Deforestation in Amazonia and its environmental impact

Abstract

The deforestation of the Amazonian forest is not easy to assess. The process gained momentum in the 1970s, and has now affected 15 % of the forest cover. However, there is still considerable disagreement both with estimates of the different types of vegetation and with the actual concept of deforestation and its origins. The 1990s have witnessed a sustained methodological effort which makes it henceforth easier to evaluate the incidence of deforestation. There nevertheless remains plenty to do to identify the causes in a precise way. It is partly for this reason that political measures do not help to monitor the phenomenon effectively. This is an emergency situation, because the impact on the environment, though hard to pinpoint, is obvious enough and economic forecasts tend to confirm current trends: intensive logging, encroachment of annual industrial crops, and spread of liverstock farming. An innovative regional planning programme must be drawn up so that a regional economy and society may emerge. This would seem to be the necessary step to achieve the sustainable development on which so much hope is pinned.