Race to find Brazil Amazon species before they disappear

Race to find Brazil Amazon species before they disappear

According to a MapBiomas study in 2021, the Amazon lost some 74.6 million hectares of native vegetation -- an area equivalent to the entire territory of Chile -- between 1985 and 2020
According to a MapBiomas study in 2021, the Amazon lost some 74.6 million hectares of native vegetation -- an area equivalent to the entire territory of Chile -- between 1985 and 2020. Photo: Mauro PIMENTEL / AFP
Source: AFP

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find “Recommended for you” block and enjoy!

In a remote part of the Brazilian Amazon, a scientific expedition is cataloguing species. Time is of the essence.

"The rate of destruction is faster than the rate of discovery," says botanist Francisco Farronay, of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), as he cuts into the bark of an enormous tree and smells its insides.

"It is a race against time."

The largest rainforest on Earth, still largely unexplored by science, is assailed by deforestation for farming, mining and illegal timber extraction.

According to a MapBiomas study last year, the Amazon lost some 74.6 million hectares of native vegetation -- an area equivalent to the entire territory of Chile -- between 1985 and 2020.

The Amazon, the largest rainforest on Earth is still largely unexplored by science but assailed by deforestation for farming, mining and illegal timber extraction
The Amazon, the largest rainforest on Earth is still largely unexplored by science but assailed by deforestation for farming, mining and illegal timber extraction. Photo: MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP
Source: AFP

PAY ATTENTION: Follow us on Instagram - get the most important news directly in your favourite app!

Read also

NASA releases next wave of images from James Webb Space Telescope

The destruction accelerated under the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, accused by environmentalists of actively encouraging deforestation for economic gain.

The rainforest is considered vital to curbing climate change for its absorption of Earth-warming CO2.

Since 2019, when Bolsonaro took power, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 75 percent compared to the previous decade, according to official figures.

'Science denialism'

"Most plant species in the Amazon are to be found in encroached areas," said Alberto Vicentini, another member of the expedition launched by Greenpeace.

An estimated 60 percent of tree species in the Amazon are yet to be discovered
An estimated 60 percent of tree species in the Amazon are yet to be discovered. Photo: MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP
Source: AFP

It is estimated that "we do not know 60 percent of the tree species, and every time an area is deforested, it destroys a part of the biodiversity that we will never know," said the INPA scientist.

For their research in this remote part of the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, the team of took a plane from Manaus, flying over hundreds of kilometers of green forest cut by meandering rivers, to Manicore.

Read also

'Everywhere they dig': looters hunt Albanian antiques

From there, a five-hour boat trip by river for a weeks-long expedition to collect plant samples and observe animal behavior, for which they installed cameras and microphones.

The group includes experts in mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, trees and flowers. But it is a tough time to be a scientist in Brazil, they say.

"We are living in a moment of science denialism, as we saw with the pandemic in Brazil," with Bolsonaro railing against masks and vaccines, said Vicentini.

"Research institutions in Brazil are under attack by the policies of this government, universities are suffering many cuts," he added.

A sheet of newspaper used by one of the botanists in the group to press a flower has the headline: "Increase in wood extraction in Amazonas" with a photo of two trucks leaving the rainforest loaded with logs.

Money for Amazonian research has been dwindling
Money for Amazonian research has been dwindling. Photo: MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP
Source: AFP

"There are places where no one has ever been, we have no idea what is there," said INPA biologist Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel.

Read also

Austria and Hungary fight nature to stop lake vanishing

"Without the resources to investigate, we do not have the necessary information to even explain why we have to conserve" the area, she said.

Resources have been dwindling for a decade -- another phenomenon that has sped up under Bolsonaro, according to critics.

In May, Brazil’s two main scientific societies, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) warned that funding for scientific research in the country would be cut by almost 3.0 billion reais (about $560 million) this year.

"We should accelerate the pace of research in the face of the destruction, but instead we are slowing down," says Py-Daniel.

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find "Recommended for you" block and enjoy!

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.