A Recent History

Trends of Amazonian deforestation have waxed and waned over the last 50 years. It has been known for quite some time that the Amazon Rainforest is home to one of the most biodiverse regions of the world. Such diversity is at risk and has been for quite some time now.

This Amazonian tree frog is displeased with the loss of his habitat (Grail 2010)

In the 1990's to early 2000's, deforestation rates in the Amazon spiked, reaching a recent historical high point of about 11,000 square miles of deforestation in 1995 (that is approximately the same size as about 10 Rhode Islands..in one year)(Malhado 2010). From 1995 there was a decrease until 1998 due to stricter enforcement of illegal logging by the Brazilian government (Malhado 2010). 

Levels picked back in 1998 up until another spike in 2005 which resulted from an increasing demand for timber and land for agricultural use (Mcgrath 2013). Loggers and farmers were able to obtain grants from the government due to this demand, which lead to more deforestation (Mcgrath 2013). From 1990-2000 the Amazon had around 200,000 square miles of deforestation, about 80% the size of Texas (Malhado 2010).

Large contributors to the deforestation include cattle ranching, illegal/legal logging and also development of the land for commercial or agricultural purposes (Marsik 2011).

Contributors of Amazonian Deforestation (Butler 2012)

Interestingly enough, the major contributor to Amazonian deforestation from 2000-2005 (and continues to be the biggest contributor today) is cattle ranching (Butler 2012). Cattle and the beef they provide are used to make leather, meat for human consumption, and various other products (Butler 2012). Brazil is heavily dependent on this cattle because of the income they generate; and today Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world (Butler 2012). Just in the portion of the Amazon that resides in Brazil, there is roughly 214,000 square miles of pasture lands for cattle, an area equal to the whole country of France (Butler 2012)!

A cattleman works on herding his cattle in the Amazon (Miller 2012)

Logging and agriculture also play roles in deforestation of the Amazon. From the time period from the early 1990's to 1995 that was mentioned above, logging took up more of the pie chart above (Butler 2012). This was in large part due to a lack of regulations for corporations that engaged in logging and also from a lack of penalties given for illegal loggers.

Often times, however, logging and agriculture work in tandem, and land that is logged (whether illegally or illegally) is generally so degraded by the end of it that people end up using much of it for agricultural purposes (Butler 2012). Generally speaking, most of the land in the Amazon Rainforest that is deforested is near populated areas, roads and rivers, although some areas that are more remote are still exploited, especially if some valuable natural resource is discovered there (Cesareo 2010). Often times illegal loggers will actually choose to target more secluded areas in hopes that they will not be found (Cesareo 2010).

 Extreme consequences of rampant deforestation (Albert 2009) 

The good news is that levels of deforestation had been decreasing since 2005 up until this past year due to some very promising legislation that was passed and a few more factors that will be discussed in the Conservation Efforts page. Ideally, this last years increase in deforestation will prove to be just a minor blip in what will hopefully be an overall decreasing trend in Amazonian deforestation.