Next threat to the Latin American forests, Chinese investment?

By Rhett Butler [citation]

Sino-Latin American relations became distinctly cozier in 2004. China's president Hu Jintao visited Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in November 2004 promising tens of billions of dollars in investment into the region's infrastructure. In December, Venezuelan president Hugo Ch�vez went to Bejing in an effort to shore up trade between the two countries. In Panama people on the street are expecting an ethnic Chinese president by 2020, while in many Latin America cities people are anticipating a rise in the economy as a direct result of China's increased interest in the region. What does all this mean for the forests of Latin America, specifically the expansive rainforests of the Amazon Basin?

China's interest in Latin America will likely be bad news for its forests. China is looking to the region as a source for raw materials (minerals, timber, agricultural products) to power its own value-added industries. As the Economist (Dec 29th 2004) puts it, "With galloping GDP growth and a scarcity of arable land, China's appetite for natural resources and farm products seems insatiable, and South America has both." The article notes that China's imports from Latin America have almost tripled since 2002.

China's commitment to improving infrastructure in the region is not merely a goodwill gesture -- China knows infrastructure development will bolster trade by opening up resource rich zones for development. It seems likely that these infrastructure improvements will increase access to the region's remaining rainforests which typically results in increased deforestation by rural poor who look to the rainforest as free land for subsistence agriculture.

Time will tell whether China will follow through on its promises in Latin America but in the meantime, dark clouds are gathering on the horizon for Latin America's tropical forests.

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST Rainforest ecology Amazon wildlife [amphibians | birds | fish | insects | mammals | reptiles] Amazon people Amazon destruction [deforestation calculations | world deforestation rates] Amazon conservation Importance of the Amazon Climate change and the Amazon Interviews with Amazon experts News on the Amazon Visiting the Amazon Amazon rainforest facts Tropical rainforest information

For kids About rainforests Rainforest animals Rainforest people Why are rainforests important? Why are rainforests disappearing? How can we save rainforests? Photo tours Resources for teachers Multi-media Amazon slideshow tour Amazon charts/graphs amazon map Deforestation photos Rainforest pictures    [amphibians | birds | frogs | insects | lizards | mammals | reptiles]