The Importance of the Amazon Ecosystem
The Amazon Rainforest has served a vital role in keeping the Earth’s atmosphere healthy. With nearly 3 million square miles of rainforest, the Amazon serves as the Earth’s lungs, purifying the air by drawing out greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and helping to replace these gasses with breathable oxygen. Unfortunately, it seems that in recent years, the strain of higher emission levels along with continued deforestation have worked to minimize the Amazon’s role as a natural purifier. Through observing carbon-fluxes in the troposphere (a layer of the atmosphere where carbon dioxide hangs), the World Meteorological organization was able to determine that because of the prolonged dry season the amazon experiences due to climate change along with the persistent deforestation, carbon dioxide levels have been slowly rising in the area.
The use of the Amazon Rainforest in Industry
While there are many reasons behind the continued deforestation the amazon is facing, much of this destruction is owed to the growth of the agriculture industry in Brazil. One of the most notable goods that are being produced from the deforested land is Oil Palm. Not only is this good manufactured and grown in a monoculture (a farm where that is the only crop grown, contributing to nutrient depletion in the soil of these farms, creating the need for more deforestation for more crop land), but the manufacturing of oil palm is leading to more carbon emissions, soil erosion, and even the spread of artificial pesticides among the remaining forest (further harming invertebrate habitats). Unfortunately, oil palm is an extremely profitable crop to be growing in the Amazon, as it is used as biofuel by Brazil, and it is also used in the food, chemical, and cosmetic industry. The promise of economic growth in the impoverished areas of the Amazon have motivated the Brazilian government to permit the continued growth of the palm oil industry in the Amazon, with the State of Pará setting aside 30% of the rainforest in the area for private ownership and development.
The EU’s Response and the Reasoning Behind It
In response to the continued growth of the oil palm farms in the Amazon, the EU has tried to push Brazil to slow down the growth of this industry through implementing the “EU Deforestation Regulation” (EUDR). Using a three step due-diligence process, sellers need to prove that the product is in compliance with the EUDR, carry out a risk compliance assessment, and then they can sell their products in the EU. This effectively pushed all deforestation products (products manufactured in the Amazon rainforest on deforested land) out of the EU market, and dealt a blow to producers who manufacture these products in the amazon. While the motives of the EU are understandable when it comes to forcing Brazil to preserve the Amazon, as it is vital when it comes to keeping the Earth cool and slowing the rate of climate change, an argument can be made for Brazil’s right to use their lands as they choose. A large reason for the world’s reliance on the Amazon rainforest as a carbon sink comes from the fact that most nations have not been conserving enough rainforests and other natural resources, and are now forcing Brazil to compensate for the mistakes of all other nations on Earth by forcing them to leave almost all of the rainforest untouched. But at the end of the day, if the loss of most of the Amazon rainforest would spell a point of no return when it comes to the Earth’s recovery from climate change, then that risk cannot be taken.
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5695600/, https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/role-of-amazon-carbon-sink-declines-nature-study
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