Brazil: In the city of Balem, the presidents of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru, while prominent officials from Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela gathered for the purpose of saving the Amazon forest. These countries in the Amazon forest area have asked industrialized countries to do more to save the rainforests. The two-day meeting in Balem was organized by the Amazon Co-operation Treaty Organization, a 45-year-old alliance of countries in the Amazon jungle region. There have been only three meetings of this organization in 45 years. The last meeting was held 14 years ago. This time the countries involved in the meeting are preparing a development program regarding Amazon so that they can be heard in international forums.
In the Belém meeting, the countries of the Amazon region gathered for the purpose of creating a joint program to fight climate change. During this, South American countries said that some people cannot stop the damage being done to the rain forests. The presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Bolivia gave a joint statement on the first day, in which they talked about stopping the harvesting to stop the Amazon from ending. He also stressed the need for economic development in the Amazon jungle area. Let us tell you that in some research reports, it has been said that after 25 percent of the Amazon forests are destroyed, there will be a huge reduction in rainfall. If this happens, about half of the Amazon will turn into a grassland.
Deforestation for profit
Brazilian President Lula de Silva wants to follow a strategy to take advantage of the global concern about the Amazon. There has been a 42 percent decline in deforestation during his first 7 months in office. Now he has sought international help to protect the forests. The Amazon forests are spread over twice the area of India. Two-thirds of it is in Brazil. At the same time, the remaining one-third is spread in seven other countries. In order to take economic advantage, these forests are being cut for a long time. Due to this, the rich biodiversity here and the indigenous people here have suffered a lot.
Brazil cut 5 million acres of forest in 2022
Some studies have confirmed that Brazil is responsible for clearing nearly half of the world’s forests in 2022. In such a situation, it is imperative to raise the question of whether President Lula de Silva will be able to fulfill his promise to save the Amazon rainforest. During the four-year term of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, large areas of the Amazon were heavily harvested for mining, cattle ranches, and soybean cultivation. In the year 2022, about 50 lakh acres of forest were cut and destroyed. During the reign of Bolsonaro from 2019 to 2022, the rules and restrictions related to deforestation were weakened.
Big loss due to Bolsonaro’s policies
The administration of former President Bolsonaro reduced the budgets of agencies that monitor environmental crimes. At the same time, the way laws allowing mining that destroys the forest on the land of the natives was made easier. Earlier in 2015, Brazil was responsible for more than a quarter of tropical deforestation. These are the oldest forests in the world, which had never been cut by anyone before. According to the new Global Forest Watch report by the research organization World Resources Institute, this figure will increase to 43 percent in 2022. According to the report, since 2005, the country lost the highest number of trees apart from fire incidents.
Congo-Bolivia have also lost their forests
Now new leaders are in power in Brazil. President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva takes office in January 2023. He promised that by 2030 illegal logging in the Amazon would be stopped. Paulo Masoca, a Brazilian environmental scientist and postdoc at Indiana University Bloomington, who is studying human-nature interactions, says this is an ambitious goal. According to the DW report, Masoka said that people are clearing forests, doing speculation, and wanting to earn money. Even today we do not care about forest resources. Last year, Brazil was at the top of the countries that lost the most trees, Congo was second and Bolivia was at number three.
Deforestation reduction in July 2023
In 2022, the reduction in tropical primary forests increased by 10 percent to 4.1 million hectares. Explain that due to the efforts of the Lula government, the rate of deforestation in the Amazon region of Brazil has been reduced by 66 percent during July 2023. Let us tell you that July is the month of the beginning of the reduction of rainforests. The dry season begins in the month of July in the Amazon. In such a situation, the decrease in July 2023 becomes more important than in July 2022. If the countries of the Amazon forest area succeed in saving the rainforests, then the whole world will benefit from it. Please tell us that the forests of the Amazon are called the lungs of the earth.
