Saving Amzon

Brazil is a land of remarkable beauty and unsurpassed biological diversity. For this reason, deforestation in the Amazon is especially troubling. Biodiversity makes life on Earth livable for our species. By extinguishing places rich in biodiversity like the Amazon rainforest, we are destroying a part of ourselves.

There is still time to save some of the most threatened species and ecosystems that have been pushed so close to extinction that they will perish unless we do something about it. Perhaps the best way to address deforestation in Brazil is developing new conservation policies based on the principle of sustainable use and development of rainforests.

Simply banning the timber trade or establishing reserves will not be enough to salvage the world's remaining tropical rainforests. In order for the forest to be preserved, the underlying social, economic, and political reasons for deforestation must be recognized and addressed. So how can we make a difference? Well, an easy thing to do is buy less things that have a demand for rainforest materials. Things like mahogany doors. If people don’t buy them then there won’t be a demand and people will stop logging trees. Something that may be considered harder is to vote for a government party that priorities the environment and rain forests. One last thing is to call off the massively growing debt for Brazil. This way, they won’t have to exploit the rain forests.

Conservation efforts and sustainable development programs are not going to be cost-free. Even countries that already get considerable aid from foreign donors have trouble effectively making such initiatives work in the long term. In conclusion, I think the Amazon rainforest should be saved as it is an important part of our lives and without it, we would be plunging into global warming into an even more alarming rate.