Mixed news about the Amazon Rainforest

We have both good and bad news about the Amazon Rainforest this week.

Let's start with the good news: The World Bank approved last Thursday $1.3 billion loan to help Brazil's environmental management and climate change efforts, with a focus on fighting deterioration of the Amazon rain forest and renewable energy sources.

The World Bank told Reuters that "the loan will support Brazil's ongoing efforts to improve its environmental management system and integrate sustainability concerns in the development agenda of key sectors such as forest management, water and renewable energy."

The loan is going to be disbursed in two parts: a first tranche of $800 million that will be provided immediately and a second tranche of $500 million upon fulfillment of the projects goals.

This loan is provided despite appeals of several Brazilian organizations and social networks to the World Bank to postpone the decision on the loan. Their argue was that prior loans have not adequately addressed environmental concerns and that this loan has the potential to continue this trend.

Well, I hope these groups are wrong, but at the same time I wish their concerns will be taken seriously as it seems the money is needed to be allocated in the best way possible given the other news about the implications of drought on the Amazon rain forest.

On the same day (last Thursday) a new study was published in the journal Science. This 30-year study, a global collaboration between more than 40 institutions, has found that the Amazon rain forest is surprisingly sensitive to drought and even a moderate drought can cause it to release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. You can read further details about this study about it on the Science Daily's report.

We'll keep following and reporting on the status of the Amazon Rainforest, hoping to have more and more good news and less and less bad news.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

The gloomy state of rain forests

Edward Harris, Associated Press writer, brings us a gloomy reminder of the state of rain forests around the world, which continues to get worse.

Here are few interesting facts and statistics he brings on the article ('Rain forests fall at 'alarming' rate' from Yahoo! News):

1. U.N. specialists estimate 60 acres of tropical forest are felled worldwide every minute, up from 50 a generation back. And the fears have changed. This is a deforestation rate of about 13 million hectares (32 million acres) a year.

2. Forest destruction accounts for about 20 percent of manmade emissions, second only to burning of fossil fuels for electricity and heat. Conversely, healthy forests absorb carbon dioxide and store carbon.

3. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), although South America loses slightly more acreage than Africa, the rate of loss is higher in Africa — almost 1% of African forests gone each year. In 2000-2005, the continent lost 10 million acres a year, including big chunks of forest in Sudan, Zambia and Tanzania, up from 9 million a decade earlier.

4. The Amazon and other South American forests are usually burned for cattle grazing or industrial-scale soybean farming. In Indonesia and elsewhere in southeast Asia, island forests are being cut or burned to make way for giant palm plantations (palm oil is used for food processing, biodiesel, etc.). In Africa, it's individuals hacking out plots for small-scale farming.

You can find many more details in this interesting article. And here's a quote from it that I think summarize the whole situation:

"If we lose forests, we lose the fight against climate change," declared more than 300 scientists, conservation groups, religious leaders and others in an appeal for action at December's climate conference in Bali, Indonesia.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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