The Amazon Rainforest – Why is The Amazon Rainforest so Important?

The Amazon rainforest has long been recognized as a source of ecological benefits not just for indigenous tribes and towns, but also for the rest of the globe. The rainforest is located in the South America region possessing territories owned by nine nations having brazil be the one to possess more of the land. Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela are other countries known to hold territories in the land.

The Amazon Rainforest

The amazon rainforest is famous for its biodiverse nature having 390 billion individual trees belonging to 16,000 species. The jungle is famous for having to be half of the planet’s rest rainforests. Based on these facts, you then get to imagine how big the Amazon rainforest might be. As a matter of fact, it is approximately the size of the contiguous 48. Over 83% of its basin are covered by rainforest having millions of people dwelling in it.

Why is The Amazon Rainforest so Important?

Based on its biodiversity, the world’s climate is being made stable as it assists in the segregation of carbon. It has the largest collection of animal and living plants on the planet and as such become a home to thousands of plants and animals. Moreover, there are millions of people living in the Amazon jungle coming from 350 different ethnic groups and 3,344 recognized native territories. Based on the census, 9% of the population is of the native ones.

Also, it is used as a source of food and fuel. It as well contains materials that can be used to make medicines and drugs to treat diseases. Bringing about the maintenance of the water cycle has it being able to produce rainfall at local, regional, and trans-continental levels. Additionally, it serves as a recreational ground for many activities. Hence, bringing a spiritual and cultural valence to many.

Rainforests such as the amazon rainforest exchange enormous amounts of water and energy with the atmosphere, and are assumed to have a role in regulating local and regional temperatures. The amount of water released into the sky by plants through evaporation and plant transpiration and then into the ocean by rivers has an impact on global temperature and ocean current flow. This acts as a feedback loop since the process also helps to maintain the regional climate on which it is reliant.

The Amazon Rainforest Deforestation

Scientists are concerned about increasing deforestation, forest degradation, and dryness in the Amazon, warning that the entire ecosystem might be on the verge of transitioning from wet rainforest to dry tropical forests and grassland. By drying up the forest interior, deforestation and forest degradation make rainforests more vulnerable to fire.

Professor Mercedes Bustamante of the University of Brasilia says “Saving existing forests from continued deforestation and degradation and restoring ecosystems is one of the most urgent tasks of our time to preserve the Amazon and its people and address the global risk and impacts of climate change”. According to the professor, the world should declare a “code red” for the Amazon due to growing dangers to the world’s biggest rainforest.

Researches focused on fires from 2001 to 2019 and found that environmental regulations have a direct influence on deforestation cycles in the Amazon; law enforcement has a direct effect on the size and number of flames. In 2019, Deforestation in Brazilian was increasing rapidly and now in 2021, Amazon generated more greenhouse gas emissions than it consumes for the first time, according to reports.

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