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Introduction of Alien Species
James, H.F. and S.L. Olson ("Descriptions of thirty-two species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: part II. Passeriformes," Ornithology Monogr. 46:1-88, 1991) note that 62 bird species have gone extinct since the arrival of the Polynesians in the Hawaiian islands.
According to Wagner, W.L., Herbst, D.R., Sohmer, S.H., in Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press and Bishop Museum Press, 1990, today Hawaii has more alien plant species than native ones.
Roads
Smith, N.J.H., Rainforest corridors, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982 explores the Trans-Amazonian highway project.
Fragmentation
Based on studies in the Amazon, W.F. Laurance concludes fragmented forests may lose up to 36% of their biomass in the first few years after fragmentation ("Dynamics and biomass of Amazonian forest fragments," ITTO Tropical Forest Update Vol. 8 no. 1, 1998).
A survey of human disturbance of world ecosystems is found in L. Hannah, et al. "A Preliminary Inventory of Human Disturbance of World Ecosystems," Ambio Vol. 23 No. 4-5, July 1994.
Climate Change
Whitmore, T.C. in "Potential impact of climate change on tropical rain forest seedlings and forest regeneration," Climate Change Vol. 39, Issue 2-3 (429-438) 1998 suggests that today's fragmented forests may have less resilience to future climactic change because changes in cyclone occurrence and increased rainfall seasonality may effect seedling ecology.
The impact of climate change on tropical forests is further examined in Woodwell, G.M and Mackenzie, F.T., eds. Biotic Feedbacks in the Global Climactic System: Will the Warming Feed the Warming? New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Debt
In Third World Debt and Tropical Deforestation (Binghampton: State University of New York, 1992) Kahn, J.R. and McDonald, J.A. deatils the role of debt in tropical deforestation.
Oxfam America Action Alert ("Free Africa from the Debt Trap," 2/15/96) estimate the debt of Sub-Sahara Africa in 1980 at $84 billion and, in 1996, at $210 billion.
Myers, N. in "The world's forests: problems and potentials," Environmental Conservation. 23 (2) 1996 estimates that tropical forest countries share two-thirds of the developing world's debt.
Population and Poverty
Current population information comes from the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Report WP/98, World Population Profile: 1998, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1999.
FAO makes predictions on future food-land requirements in State of the World's Forests 1997 (SOFO).
Myers calculates that the population of tropical developing countries grew by roughly 19%, while their deforestation expanded by 90% during the 1980s in Myers, N., "Population and Biodiversity," Ambio Vol. 24 No. 1, Feb. 1995.
Consumption
The hamburger connection between cheap beef and rainforest clearing for pasture was popularized in activist campaigns and in Harris, M. ("The revolutionary hamburger," Psychology Today 17(10): 6-8, 1983), Myers, N., ("The cost of a "Big Mac"? Latin America's forests," World Environment Report 6(18): 1-2, 1980), and Nations, J. D. and D. I. Komer ("Rainforests and the hamburger society," Ecologist 17(4/5): 161-167).
However this linkage between Amazonian deforestation and demand for fast-food is tenuous at best according to Nigel J.H. Smith, Emanuel Adilson S. Serro, Paulo T. Alvim, and Italo C. Falesi, Amazonia - Resiliency and Dynamism of the Land and its People, The United Nations University, 1995.
Primack, R.B., Essentials of Conservation Biology (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates 1993) mentions the cassava-animal feed connection to deforestation in Thailand.
Myers compares consumption between people in the developing world and the industrialized world calculating that the 58 million people added to the Earth in developed countries during the 1990s will pollute more than the 915 million people added in developing countries during the same period (Myers, N., "Population and Biodiversity," Ambio Vol. 24 No. 1, Feb. 1995).
"Rainforest" is used interchangeably with "rain forest" on this site. "Jungle" is generally not used.
Recent news
Beef consumption fuels rainforest destruction (02/16/2009)
Nearly 80 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon results from cattle ranching, according to a new report by Greenpeace. The finding confirms what Amazon researchers have long known – that Brazil's rise to become the world's largest exporter of beef has come at the expense of Earth's biggest rainforest.
How to save the Amazon rainforest (01/04/2009)
Environmentalists have long voiced concern over the vanishing Amazon rainforest, but they haven't been particularly effective at slowing forest loss. In fact, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in donor funds that have flowed into the region since 2000 and the establishment of more than 100 million hectares of protected areas since 2002, average annual deforestation rates have increased since the 1990s, peaking at 73,785 square kilometers (28,488 square miles) of forest loss between 2002 and 2004. With land prices fast appreciating, cattle ranching and industrial soy farms expanding, and billions of dollars' worth of new infrastructure projects in the works, development pressure on the Amazon is expected to accelerate. Given these trends, it is apparent that conservation efforts alone will not determine the fate of the Amazon or other rainforests. Some argue that market measures, which value forests for the ecosystem services they provide as well as reward developers for environmental performance, will be the key to saving the Amazon from large-scale destruction. In the end it may be the very markets currently driving deforestation that save forests.
Amazon rainforest damage surges 67% in 2008 (12/20/2008)
The area of rainforest in the process of being deforested — razed but not yet cleared — surged in the Brazilian Amazon during 2008, according to new figures released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The announcement comes shortly after the Brazilian government reported a 4 percent increase in forest clearing for the year. Using an advanced satellite system that tracks changes in vegetation cover INPE found that 24,932 square kilometers of Amazon forest was damaged between August 2007 and July 2008, an increase of 10,017 square kilometers -- 67 percent -- over the prior year.
Cutting deforestation can fight climate change, reduce poverty and conflict (09/24/2008)
Forest conservation can play a critical role in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate poverty, said a prominent group of politicians, development experts, and environmental NGOs meeting in New York City to discuss U.S. climate policy.
Future threats to the Amazon rainforest (07/31/2008)
Between June 2000 and June 2008, more than 150,000 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon. While deforestation rates have slowed since 2004, forest loss is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This is a look at past, current and potential future drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
