[Gasification] Deforestation continues in Amazon

[Richard Haard]

Benjamin

Have you used 'google earth' to survey the extent of this damage? The  
images seem to be updated on a regular basis and or useful for us here  
in the PNW.

  Recently planning for a vacation trip to Rio Negro west of Manaus I  
noticed a tributary of the river that had been completely clearcut  
along its riparian corridor.  It is sad that given the high value of  
this ecosystem that selective and/or corridor logging is not utilized.

I was  also surprised to learn it is quite difficult to determine the  
age of these forests. Because of climatic conditions these trees do  
not put down annual rings as in the temperate zone. Recently, American  
and Brazilian researchers have determined by radioactive dating  
methods these trees are much older than previously thought.

and clips from linked article


"half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in diameter are more  
than 300 years old. Some of the trees are as much as 750 to 1,000  
years old."

"these discoveries can have implications for the role the Amazon plays  
in determining global carbon dioxide levels. Carbon dioxide is a  
greenhouse gas implicated in accelerated global warming and the focus  
of international efforts to curb its atmospheric levels.
Because their trees are old and slow-growing, the Amazon forests,  
which contain about a third of all carbon found in land vegetation,  
have less capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon than previous studies  
have predicted. Although some of the largest trees also grow the  
fastest and can take up carbon quickly, the vast majority of the  
Amazon trees grow slowly.
“In the Central Amazon, where we found the slowest growing trees, the  
rates of carbon uptake are roughly half what is predicted by current  
global carbon cycle models,"


On Jan 26, 2008, at 5:39 AM, Benjamin Domingo Bof wrote:

>  26/01/2008 - 03h08 Desmatadores defies government and continues  
> cutting with a scythe the forest of the Online Leaf One day after  
> the federal government announcing the suspension of the license to  
> deforest in 36 cities, that concentrate 50% of the deforestation in  
> the Amazônia, tractors had continued knocking down trees in areas of  
> High Forest and Paranaíta (TM, the 830 km of Cuiabá), discloses news  
> article published in this Saturday in the Folha of S.Paulo (complete  
> available for subscribers of the UOL and the periodical). The news  
> article of the Folha sobrevoou, in a single-engine aeroplane, parts  
> of forest knocked down to open way to agriculture and the cattle  
> one. The news article evidenced that the rhythm of the devastação  
> does not seem to have been modified for the announcement of the  
> recent measures of control and that the adopted measures can have  
> fond afternoon excessively. The method of the devastação starts with  
> lumber knocking down with motosserra selected
> trees, that later go to changed themselves into noble wood. After  
> that, they come the tractors, that the remaining trees knock down  
> and that, later, will be burnt, to clean the area that will be used  
> for the cattle. The ambientalista Laurent Micol, that acts in the  
> region for not-governmental organization ICV (Institute Center of  
> Life), affirmed that the financial recovery of the agronegócio is  
> the most likely hypothesis to explain the advance on new areas.  
> "Desmatamento is investment on the part of the agricultural  
> producer. E it only can make this will be capitalizado." After  
> sobrevôo, the news article looked to the Ibama and the Ministry of  
> the Environment, in Brasilia. The assessorships of the two agencies  
> had not found nobody to comment the case until 19h40. In High  
> Forest, in the headquarters of the Ibama, also nobody took care of  
> the telephone. It reads more Cut of credit to who deforests will  
> reach program of Squid Squid regulates would carry that it punishes  
> the
> deforestation Squid divulges measured to contain deforestation in 36  
> cities Grows knocked down of the Amazônia, says Inpe
>
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