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Amazon Rainforest History
Many millions of years ago, in the Paleozoic era, all the land was part of a unique continent, the Pangaea. Salt water washed the Amazon region and possibly reached Peru and Bolivia . The end of the Paleozoic marks the incorporation of the Amazon River basin to the continent but only on the Cenozoic period great transformations took place and produced something similar to where the forest is located today. It's in this period that South America and Africa split from each other and started to create the Atlantic Ocean . At this time the Amazon River basin flow was towards the pacific side of the continent. The other great transformation was the appearance of the Andes mountain chain which after great geological processes changed the flow of the Amazon River basin from a western direction to an eastern flow toward the Atlantic Ocean . These two transformations were responsible for the future development of the Amazon rainforest as we know it today.
Later the sea levels lowered, because of the last glacial period, and sedimentation and erosion finished drawing what we see today in maps, creating many lakes and the first river courses.
Mankind first reached the Americas from the north of Asia , in the last glacial era when both continents were linked by a frozen ocean. Facing the new land, not inhabited by any other humans the first comers quickly spread over the north and started to move down to Central and South America .
In South America they split into cultures that started to live in the mountains of the Andes, in the Amazon rainforest and others to the south the Atlantic Forest . The Andes groups and the Amazon rainforest groups, although they developed different cultures, they were in touch with each other.
The Amazon rainforest groups spread their cultures and languages in a wealthy society that had some millions of individuals at the time the first Europeans reach the continent and started the colonization. These societies shared rituals and had commerce with each other in a large social net that would be disrupted with colonization. But, in the Amazon rainforest the impact of colonization remained with low until the second half of the twentieth century when governments started a massive campaign of Amazon colonization. These campaigns, principally in Brazil , were very effective, creating roads, cities and giving benefits for migration. This is where the problems for the Amazon rainforest began, just in the last 50 years from a history of some millions of years. In the last half century 15% of the Amazon rainforest was deforested mostly by fires.
Today the world has come to realize the Amazon rainforest problems and everywhere people are concerned about what they should do to help avoiding its destruction. Public awareness of this subject started slowly in the seventies alongside with the environmental movement. In the nineties, with the World Convention on the Environment the eyes were again on the Amazon rainforest and from that event until today the public is each day more concerned and aware of what happens in the Amazon region. Government policies from the Amazon region countries already started to address these problems, but they usually lack objectivity and resources to fully implement the chosen strategies.
Today, there is wide area of protected areas like National Parks, Ecologic Stations and Biological Reserves to protect biodiversity. There are also a number of indigenous reservations to preserve their cultures. These are great, but if you take a closer look you will see a lack of financial resources to keep these areas really protected, fully equipped and with operational capacity to fight all the threats that are hurting the Amazon rainforest today. Non-profit organizations aid and economic relief (debt related) can help to solve this problem.
REF: http://www.amazon-rainforest.org/amazon-history.html
The Amazon Rainforest: history
Illegal logging in the Amazon
The world's ancient forests are in trouble. Only one fifth of original forest cover globally remains in large tracts, and almost half of that is under threat from activities such as mining, agriculture and, most importantly, commercial logging. Of the remaining ancient forests, the largest is the Amazon. The size of Western Europe - an area of 370 million hectares - the Brazilian Amazon alone comprises one third of the world's remaining tropical forests.
To date, approximately two thirds of Brazil's ancient Amazon forest remains - and can still be protected. But even here, more than half of the forest is threatened. And since one fifth of all the world's threatened frontier forest lies in the Brazilian Amazon, and it is increasingly being opened up by an uncontrolled logging industry, this region clearly emerges as the focus of threat to the planet's remaining ancient forest.
Over the past 30 years 15% of the Brazilian Amazon has been completed destroyed, reaching over 590,000 square kilometres - an area larger than France. One of the main driving forces behind this destruction has been the dramatic increase in predatory and illegal logging.
In 1997 alone, Brazil's logging industry damaged as much as 1.5 million ha of its Amazonian forest, this penetration into closed forest areas opened up the way to subsequent deforestation.
In the last two decades, the Amazon's contribution to Brazil's total production of tropical wood rose from 12 to 90 percent, the region providing an estimated 30 million cubic metres of logs per year. According to official data, it is estimated that 80 percent of logs cut in the Amazon are of illegal origin.
But even the majority of logging considered to be 'legal' is highly destructive and has poor processing technology, which leads to enormous wastage. On average it is estimated that, only around one third of wood logged in the forest actually ends up in the final product.
REF: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/the-amazon-rainforest-history
The Amazon from Wikipedia
The Amazon River
The Amazon basin is by far the largest contiguous rainforest on Earth. This lowland rainforest on the south by the Brazilian highlands of Mato Grosso, in the north of the mountain country of Guyana and the west of the Andes. It corresponds to the expansion of the size of the U.S. and here is the largest tropical rainforests of the world.
Around half of all land-living animal and plant species live there. Yet two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest areas are intact. And has more than 60,000 plants, 1,000 species of birds and over 300 species of mammals. Swim in the rivers around 2,000 species of fish, but also Amazon dolphins and otters.
Across Europe there are about 50 different species of trees. In the rain forest biologists counted on an area the size of two football fields, up to 500 species of trees. Stand on such a small area so many ways, it’s quite logical that there are few single copies each. Although rainforests cover only five percent of the earth’s land area, crawling, buzzing and humming there 80 percent of all known insects.
Read More at Forest of Peace
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Slide Show, History of the Amazon
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NEAR THE ARARIBOIA INDIGENOUS RESERVE, BRAZIL - JUNE 10: A man on a motorbike looks at a truck as it transports illegally harvested Amazon rainforest logs on a road near protected indigenous land on June 10, 2012 near the Arariboia Indigenous Reserve, Maranhao state, Brazil. Guajajara tribe members on the reserve say their forests are being plundered by illegal loggers who killed a member of their tribe who attempted to resist. According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks rainforest destruction by satellite, 242 square kilometers in the reserve have already been destroyed. From 1987-2011, 1.1 million hectares of wood disappeared in protected indigenous reserves, according to the Brazilian government.
The Brazilian Amazon, home to 60 percent of the world's forest and 20 percent of the Earth's oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of the country. The area is currently populated by over 20 million people and is challenged by deforestation, agriculture, mining, a governmental dam building spree, illegal land speculation including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land and other issues. Over 100 heads of state and tens of thousands of participants and protesters will descend on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, later this month for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or "Earth Summit".
Host Brazil is caught up in its own dilemma between accelerated growth and environmental preservation. The summit aims to overcome years of deadlock over environmental concerns and marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, which delivered the Climate Convention and a host of other promises. Brazil is now the world's sixth largest economy and is set to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Credit: Getty Images
PARA STATE, BRAZIL - JUNE 09:
Drivers pass through deforested land along federal highway BR-222 on June 9, 2012 in Para state, Brazil. Highway construction through Amazonian rainforest has led to accelerated rates of deforestation. Although deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is down 80 percent since 2004, environmentalists fear recent changes to the Forest Code will lead to further destruction. Around 20 percent of the rainforest has already been destroyed.The Brazilian Amazon, home to 60 percent of the world's largest forest and 20 percent of the Earth's oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of the country. The area is currently populated by over 20 million people and is challenged by deforestation, agriculture, mining, a governmental dam building spree, illegal land speculation including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land and other issues.
Over 100 heads of state and tens of thousands of participants and protesters will descend on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, later this month for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or "Earth Summit". Host Brazil is caught up in its own dilemma between accelerated growth and environmental preservation. The summit aims to overcome years of deadlock over environmental concerns and marks the 20th anniversary of the landmark Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, which delivered the Climate Convention and a host of other promises. Brazil is now the world's sixth largest economy and is set to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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Posted on June 13, 2012 at 12:19 AM
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REF: KMO
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