Why the Amazon Rainforest matters

There’s no place like it

The Amazon rainforest is one of the most important ecosystems on Earth and represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests. The most extensive collection of living plant and animal species are found there, including at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles. It’s a treasure trove of the diversity of life. The Amazon biome is almost the size of the contiguous USA and is shared by nine countries. A fifth of the world’s freshwater runs through it.

Nearly 2.2 million Indigenous people — distributed among more than 400 groups speaking more than 300 languages — occupy the Amazon rainforest. Several dozen groups are living in voluntary isolation. Indigenous peoples’ cultures have evolved with the Amazon for thousands of years. They depend on an intact rainforest for their survival.

Human Rights

The Amazon forest is being destroyed by the rapid expansion of cattle ranching and soy production (with forest often cleared first by fire), logging, mining, dams, and infrastructure such as roads and railways. This destruction often brings violence with it, with Indigenous peoples, other forest-dwelling communities, and local environmentalists bearing the brunt of this trauma. According to Greenpeace, “there is evidence of over 12,000 land or water-related conflicts in the Brazilian Amazon over the past 10 years, resulting in 430 murders, 554 attempted murders, 2290 death threats, 87 cases of torture, and over 100,000 expulsions or evictions. …such crimes were committed in pursuit of the same underlying policy: to facilitate the dispossession of land, the illegal exploitation of natural resources, and the destruction of the environment.” Similar violence also plagues other Amazonian nations. Once the Amazon transitions to a place of forest protection and a sustainable bio-economy — where the rule of law and the rights of Indigenous and other forest-dwelling peoples are respected — there will be a sharp drop in the region’s incidence of violence.

Climate control

The Amazon has a vital role in stabilizing the global climate. This rainforest absorbs one-fourth of the CO2 absorbed by all the land on Earth. The forest also pushes vast amounts of water into the atmosphere, acting like an air conditioner. However, the cumulative repercussions of continued deforestation are upending the hydrological cycle, leading to drought and forest fires (which release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere). Science tells us that the Amazon may soon reach a tipping point; chronic drought could lead to a die-off of a significant portion of the world’s largest rainforest. By working to protect and restore the Amazon now, the future benefits will be immense for global biodiversity, for the lives of the Amazon’s Indigenous and other forest-dwelling peoples, for the economies of Amazonian nations, and for all of humanity who depends on a stable climate.

Reasons for optimism

It's not too late to save the Amazon. Most of the rainforest is still intact, and many people are working to protect it. However, many more people must be involved in pushing for solutions, and those solutions must be implemented swiftly. Many of the products such as minerals, timber, beef, and soy that are driving deforestation end up in international markets. However, as a result of citizen pressure, the European Union has just passed a law banning the import of goods linked to deforestation. There is an opportunity to build on this momentum so that similar laws are passed in the USA, Canada, and elsewhere.

Furthermore, the newly elected national government in Brazil, led by President Lula, has made strong pledges to reverse the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon. The esteemed Indigenous leader, Sonia Guajarara, has been named the country's first-ever Minister of Indigenous Affairs, and one of Brazil’s most famous Amazon rainforest defenders, Mariana Silva, has been appointed Minister of the Environment. This is all good news. However, there are huge omissions in Brazil’s policies towards combating deforestation, including allowing the construction of highways through vast pristine forests and opening up the Amazon to natural gas extraction using using the highly destructive fracking method. The national government will require elevated pressure from citizens in Brazil and worldwide in order for the many harmful activities there to be halted and the long-term solutions set in motion.

“Lula needs to state clearly that all of the plans increasing Brazil’s emissions will be cancelled, including the legalization of illegal land claims in government land, Highway BR-319 and its associated side roads such as AM-366, all planned Amazonian hydroelectric dams with more than 10 MW of installed capacity, and the opening and expansion of areas for fossil-fuel extraction.” — Dr. Philip Fearnside, esteemed Brazilian scientist, Dec, 2023

What’s needed now

In short, both in South America and internationally, there are presently not enough people taking action to save the Amazon. But Global Activators believes that can change in a big way.

Please join us. Get involved today!