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NEOTROPICAL REALM
South and Central America hold the bulk of the world's remaining tropical rainforests. More than 97 percent of this region's forests are found in South America, including the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon.
Threats
Today South America suffers the highest total loss of forest—around 4.3 million hectares were cleared per year between 2000 and 2005. Most of the forest loss has occurred in the Amazon rainforest where large tracts of land are being cleared for cattle ranches, soybean plantations, and subsistence agriculture. Legal and illegal logging is also widespread in the region. Overall, deforestation rates have increased in South America by almost 17 percent since the end of the 1990s. At least 60 million hectares (232,000 square miles) of forest were lost between 1990 and 2005. Scientists are concerned that forest loss could escalate in the Amazon due to increasingly dry conditions. In 2005, the Amazon suffered the most severe drought on record, leaving rivers dry and communities stranded. Tens of thousands of fires burned.
In the Caribbean, very little natural tropical forest cover remains. Between 2000 and 2005, forest cover actually expanded in the Caribbean due to the increase in plantation cover. However, primary forest cover still declined due to clearing for development and small-scale agriculture on the part of poor farmers.
Central America had the highest deforestation rate of any region in the world over the past five years. Much of this clearing came from subsistence activities and agricultural schemes, though illegal logging is a problem in the region. Overall, Central America lost 19 percent of its forest over between 1990 and 2005. The good news is that deforestation rates are slowing.
Outlook
The outlook for the rainforests of South America is better than that of Africa because of heavy pressure by outside environmentalists and an increasingly ecologically minded, educated populace. A fair amount of land is afforded some sort of protection—though not always effective against illegal exploitation—and local projects promoting sustainable management while benefiting locals are on the rise. Several governments, including those of Brazil and Costa Rica, have passed policies to enhance protection of forests. Many Neotropical countries have developed eco-tourism as a means to generate revenue to protect forests. Costa Rica has entered into a unique bioprospecting contract with an American pharmaceutical company (Merck), and it appears that others may soon follow suit. The use and export of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) is increasing, though it still plays a minute role in trade in comparison to timber, oil, and minerals extracted from rainforest lands. Funding of large, damaging hydroelectric projects appears to be on the decline as funding agencies move to support smaller, more effective projects. Nevertheless, the forests of the Neotropical realm are facing tremendous challenges from numerous development threats.
Profiles:
Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Caribbean islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Overview:
| | Total land area | | Total forest cover
2005 | | Primary forest cover
2005 | | Total
deforestation
1990-2005 | | Loss of
primary forest
1990-2005 |
| Country | | (1000 ha) | | (1000 ha) | | % of total
land area | | (1000 ha) | | % of total
land area | | %
of 1990
forest cover | | % of 1990
primary
forest cover |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Belize | | 2,296 | | 1,653 | | 72.5 | | 612 | | 26.7 | | 0.0 | | 0.0 |
| Bolivia | | 109,858 | | 58,740 | | 54.2 | | 29,360 | | 26.7 | | -6.5 | | -6.5 |
| Brazil | | 851,488 | | 477,698 | | 57.2 | | 415,890 | | 48.8 | | -8.1 | | -9.7 |
| Colombia | | 113,891 | | 60,728 | | 58.5 | | 53,062 | | 46.6 | | -1.2 | | -1.5 |
| Costa Rica | | 5,110 | | 2,391 | | 46.8 | | 180 | | 3.5 | | -6.7 | | -29.4 |
| Ecuador | | 28,356 | | 10,853 | | 39.2 | | 4,794 | | 16.9 | | -21.5 | | 0.0 |
| El Salvador | | 2,104 | | 298 | | 14.4 | | 6 | | 0.3 | | -20.5 | | 0.0 |
| French Guiana | | 9,000 | | 8,063 | | 91.8 | | 7,701 | | 85.6 | | -0.3 | | -2.6 |
| Guatemala | | 10,889 | | 3,938 | | 36.3 | | 1,957 | | 18.0 | | -17.1 | | -17.0 |
| Guyana | | 21,497 | | 15,104 | | 76.7 | | 9,314 | | 43.3 | | 0.0 | | n/a |
| Honduras | | 11,209 | | 4,648 | | 41.5 | | 1,512 | | 13.5 | | -37.1 | | 0.0 |
| Mexico | | 195,820 | | 64,238 | | 33.7 | | 32,850 | | 16.8 | | -6.9 | | -15.3 |
| Nicaragua | | 13,000 | | 5,189 | | 42.7 | | 1,849 | | 14.2 | | -20.6 | | 0.0 |
| Panama | | 7,552 | | 4,294 | | 57.7 | | 3,023 | | 40.0 | | -1.9 | | -18.4 |
| Peru | | 128,522 | | 68,742 | | 53.7 | | 61,065 | | 47.5 | | -2.0 | | -2.9 |
| Suriname | | 16,327 | | 14,776 | | 94.7 | | 14,214 | | 87.1 | | 0.0 | | 0.0 |
| Venezuela | | 91,205 | | 47,713 | | 54.1 | | - | | n/a | | -8.3 | | n/a |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Total Caribbean | | 23,482 | | 5,974 | | 26.1 | | | | 0.0 | | 11.7 | | n/a |
| Total Central America | | 52,160 | | 22,411 | | 43.9 | | | | 0.0 | | -18.9 | | n/a |
| Total South America | | 1,783,770 | | 831,540 | | 47.7 | | | | 0.0 | | -6.7 | | n/a |
Recent articles | Latin America news updates | XML
Judge suspends Amazon dam project due to legal questions
(4/30/2008) A Brazilian judge has issued a restraining order on a controversial dam in the Amazon basin, reports International Rivers, a conservation group.
New species of river dolphin discovered in the Amazon
(4/30/2008) Researchers have identified a new species of river dolphin in the Bolivian Amazon according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). The announcement was made at a conservation workshop in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.
Photos of newly discovered species in Brazil's Cerrado
(4/29/2008) An expedition to Brazil's Cerrado has turned up more than a dozen undiscovered species. Conservationists say the discoveries add urgency to protecting the grassland habitat which is rapidly being converted for agriculture.
No sacrifices to ending deforestation in the Amazon, only gains
(4/29/2008) Regular columnist and co-creator of Brazil's environmental news website, O Eco, Sergio Abranches has great credibility in Brazil's eco-awakening. A professor of political science, Abranches uses his unique talents to reach a widening audience in Brazil for environmental, energy, and climate change news and discussion. He speaks expertly on any number of topics: from Amazonian deforestation to the current food crises to economic and political transformations for a warming world.
Biodiversity key to fighting climate change
(4/29/2008) Scientists from Brown University have discovered that an ecosystem's productivity is directly linked to its diversity of plant species. The discovery has granted biodiversity new importance in the fight against climate change: the more productive the ecosystem the more carbon it captures.
'Soy King' says Amazon deforestation could help solve global food crisis
(4/28/2008) Clearing the Amazon rainforest for soy farms will help address the global food crisis, said Blairo Maggi, the governor of Brazil's chief soy-producing state, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Brazil prepares to launch attack on NGOs working in the Amazon
(4/27/2008) Brazil is planning a crackdown on foreign NGOs working in the Amazon rainforest, reports Reuters. Tourists may also be required to inform officials of their travel plans in the region under the newly proposed rule.
Fruit-eating bats ingest dirt to counter toxic plant compounds
(4/23/2008) Pregnant and lactating frugivorous bats ingest dirt in order to detoxify plant compounds in the fruit they eat, report researchers writing in the journal PLoS ONE.
Rainforest recovery after deforestation can be enhanced by artificial bat houses
(4/23/2008) "Bat boxes" could help in the recovery of tropical rainforest after deforestation, reports research described in New Scientist Magazine.
Peru fails to investigate murder of Amazon environmental leader
(4/22/2008) Peruvian authorities failed to respond to requests for protection from Julio Garcia Agapito, the environmental leader who was gunned down in southeastern Peru in late February, according to a new petition which calls for an investigation into his murder. Julio Garcia's killing at the hands of an illegal logger set off international outcry and highlighted rising tensions over the paving of a highway in the Amazon rainforest.
A billion trees to be planted in Brazil's Atlantic Forest over the next 7 years
(4/22/2008) A billion trees to be planted in the Atlantic Forest over the next seven years. The Nature Conservancy has begun a program to plant a billion trees in Brazil's dwindled Atlantic Forest. The Atlantic Forest used to cover Brazil's long coast, but today only seven percent of the forest remains. Both the megacities of Sao Paulo (the world's fifth largest city) and Rio de Janeiro have emerged and grown in what used to be tropical forest. Yet, the forest remaining retains an incredible bio-diversity much of it endemic.
Cache of rare and undiscovered species under threat in Panama
(4/21/2008) Rare and previously undiscovered species are under threat by loggers, ranchers, and poachers in an isolated patch of cloud forest in Panama, a prominent group of scientists has warned. The group, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), has called on the Panamanian government to immediately provide protected-area status to the region.
Bats protect crops from insects
(4/4/2008) Bats eat as many insects at night as birds do during the day, according to research published in the journal Science.
Amazon soy ban seems to be effective in reducing explicit deforestation
(4/3/2008) An industry-led ban on soy production in the Amazon appears to be proving effective at reducing new clearing for explicit soy production, according to a survey published Monday by Greenpeace and the Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association. The moratorium, which was signed by some of the largest soy crushers in the Amazon in response to a campaign by environmental group Greenpeace, went into effect in October 2006. While soy is believed to be having an indirect impact on deforestation by driving up land prices and competing with the dominant form of land use in the Amazon — cattle ranching — the news is a hopeful sign for conservationists.
Bats eat as many insects as birds
(4/3/2008) Bats eat as many insects at night as birds do during the day, according to research published in the journal Science.
Land invasions undermine Amazon forest law
(4/3/2008) Land invasions are undermining a Brazilian law that requires ranchers to keep 80 percent of their land forested, according to reports from the Amazon state of Mato Grosso. A run up in land prices, driven by surging soy and cattle production in the region, combined with a lackadaisical response from law enforcement authorities are blamed for the incursions.
Monarch butterfly migration threatened by illegal logging in Mexico
(4/2/2008) Destruction of forests in central Mexico, is putting the Monarch butterfly's annual migration at risk, says a researcher from the University of Kansas.
Investing to save rainforests
(4/2/2008) Last week London-based Canopy Capital, a private equity firm, announced a historic deal to preserve the rainforest of Iwokrama, a 371,000-hectare reserve in the South American country of Guyana. In exchange for funding a "significant" part of Iwokrama's $1.2 million research and conservation program on an ongoing basis, Canopy Capital secured the right to develop value for environmental services provided by the reserve. Essentially the financial firm has bet that the services generated by a living rainforest — including rainfall generation, climate regulation, biodiversity maintenance and carbon storage — will eventually be valuable in international markets. Hylton Murray-Philipson, director of Canopy Capital, says the agreement — which returns 80 percent of the proceeds to the people of Guyana — could set the stage for an era where forest conservation is driven by the pursuit of profit rather than overt altruistic concerns.
Corn planting to drop 8% in 2008
(3/31/2008) The UDSA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) expects American farmers to plant 86 million acres of corn in 2008, down 8 percent from last year. The news comes amid record high prices for competitive crops including soybeans and wheat.
Regrowing the rainforest
(3/30/2008) Half a century after most of Costa Rica's rainforests were cut down, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute took on a project that many thought was impossible - restoring a tropical rainforest ecosystem.
Unless otherwise specified, this article was written by Rhett A. Butler [Bibliographic citation for this page]
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Last updated: 7 Feb 2006 |
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