DEFORESTATION

Rates of deforestation

Deforestation in the Amazon has

been
trending higher over the past decad
e
due to growing demand for beef,
soy, and land; government
development policies that
encourage expansion into forests;
and the increasing vulnerability of
the rainforest ecosystem to drought
and fire. Brazil, which accounts for
more than 60% of forest cover in
Impacts of deforestation theAmazon.

In the Amazon, species are threatened as

human activity expands deeper into the
rainforest. From 2018 to 2019, the Amazon
lost over 3,800 sq. miles of forest — an area
equivalent to over 1.8 million football fields.
Biodiversity loss from habitat destruction is
often driven and by land grabbing and
industrialized agricultural expansion,
mining, logging, large-scale infrastructure
development, usually through deforestation.
Even worse, deforestation in Indigenous
lands and protected areas has skyrocketed
in recent years.

Biodiversity
Amazon biodiversity also plays a critical role as part of
global systems, influencing the global carbon cycle and
thus climate change, as well as hemispheric
hydrological systems, serving as an important anchor
for South American climate and rainfall. All biodiversity
is interdependent causing a chained reaction to
happen if their habitat is lost which could possibly
make some species endangered or extinct.