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/