ITEM #1

Title:  Smithsonian Scientist Predicts Widespread Loss of Rainforest

  to Development, Computer Models Show Impact of Planned

  Infrastructure Projects 

Source:  Smithsonian Institution Press Release

Date:  January 18, 2001 

Contact for Media only:      Elizabeth Tait      (202) 357-2627, ext. 129

 

 

As much as 42 percent of the Amazon River basin of Brazil will be

seriously damaged or lost altogether in the next two decades if that

country's infrastructure development projects go forward as planned,

according to a joint U.S.-Brazilian team of biologists reporting in

the Jan. 19, 2001, issue of the journal Science. 

 

The world's largest tropical rainforest already is disappearing at

the rate of two million hectares (five million acres) per year.  Land

in the Amazon is cheaply acquired, and much of it is cleared by fire

for use as cattle pastures, said the research group's leader, William

F. Laurance, a scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research

Institute (STRI) in Panama. 

 

Laurance and his colleagues, working in Manaus, Brazil, conducted

what they characterize as the first systematic assessment of the

effects of development trends and projects on the region. They

developed comprehensive computer models that integrate current data

on deforestation, logging, fires, mining, roads, parks and reserves

with information about a host of existing and planned infrastructure

projects, including the construction of railroads, highways and

hydroelectric dams; the installation of power lines and gas lines;

and the channelization of rivers.  Even under the more optimistic of

the two scenarios modeled, "the Brazilian Amazon will be drastically

altered by current development schemes and land-use trends over the

next 20 years," according to the authors.

 

The study points out that, under the auspices of its "Avanca Brasil"

(Advance Brazil) program, the Brazilian government is trying to boost

the industrial agriculture, timber and mining sectors of the economy

with a $40 billion investment in infrastructure projects over the

years 2000 to 2007.  The largest of the international and domestic

initiatives to promote rainforest conservation and sustainable

development, by constrast, is the program of the G-7 nations,

including the United States and the European Community, funded at a

level of $340 million.

 

The researchers also ran their computer models without the dozens of

highways, waterways and other projects planned by Avanca Brasil. 

Both the predicted rates of deforestation and degradation decreased

sharply absent these major projects, and forest fragmentation was

greatly reduced. 

 

"No one is suggesting that Brazil forego development in the Amazon,

but there are far less destructive ways to exploit the region," said

Laurance.  "Rather than punching many new roads and highways into the

remote frontier," he added, "we are pushing for slower deforestation

and more efficient use of existing agricultural lands than cattle

ranching."  He noted that he and others are promoting more intensive

land uses, to produce fruit trees, timber and other valuable

commodities.

 

The report also advocates that Brazil capitalize upon the

environmental services afforded by the Amazon rainforest's capacity

to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as well as to

ameliorate floods, curtail erosion, maintain stable regional climates

and conserve biological diversity.

 

"Under the Kyoto Protocol," Laurance stated, "countries like Brazil

could be paid by other nations to save their forests, thereby locking

up billions of tons of carbon that would otherwise end up in the

atmosphere."  He calculated the carbon-offset revenues available to

Brazil at as much as $2 billion a year, without sacrifice of

sovereign control over its Amazon forests.

 

Laurance and his collaborators on the Science article are associated

with the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP), a

cooperative research program between Brazil's National Institute for

Amazonian Research and the Smithsonian that now resides within

STRI's Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS).  For more than 20

years, BDFFP has conducted long-term research on the affects of human

encroachment on the Amazon rainforest, with an eye toward informing

management strategies that conserve biodiversity and emphasis on

areas of deforestation.  The BDFFP also includes training programs to

prepare master's and doctoral students for leadership roles in

conservation in local, Amazon-region research institutes, non-

governmental organizations and government agencies - an effort for

which it received the 2000 Henry Ford Award for Environmental

Conservation.

 

The Center for Tropical Forest Science encompasses a network of 17,

50-hectare (125 acre) Forest Dynamics Plots, in 14 different

countries, where the subject of study is how forests change over

time.

 

 

ITEM #1

Title:  New Research Predicts Amazon Destruction From Road Projects

Source:  Environmental Defense

Date:  January 11, 2001

 

WASHINGTON - New research reported in the current issue of Nature and

a report from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Instituto

de Pesquisa Ambiental na Amaz“nia -- IPAM) shows that roads planned

by the Brazilian government will, under current conditions, lay waste

to about a third of the Amazon forest. IPAM and Woods Hole Research

Center scientists designed a new computer model, using the thirty-

year record of satellite monitoring to predict the consequences of

the projected roads.

 

"Paving these roads will cut costs for big soy farmers," said Woods

Hole scientist Georgia Carvalho, "but the environmental costs will be

huge." Currently, about 14% of the Amazon -- an area the size of

France -- has been deforested. With the government road-paving plan,

this would increase to a third of the Amazon, or an area more than

three times the size of California, over the next twenty to thirty

years.

 

The Brazilian government proposes some $45 billion in infrastructure

investments over the coming eight years, as part of the "Forward

Brazil" program. The ambitious plan includes river channeling and

dredging, port improvements, energy development and pipelines in the

Amazon as well as the roads.

 

"The Woods Hole/IPAM model is an extremely conservative, reliable

prediction, based on historical satellite evidence," said

Environmental Defense senior scientist Stephan Schwartzman. "Unless

the environmental costs are considered, the real damage could be far

worse."

 

The IPAM model points the way to development that could avoid the

uncontrolled frontier expansion that has devastated much of the

world's forests. "We need to invest in the old frontiers, on existing

roads, to stimulate regional development while we protect the

forest," noted IPAM director Ana Cristina Barros. "This means

improving local roads, support for marketing, technical assistance,

schools and health systems; and financial incentives that favor

sustainable forest management and permanent agriculture," she added.

 

Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization

based in New York, represents more than 300,000 members. Since 1967

we have linked science, economics, and law to create innovative,

equitable, and cost-effective solutions to the most urgent

environmental problems.

 

www.environmentaldefense.org

For more information, contact:

Lisa Swann

Environmental Defense

202 387-3500

[5]lswann@environmentaldefense.org

Web site: [6]http://www.environmentaldefense.org