Wildfires

Wildfires - Brazil

Wildfires are raging through the Brazilian Amazon, destroying vast areas of forest on the eastern fringes of the “earth’s lungs”. The outbreak of the fire coincides with the start of the international COP21 climate summit in Paris and threatens one of the last un-contacted peoples on earth.

The fires are reportedly being started by illegal loggers, in retaliation for tribal people’s efforts to defend their territories and keep the invaders out. They threaten one of the few remaining areas of pre-Amazon forest in Brazil, the last environment of its type in the world.

This forest is home to the Awá tribe, one of the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. The Awá depend completely on the land for their survival.

In October, fires destroyed almost half of a nearby indigenous territory known as Arariboia, also home to uncontacted Awá. It is not known whether the two incidents are connected, or if they indicate that loggers are adopting a new strategy to claim land from tribal people.

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, is calling on the Brazilian government to put out the fire, protect the Awá’s land and save them from extinction.

Environment

Shrinking Amazon forests may lose thousands of trees species

A first-of-its-kind examination of the Amazon's trees found that as many as half the species may be threatened with extinction or heading that way because of massive deforestation. Among the more than 5,000 tree species in deep trouble: the ones that produce Brazil nuts and mahogany.

An international team of 158 scientists found that depending on the degree to which deforestation comes under control in the next 35 years, between 36 and 57 percent of the 16,000 tree species in the tropical rainforest area would be considered threatened. Their study is published in Friday's edition of Science Advances.

The range rests on whether cutting down the region's forest continues at the rate of the late 20th and early 21st centuries or slows down to lesser levels proposed in 2006, study authors said. If deforestation continues at the same pace, nearly 8,700 tree types are in trouble, but the number of species at risk could be as low as 5,500 if nations are able to cut back as planned, said study co-author Nigel Pitman from the Field Museum in Chicago.

About 15 years ago, the Amazon was losing about 11.6 million square miles (30 million sq. kilometres) of forest a year, said Tim Killeen, a scientist from Agteca Amazonica in Bolivia. But that figure has dropped to about 3.8 million square miles (10 million sq. kilometres) a year, he said.

Environment

Global Warming hits Amazon Rainforest

With climate scientists warning that droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe as global temperatures continue to climb, a recent study led by NASA scientists shows what that could mean for the Amazon rainforest.

After analyzing more than 10 years worth of satellite data collected from over the Amazon region, the researchers said rainforest damage first observed during the start of a megadrought in 2005 persisted the next several years, even as rainfall gradually rose back to average levels. But another dry period that started in 2010 may exacerbate the impacts, suggesting that the Amazon rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.