The diminished Brazilian rainforest has been holding on to its conservation credentials thanks to Brazil’s Forest Law, which determines how much land can be earmarked for deforestation and how much has to be retained as “legal reserve”. However, while Brazilian deforestation has seen dramatic improvements in recent years, the laws could be swung back in favour of agribusiness & landowners.
Currently, landowners are required to reserve 80% of their land as the “legal reserve”, safeguarding large swathes of Amazonian rainforest, but under new proposals by legislators with alliances to agribusiness interests & forest landowners, the 80% reserve could be reduced.
Though current, progressive Forest Law in Brazil has protected rainforest conservation, the changes, if passed as law, could have a dramatic effect on forestation and CO2 levels attributed to Brazil. It will also add to the overall global CO2 issues, as the logging of the world’s rainforest is widely accepted as one of the main causes of climate change. It also chips away at the cooling effect of the band of rainforest around the Earth’s equator.
In addition to the effects on climate change, any additional deforestation in Brazil with further jeopardise wildlife conservation efforts in and around the Amazonian rainforest. The Spix’s Macaw has already been wiped out from the wild and despite the best efforts of a dedicated captive breeding programme that recently saw the birth of a new chick to add to it’s 73 captive birds, they have remained extinct in the wild for the last 10 years.
While there is still hope for the reintroduction of the Spix’s Macaw into the wild again, additional deforestation will only add to the difficulties of such programmes. Obviously, economic development is important for a country like Brazil, but at what price. It seems to be another case for which the global system of economics fails to provide a solution.
