myth, only evidence that the forests are very susceptible to drought stress. To prove this the experts cite a recent study that found a "large surge" in tree mortality in 2005 that was consistent with the results of two experiments showing tree mortality after rain reductions.

The scientists say that the fact that climate change could 'flip' large portions of the Amazon, approximately 40 percent, into savannah, was not only accurately reflecting the research of the time, but "has been reinforced by new studies."

Native Brazilian Interview- Rafaela Faria

As I mentioned, I had to start this blog for a school assignment; our assignment was to pick a country and a current communicational issue present there. I have always loved Brazil. I have never been there, but my dear friend Lindsay Imwold resided there for a few years with her family and has shared many memories with me. The next part of my assignment was to interview a native of my chosen country.

Rafaela Faria, age 21, is a current Student at Flagler College, studying Business Administration. I meet her at a local student’s party in St. Augustine. I loved her outlook on life, and how fun she was, so when the assignment arose, I knew exactly who I wanted to interview.
Faria grew up in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina which is located in the south of Brazil. She says it is the fourth most visited Brazilian city, and is nicknamed “The Magic Island”. Her childhood was wonderful; she played in the street with her neighbors and like many American children enjoyed video games. When she was seven she discovered her passion, soccer.

Her passion for soccer led her to the U.S. In 2005, Faria played against an American team in Brazil. The coaches loved her skills, and asked her to come to America and play for their school, Charlotte High School. The exchange program paid for everything. “It was a surprise and unique opportunity for me, because soccer was paying for an exchange program that my family could not afford”, Faria said. After spending only one year in America, she returned to Brazil and graduated from High school. She attended Federal University of Santa Catarina for two years before transferring to Flagler College.

Faria’s impressions of the U.S. were similar to most people who have not ventured here, McDonalds, Disney World, Las Vegas, Coca Cola, President Bush, and war. “These were always words I associated with the U.S.”, Faria said. After she came, she was thrilled to see how the U.S encourages sports in high schools and colleges. She found that true is that Americans eat too much fast food, which I also agree.

Faria’s entire family lives in Brazil. Unfortunately their financial condition doesn’t allow them to visit her at Flagler. “It is one of my dreams to show them my dorm, the beautiful Flagler campus, visit my ex-America host family, watch me play soccer here… for now I share this with my own descriptions and pictures I take”, Faria said. She often thinks about returning home, she loves Florianopolis, her and her friends have realized there is no place on earth like it. It is not just the nature and beauty that make Florianopolis special, but the people greatly affect the city as well.

Brazil is very diverse and is divided into five regions, each having a different beauty, culture, and economy. Faria wishes Americans knew more about this. “People there are so nice, share great hospitality, and are always happy. Our music reflects this happiness as do our parties, especially Carnaval Feijoada, caipirinha, samba…. Like the music says “I live in a tropical country blessed by God and beautiful by nature” (Pais Tropical by Jorge Ben Jor)”, Faria Said. Most Americans she has talked to think they speak Spanish in Brazil, when their language is Portuguese.

I asked her about the topic of my blog, deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon. She feels very sad because the Amazon has already lost an area equivalent to France. “It is the richest rainforest in the world, having a huge biodiversity but men are destroying it to develop agriculture, to explore illegal wood… this has to stop because Amazonia is the liver of Brazil as well as the world. This deforestation has to stop”, Faria said.

The 2016 Olympics will be hosted in Brazil. Faria is not only excited about the Olympics, but also that the 2014 Soccer World Cup will also be in Brazil. She says it will be great for Brazil’s economy. They will take advantage of the events to boost tourism and create more jobs to cultivate the economy.

Brazil and the US Sign Deforestation Agreement

Photo courtesy: www.berrygoodstuff4u.com/

Brazil and the United States have signed an agreement to work together to reduce deforestation in the rain forest. This agreement was arranged in early March as part of an effort to slow climate change as well.

On Wednesday March 3, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the agreement in Brasilia. The agreement states that Brazil and the US will establish a Climate Change Policy Dialogue, which is a group that will meet once a year and work towards developing and implementing pragmatic solutions and policies for reducing emissions and development.

Because the US and Brazil have not seen eye to eye on efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation, this agreement is a wonderful outbreak and will hopefully prove to be significant. When the agreement was first suggested Brazil was not interested. “Brazil is not interested in giving industrialized countries cheap carbon credits from protecting the Amazon if they are not going to stop building coal-fired power plants”, says William Boyd, a professor at the University of Colorado. He has worked on REDD policy issues for some time.

Brazil feels that the US needs substantial reductions in our own industrial emissions, and now the two countries have altered their stances. The US has been talking to Indonesia, which is the world’s second largest deforester and biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions from land use change, about the REDD strategies and tactics.

What can be done to help save the Amazon?

Now for a more positive post. I wanted to write a post about what can be done to rehabilitate the rain forest. I think it is important for people to not only know what has caused the deforestation problems, but what can be done to help the Amazon. After researching, I have found two ways in which we can help regenerate some of the rain forest.

The first is to increase productivity of formerly forested lands. While concentration is needed on existing ecosystems, help is needed in already cleared areas. To narrow the chances of 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. Improving already developed lands and reducing wasteful practices, additional land won’t be necessary to clear. Increasing productivity of cleared land is possible by using improved technology to generate higher yielding crops. Just by improving soil quality, large areas of the rain forest that have been cleared could be used to support agriculture. This could help reduce pressure on land used for agricultural. Terra preta soil, which is a soil that absorbs carbon dioxide, can be used to fight global warming.

The second step in saving the Amazon is habitat and species rehabilitation. Remarkable success has been made in restoring the population of the Golden Lion Tamarin in Brazil. The Golden Lion Tamarin lives in the 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 1,000 wild birth in March 2001." Restoration of entire ecosystems have better chances of surviving in areas where parts of the original forest still remain and where few humans are active.

GOLDEN LION TAMARIN Photo courtesy of, subjecttochangeblog.wordpress.com/.../

According to Rhett A Butler, from mongabay.com “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”.

Rehabilitating and rebuilding secondary forests in the Amazon has wonderful possibilities for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and the new lands can attract ecotourists and sustain some native forest wildlife.

Below is a Bird Tower at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Amazon, where you can see above the canopy. Photo courtesy of http://blogs.iesabroad.org/erin-korris/the-amazon/

Illegal Logging

Photo courtsey of planetsave.com/blog/2008/11/

Logging is one of the most prominent and well-known forms of deforestation in the Amazon. While there are many logging techniques and international awareness, logging is still illegally practiced. According to mongabay.com, in the 1990s the Asian logging companies began aggressively moving into rain forest areas, after going through the country’s own timber stocks. In China there is a need for wood, due to a construction demand. The country has recently invaded Africa, the Amazon, Burma, and Indonesia for logging purposes.

Brazil has enforced more authority to try to prevent future illegal logging; however the country does not have enough law enforcement. Not only is logging damaging to the area under destruction, but the areas surrounding are damaged. Wildlife and plants are destroyed mostly due to logging roads. Corruption is also a main concern with logging. The corrupt officials make the existing forestry laws unenforceable, and have consideration for the environment or the locals. Research has found a high correlation between logging roads and consumption of bushmeat. Bushmeat are wild animals that are hunted as food and sold illegally.

Not only are trees being cut down for wood, but selective trees, usually endangered tree species, as well. Loggers will only take one or two valuable tree species from an area. A study conducted by scientists from The Carnegie Institution at Stanford University determined that selective logging creates twice as much damage. A single tree that is cut down can bring down dozens of surrounding trees, because of vines connecting the group. Trees also protect bottom level organisms with their canopies.

Brazil is working toward increasing the monitoring of logging in the rain forest and raising fines for those caught illegally cutting trees. According to the Greenpeace website, environment minister Marina Silva said the country will hire 100 forest engineers to oversee logging and agricultural projects in the Amazon region, after firing 84 earlier this year on corruption related charges.