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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

19/11/22 12:54 PM IST

Third of Amazon rainforest lost or degraded: Report

In News 
  • Vast tracts of the Amazon rainforest, which serve as carbon sinks and the planet’s lungs, are in crisis.
  • Some 35 per cent of the rainforest is either totally lost or highly degraded, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Major Findings 
  • Amazon forests are threatened due to deforestation, fires and degradation.
  • Surface water has been lost and rivers are increasingly disconnected and polluted.
  • This immense pressure will irreversibly damage the Amazon and the planet in general very shortly.
  • Economic activities, most notably extensive cattle ranching and agriculture, illegal activities and poorly planned infrastructure, threaten the region and cause deforestation and degradation throughout the biome, with many areas severely affected.
  • Nearly 600 infrastructure projects are in operation along rivers in the Amazon.
  • Some 20 planned road projects, 400 operating or planned dams and numerous mining projects continue to dump chemicals such as mercury into the rivers.
Measures 
  • The protection of the Amazon requires a combination of strategies and approaches that combine conservation requirements with the developmental needs of the countries that comprise it.
  • Strategies for effective, integrated landscape management include:
  • Conversion-free landscapes
  • Sustainably managed forests
  • Legal trade
  • Ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, women and young people.
  • These strategies are intended to complement well-managed conservation areas and indigenous territories to form a network of well-conserved landscapes.
  • Cross-cutting strategies in three key areas — policies, knowledge generation and communications — are also needed for the conservation and sustainable management of the Amazon biome, its forests and rivers.
Amazon Rain Forests 
  • These are large tropical rainforests occupying the drainage basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries in northern South America and covering an area of 6,000,000 square km.
  • Tropical forests are closed-canopy forests growing within 28 degrees north or south of the equator.
  • They are very wet places, receiving more than 200 cm rainfall per year, either seasonally or throughout the year.
  • Comprising about 40% of Brazil’s total area, it is bounded by the Guiana Highlands to the north, the Andes Mountains to the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
Source- DTE 

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