The Clock is Ticking for Amazon Conservation
Some 8,147 square kilometers (3,145 square miles) of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008, Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months — the first such increase in three years — as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees We travelled along the Interoceanica highway a road connecting Peru's Pacific Coast thru the mountains, into the Amazon along Tambopata's National reserve all the way to Brazil. This road will just add more development and population preassure to an already ecologically sensitive area, that has the largest biodiversity in the world. Sponsored Links
The Economics of Sustainability
 ECOTOURISM can help save large parts of the Amazon by bringing in sustainable development to the native communities living in the rainforest for centuries, who will then protect their own living environment from other industrial activities like mining, logging and agribusiness. Foreigners will also have the change to share the living conditions of the natives and understand the reality of the Amazon, having a unique experience and automatically getting involved and helping preserve the rainforest in a sustainable way. We are working to promote affordable community ecotourism projects. For instance, you can stay from $10 per day at a community along the Tambopata river and national reserve. We plan to organize research and community expeditions for volunteers and travellers to join us in our conservation projects.  PRIVATE CONSERVATION efforts can provide technical expertise and financial means to deaccelerate the rainforest´s destruction. Where private organizations budgets can be larger than many of the local government´s total spending, there is no doubt that private conservation funds can play a major role in this challenge. Peru has one of the most advanced Private Conservation Legislations in the world, which allow native communities, international and local foundations, institutions and private individuals to receive conservation concessions from the government as well as create private conservation areas by purchasing land and dedicating it to conservation. Conservation brings also many economic incentives like education and research to the local communities. There are already 64 private conservation reserves adding 829,000 hectares to the total 18 million hectares national conservation system. TO DO
NOT TO DO
Did you Know?In 2010 the Peruvian Government plans to silently give millions of hectares of virgin rainforest to large oil, mining, agribusiness and timber corporations. This is the largest untold climate change story of the year! Please take a second to sign the petition, join our Facebook group "One Million for the Amazon" and invite your friends to do the same! We must stop the government to promote deforestation activities in the Amazon rainforest, and instead create the largest natural reserve in the world. You can download here the actual government document promoting oil exploration on pristine rainforests all this carried out without the authorization from land owners and native communities, breaking down the UN agreement on native people rights!Book of the MonthRainforest by Ben Morgan, The Rainforest Foundation, and Thomas Marent (Hardcover - Aug 21, 2006) Buy new: (38) Upcoming EventsThe Pachamama AllianceAnnual Fundraising Luncheon Wednesday, November 12, 2008 from 12 Noon to 1:30 PM, at the Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason, San Francisco Site SpotlightCheck out this excellent website called Mongabay (http://www.mongabay.com), an incredibly informative and up-to-date resource related to the so called “lungs of the planet”. The site was founded and maintained by the U.S. American Rhett A. Butler, who has been researching and writing about rainforests for over a decade.InteroceanicaConstruction of New Highway Advancing
BiodieselSoy Plantations for Biodiesel The drive for "green energy" in the developed world is having the perverse effect of encouraging the destruction of tropical rainforests. From the orang-utan reserves of Borneo to the Brazilian Amazon, virgin forest is being razed to grow palm oil and soybeans to fuel cars and power stations in Europe and North America. And surging prices are likely to accelerate the destruction. The rush to make energy from vegetable oils is being driven in part by European Union laws requiring conventional fuels to be blended with biofuels, and by subsidies equivalent to 20 pence a litre. Last week, the British government announced a target for biofuels to make up 5 per cent of transport fuels by 2010. The main alternative to palm oil is soybean oil. But soya is the largest single cause of rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. Oil & MiningOil & Gold Demand Pushing Exploration A new natural gas, oil and gold rush is sweeping through the Amazon rainforest where scores of women and men hunt for nuggets and specks of gold. But this race for gold is bringing on the destruction of one of the last earthly paradises, the world’s largest tropical forest, the lungs of our planet, where everything and anything can be paid for. Gold has brought upon disease, mercury, crime, alcoholism. Gold has turned creeks and rivers into dumping grounds. Whereas the Amazonian rainforest releases 300 tons of gold each year, it receives 120 tons of mercury. The extraction of oil is responsible for the deforestation, degradation, and destruction of lands across the globe. The oil extraction process results in the release of toxic drilling by-products into local rivers, while broken pipelines and leakage result in persistent oil spillage. Cattle & RanchingBurgers from the Amazon Cattle ranching remains a very important industry in Brazil and is becoming even more vital to the Brazilian economy. The Brazilian commercial cattle herd is the largest in the world. the United States and Europe are still major importers of Brazilian beef.6 For every 1/4 lb hamburger consumed in the US from rainforest beef, about 55 square feet of rainforest was cleared. Sllash-and-burn involves clearing a section of rainforest, fertilizing it by burning the preexisting plants, and then planting the desired crop. This method is only able to support 2-3 years of production, after which the farmer leaves the field fallow and moves on to another plot of land. For reasons similar to agriculture, ranching is not very adaptable to the land of the Amazon Rainforest. The grasses required to feed cattle, like the crops maintained in agriculture, are not resistant to the natural forces of the Amazon Basin and quickly deplete the nutrients of the surrounding soil. Illegal LoggingHigh End Furniture and Plywood Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of national laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. It is estimated that illegal logging in public lands alone causes losses in assets and revenue in excess of 10 billion USD annually. [3] Although exact figures are difficult to obtain, given the illegal nature of the activity, reliable estimates indicate that more than a considerable share, in some cases more than the half of all logging activities in particularly vulnerable regions – the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, the Russian Federation and some of the Baltic states – is illegal. In Brazil, 80% of logging in the Amazon violates government controls. Often referred to as ‘green gold’, mahogany can fetch over US$1,600 m-3. Illegal mahogany opens the door for illegal logging of other species, and for widespread exploitation of the Brazilian Amazon. |
 Volunteer with us!We need your help to raise awareness and show the facts. We want Amazon Rescue to become a premier source of news and information related to rainforest conservation and other current green topics. You can help us research and publish information and if interested you can join our free volunteer program in Peru and work with us developing our research, conservation and community projects in Madre de Dios. Contact us for more information!Join the Campaign! Register today and add your name to the campaign. The more supporters we have the more we can lobby local, regional and national governemnts, as well as support native communities to save the rainforest. Learn more about the Project PollsCurrent and Past Events Check out past and future events related to conservation, research, sustainability and ecotourism Coming Soon |
||||||
According to the 
ight countries and one overseas territory, is the world's largest river basin and the source of one-fifth of all free-flowing fresh water on Earth. Its rain forests are the planet's largest and most luxuriant, and home to - amazingly - one in ten known species on Earth
This controversial transcontinental road project threatens the environment and indigenous communities in both Peru and Brazil. The total project has an estimated cost of US$1.3 billion, but some analysts predict a higher cost.