19/10/2005
- Rio Branco, Brazil – The government of Brazil has declared
a state of emergency in the Amazon as a result of unusual
drought conditions, which some believe are being caused
by unusually high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.
Studies by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute,
a WWF-partner organization, suggest that the warming of
the Atlantic near the Africa coast and the Gulf of Mexico
may have altered the circulation pattern of the air currents
and displaced the dry air masses to the Amazon Region.
“Freshwater, forest, species and local people are being
heavily impacted by this drought,” said Urbano Lopes da
Silva Junior, WWF-Brazil’s conservation officer based in
Rio Branco.
“For the Amazonian population, especially the poor, the
main problems are the shortage and even lack of potable
water for their own consumption.”
The state of emergency extends over 61 municipalities of
Brazil’s Amazonas State, affecting many towns and cities
downstream of the Amazon River.
One of the main threats of the drought is reduced freshwater
habitat for many non-migratory fish species, such as the
pirarucu, the largest freshwater fish in the world and already
a threatened species due to overfishing and predatory fishing
practices. With the significant decrease in the water level
in the Amazon River and its 1,000 tributaries, other aquatic
species are also becoming more vulnerable.
The Brazilian Amazon is home to one-third of all the species
in the world. Thousands of plant species, over one million
insect species, more than 700 fish species, 1,000 bird species
and over 300 mammal species — not including those unknown
to science — are found within the Amazon rainforest.
In the dryer, upland forest, the main
environmental concern regarding the drought is the threat
of fire.
“Without water in the soil, the forest becomes a powder
barrel,” added Lopes da Silva.
The threats of logging, land clearing and water pollution
may also have an impact on the drought situation.
Although the Brazilian government launched the Amazon
Protected Areas Programme (ARPA) in 2002, which sets aside
almost 16 million hectares of land for conservation and
sustainable use, WWF believes that much more needs to
be done to save the world's most important rainforest.
Recent satellite data released by Brazil’s National Space
Sciences Institute (INPE) revealed that deforestation
in the Amazon from August 2003 to August 2004 significantly
increased from the year before, when more than 23,000
square kilometres of Amazon forest disappeared. According
to government estimates, by 2020 the Amazon forest will
have lost 25 per cent of its original area. |
