It is said that humans are the most invasive species in the world due to the way the media portrays our interaction with the change of environment and living things. It’s true we have done many activities that have destroyed and risked the lives of many species; however people around the world are progressing to take action to maintain the biodiversity of our ecosystems.
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| A general map of the Amazon biome |
Let’s take the Amazon Rainforest for example. This rainforest covers an area of 6.7 km2, surrounding areas in Brazil Venezuela Ecuador Peru Guyana
Today, the agricultural business has been in growth for years and is still growing strong. Driven by demand from around the world, 19,000 km2 of the rainforest was deforested between 2000 and 2007. All this deforestation has been converted into sugar cane fields, cattle ranches, timber plantations, soy farms, and more. Due to the booming agricultural business, the Amazon has been completely integrated into the global economy while also trying to meet economic demands.
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| What could happen to the Amazon Rainforest |
Deforestation and illegal logging has affected the Amazon Rainforest to a high value. In the past 50 years, 17% of the Amazon forest has been lost because of this. There are many impacts of deforestation on the Amazon Rainforest. Social impacts are one of them. With deforestation, the benefit on natural resources will become very scarce towards the people that are in need of it. Aside from social impacts, the loss of biodiversity is also occurring. With deforestation in progress, many species would lose their habitant and can no longer reside in what is left. On a positive note, deforestation has dropped down 14% from August 2009 to July 2010. This small amount of percentage tells us that there is proof there can be hope into stopping all of the deforestation.
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| A WWF volunteer working at the Amazon Rainforest |
So what are people doing around the world to help the Amazon Rainforest? Well, WWF is doing all it can to protect the Amazon conservation. In fact, WWF has a strong relationship with the Amazon Rainforest; they have been working there for more than 40 years. With the rapid rate of deforestation, they find objectives and solutions to stop this. WWF has come up with many objectives such as promoting a sustainable use of natural resources in order to provide incentives to maintain the natural habitant and consolidating a network of protected areas that represents the region’s biodiversity. With working with the World Bank, they’ve come up with 3 targets to their approach: improved implementation of existing protected area, new protected areas, and the certification of timber management.
Humans are an invasive species however we also help and sustain on saving our biodiversity, helping millions of species and creating a better earth. Humans can prevent deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest and turn the land into a better biodiversity.
References:
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0803.htm
References:
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0803.htm
Photos I used:
