Tommy Michael

A Botanist=s View on Deforestation

My name is Chuck Neely and I am a botanist originally from Nevada. I have spent the last seven years in the upper Brazilian Amazon studying unknown plants. At first the rainforest did not weigh heavily on my mind. It seemed like a problem that I had nothing to do with it. It was not in my home state, not even in my home country. When I arrived in Brazil, I immediately noticed the effects of deforestation. Indigenous tribes were scattered all over the area, and had been thrown out of their original homes. In 1900, Brazil had around one million Indians and today the number has been decreased to about 200,00. It seemed that the whold mood of the surrounding peoples was depression because of what was happening to their land. This seemed crucial since these Indians were the first inhabitants of this certain land and the government was just throwing them out.

When I arrived in the Amazon, I began to feel like the tribes. I was not depressed because I was losing my home or country, but because of the things that mankind was losing. The ironic thing was that we were doing it to ourselves and if we tried, it could be stopped. Slowly I began to realize how important the rainforest was not only to the Indians who lived here, but to the whole world and every living thing on it. Many factors contributed to the depletion of these forests and if it continued until there was none left, there would be even more factors that would effect the Earth. This is why I think that a drastic change needs to be made quickly so that we can save these precious forests.

Within months I found numerous species of plants that have not been classified. Of all the plants and animal species recorded, more than 50 percent of them are found in the rainforest. Already since 1600 more than 650 plant species have been recorded to have gone extinct. A single hectare of a semi-rainforest may have 100 to 150 different species. If there is that big of a difference in tree species just think about how many plant species there could be in the Amazon rainforests alone. About 14 percent of the total plant species surveyed are being threatened by extinction, this percentage equals a number of around 33,000 plants. Of this, 7,000 are in immediate danger and 8,000 are becoming vulnerable.

What if we were to lose the cure for cancer or maybe even AIDS because we were too slow to realize how important the rainforest is? Already there is a vine named Aucisstrocladus Korepensis that may be able to fight AIDS and we could lose more plants such as this one if we continue to destroy the rainforest. Of all the nutrients in the rainforest, 80 percent comes from the trees and plants. This shows without a doubt how important the rainforest is not only for medicinal purposes, but for other purposes as well.

Medicinal use is not the only reason for saving the rainforest. One also has to think about the fact that over half of the world=s oxygen comes from the rainforest. As we all know, plants use our wast, carbon dioxide for energy and produce their wast, oxygen, that we breathe in order to survive. Since carbon dioxide helps to cause the green house effect, the plants are helping the world in another way by soaking it up. Also, these forests are responsible for tasks such as erosion control and providing water during dry seasons.

As I got further into my research, I witnessed several occasions where farmers had been cutting and burning the forest in order to use it for farmland. Sought after wood like teak, mahogany, and rosewood are found abundantly in the rainforests. Unlike logging, which only cuts specific trees and does not destroy the entire canopy, farmers totally clear the landscape. If they do not do this, the land cannot be used for crops or herding animals. I read that researchers interviewed 202 landholders that owned a total of 9,200 km and in estamating the total damage of fires, the landowners had underestimated by 43 percent. This shows that while we think that the rainforest is in trouble, it may be in more trouble than first thought.