The Amazon, which provides sanctuary to vast animal and plant species, has been threatened by fire and deforestation. A report released after assessing the situation at the natural reservoir showed how about two-thirds of biodiversity in the area was dissolved by wildfire and deforestation activities. The battle to conserve the natural environment has been in action since humans inhabited the planet and are ongoing because many humans ignore the need to safeguard natural surroundings. Ripping off resources at the expense of nature is the norm among people who are not interested in ensuring the welfare of animals and plants on the planet.
Environmentalists described the Amazon as ‘a sight of pure mother nature,’ but humans have managed to erode that status from the area. Our earth has suffered dearly from humanity’s devastating actions on the environment, and these damaging activities form the largest part of humans’ livelihood across the globe. The demand for raw materials keeps on rising, and most of them are acquired by enacting severe destruction on the face of the earth. From an onlooker’s perspective, modernity has caused a lot of destruction of natural resources, leaving a trail of degraded surface land exhausted from continuous use by humans’ machines and chemicals.
Raging wildfires are one of the main culprits in destroying the Amazon, which substantially stabilizes the climate. It also serves as one of the greatest reservoirs where one can witness biodiversity and remains among a few places after all the other forests and jungles were cleared away. Agriculture, mining, and residential areas top the list of reasons why most forests and vegetation are disappearing at a faster rate in most countries [Source]. In some countries, economies are based on mining and agriculture, so they exert a lot of effort in clearing land. Due to ignorance, land occupied by forests and vegetation is regarded as “unused” resources that need to be utilized in enhancing human life.
Carelessness has sparked most wildfires, and nobody seems to mind that wild animals are in danger and biodiversity is slowly decreasing. A collaborative study carried out by researchers from the US and China, published in the journal Nature revealed that 85% of species classified under ‘threatened’ had lost their habitats due to deforestation and fire since 2001 [Source]. The research titled “How deregulation, drought, and increasing fire impact Amazonian biodiversity” focused on showing the impact of deforestation and fire on the Amazon over two decades. Statistics showed that between 103 079 and 189 755 square km of Amazon rainforest was affected by fire, which translates to around 77,3% to 85,2% of threatened species.
Xiao Feng, a geographer with Florida State University and a leading author in the research, commented on the impact of fire and deforestation on Amazonia biodiversity. She said, “The Amazon ecosystem is not adapted to fires, but deforestation and fires have been and are still continuously impacting the Amazonia biodiversity,” and added that “Literature suggests a tipping point that when the Amazon loses a certain portion of the forest, the whole ecosystem will transition to another type. If this happens, it will be a tragedy for the Amazon and the global ecosystem given the important role the Amazon plays” [Source].
Information in the study was collected from fire data recorded on satellites and mapped onto the species that exist in the region. Records depict that the region houses about 10% of the planet’s species, so the fires’ impact was a huge loss of environment to many species. A comparison was carried out in terms of habitat destroyed by fires and deforestation, and it was concluded that deforestation was high from the early 2000s to 2008. But due to the removal of incentives to burn the forest for soy and cattle, deforestation levels decreased, only to rise again in 2019. Researchers discovered that “nearly 4 000 square miles of the forest” was damaged since 2019, and such a rate will completely dissolve the biodiversity region over a short period of time.
Recommendations aired out by environmentalists and stakeholders include comprehensive policies that protect nature and stiff penalties for illegal human activities carried out in the area. Failure to rectify this situation might lead to more damage being enacted on the Amazon and contributing to climate change, thus endangering future generations’ livelihood. Such issues ought to take center stage at COP summit gatherings and remedies put forward to curb climate change.
