Saving the rainforest: the huge task of conserving the Amazon

Home to more than 40% of the world's remaining tropical forests

, the Amazon rainforest has long been a conservation priority. Activists and conservation groups both local and international have worked hard to save the rainforest and the huge variety of plant and animal life that the Amazon supports.

Thanks to their efforts, areas of the Amazon are now being protected and there are policies in place to help limit deforestation. But there is still a long way to go, and a lot of hard work to be done, in order to stop future forest destruction.

Rainforest losses

Cattle ranching and logging are some of the main causes of deforestation in the Amazon.

In total, about a fifth of the Amazon rainforest's 6.7 million square kilometre area has been lost. In Brazil alone, between the years of 2002 and 2007 an average of 52 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest was cut down each day an area the size of more than 6,500 football fields.

Although deforested areas can sometimes be restored, recovery takes many years. Most forests take around 10 to 12 years to grow back, while areas with greater biodiversity can take even longer than that to recover. However, even then, they are unlikely to support as much wildlife as primary rainforest.

The Amazon biome

The Amazon biome (the technical name for the region's tropical rainforest ecosystem) is home to around 1 in 10 of the world's 12.5 million species. These include 427 identified mammals,1,300 birds and 40,000 plant species.

More and more species are becoming threatened each year by deforestation.

Rainforest conservation and people

Thirty million people live in the Amazon and most depend directly on the rainforest for their livelihood. But it isn't just them that suffer, deforestation in the Amazon affects each and every one of us.

Rainforests play a crucial role in regulating CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere, which helps limit climate change. But deforestation accounts for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions that's around the same as all of the world's cars, trains, planes and ships put together.

How you can help

Protecting the Amazon rainforest is a monumental task, but it's not an impossible one. Great strides have been made, and there are rainforest conservation schemes in place that can make a big difference for the Amazon.

Saving the rainforest: the huge task of conserving the Amazon

By: Paul Buchanan

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