In a column in The Guardian Author Kim Heacox writes that nearly 1 million square kilometers of the Amazon have been destroyed since 1988.
That equates to an area about the size of Texas and New Mexico combined, according to the author – and that equates to an average of about 200,000 acres every day, or 40 football fields per minute, he continues.
He also writes that “the rainforest is dying” and that “soon it will be too late”.
Secretary General Tørris Jæger of the Rainforest Fund cannot confirm the figures Heacox states in the article, as the figures on which it operates vary, but he clearly shares the author’s concern.
– Simplified, one can say that a third of all rainforest that once existed is gone. One third is intact, and one third is degraded – that is, it is not completely destroyed, but under attack, Jæger tells Dagbladet.
– So the situation for the rainforest is precarious. The world must now deal with two major and long-lasting crises; the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. And no matter what we do, everything else will be too small and in vain if we do not save the rainforest, he continues.
Giant slaughtered after revelation
Near the tipping point
He says that it operates with so-called tipping points for when a rainforest has passed a critical limit for when it can no longer sustain itself.
– For the eastern parts of the Amazon, especially the eastern part of Brazil, confirms new research that this tipping point has been reached when between 20 and 25 per cent have disappeared. Now you are at 18 percent there, says Jæger.
From August last year to July this year alone, 8793.6 square kilometers were lost in the Amazon, according to the Brazilian research institute INPE.
– It is a nascent recognition that we must protect the rainforests. They are a global common good, and what happens to the rainforests concerns us all, says Jæger.
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Carbon storage
The rainforest acts as a carbon store, the general secretary continues.
– As of today, the rainforest absorbs and stores large amounts of carbon. When the rainforest is cut down and burned down, the carbon stored there will go up into the atmosphere, he says.
– A third factor here is that increased climate emissions contribute to more drought, which in turn attacks the rainforest, via fires, Jæger continues.
He says that an intact rainforest will not burn, because it has its own rain system.
– Now, however, we see an increasing number and extent of fires because the forest is drier – especially in areas where infrastructure has been built in all marginal zones, he says.
Agriculture is another threat to the rainforest, says Jæger.
– Agriculture, both for cattle farming, soy and palm oil are among the most important reasons for deforestation, he says.
– An alarm clock for everyone
– Must act now
In Brazil in particular, the regime protecting the rainforest has been significantly weakened, according to the Secretary-General.
– President Jair Bolsonaro has come up with a stated agenda to use the rainforest, and in the country there are now a good number of proposals for treatment that will both weaken the rights of indigenous peoples who are entitled to a large part of the Amazon, and at the same time provide companies that operate in or will operate in Amazon’s reduced environmental requirements.
– This makes me very worried, says Jæger
– At the same time, we know that politics works, ie that when a government comes up with an objective to protect the forest, then you can make it happen. It is not the case that all hope is gone, but we must act now, he says.
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