Rainforest destruction

[Lisbeth]

by Katie Neal ('03) | nealkc@wfu.edu
& Alicia Roberts | media@wfu.edu

Small-scale gold mining has destroyed more than 170,000 acres of primary rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon in the past five years, according to a new analysis by scientists at Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA).

That’s an area larger than San Francisco and 30 percent more than previously reported.

“The scale of the deforestation is really shocking,” said Luis Fernandez, executive director of CINCIA and research associate professor in the department of biology.

“In 2013, the first comprehensive look at Peruvian rainforest lost from mining showed 50,000 hectares. Five years later, we have found nearly 100,000 hectares of a deforested landscape.”

Luis Fernandez, executive director of CINCIA and research associate professor in the department of biology

The scientists at CINCIA, based in the Madre de Dios region of Peru, have developed a new data fusion method to identify areas destroyed by this small- or artisanal-scale mining. Combining existing CLASlite forest monitoring technology and Global Forest Change data sets on forest loss, this new deforestation detection tool is 20-25 percent more accurate than those used previously.


Miles Silman

Both CLASlite and the Global Forest map use different kinds of information from light waves to show changes in the landscape. “Combining the two methods gives us really good information about the specific kind of deforestation we’re looking for,” said Miles Silman, associate director of science for CINCIA and director of Wake Forest’s Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability (CEES). Silman has researched biodiversity and ecology in the Western Amazon and Andes for more than 25 years.

Artisanal-scale gold mining has been hard to detect because its aftereffects can masquerade as natural wetlands from a satellite view. But the damage is extensive. Small crews of artisanal miners don’t expect to hit the mother lode. Rather, miners set out to collect the flakes of gold in rainforest.


Luis Fernandez

“We’re not talking about huge gold veins here,” Fernandez said. “But there’s enough gold in the landscape to make a great deal of money in a struggling economy. You just have to destroy an immense amount of land to get it.”

To get the gold, they strip the land of trees or suck up river sediment, and then use toxic mercury to tease the precious metal out of the dirt. The results are environmentally catastrophic.

“You take out everything aboveground – vast amounts of rainforest – and then you take the soil, run it through a sluice and wash away all that is good in it. What you have left is an alien environment. All the scenery should look like broccoli. It looks like desert.”

Miles Silman, associate director of science for CINCIA and director of Wake Forest’s Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability

Artisanal-scale gold mining took root in the Peruvian Amazon in the early 2000s, coinciding with construction of a new modern highway connecting Peru and Brazil. The Interoceanic Highway made Peru’s once remote rainforest and protected lands accessible to anyone. Where it used to take two weeks by all-terrain vehicle to travel from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado, the capital of Madre de Dios, during the rainy season, it now takes only six hours aboard an air-conditioned luxury bus.

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Because artisanal-scale gold mining requires no heavy machinery and thus involves minimal outlay, it has provided a revolving-door opportunity for poor workers from the Andean highlands to seek their fortune in Madre de Dios. When they return home, they leave a patchwork of mercury-polluted ponds and sand dunes, the landscape denuded of trees and most other vegetation.

CINCIA has partnered with Peru’s Ministry of the Environment to try to understand how the new tool developed by its scientists can be used to identify deforestation caused by artisanal-scale gold mining and take effective action to curb the damage.

“We want to integrate high-quality scientific research into the processes the government is using for environmental conservation in Madre de Dios,” Fernandez said.

“If they can institutionalize these technological innovations, they can more reliably address threats to the rainforest. You have to respond quickly and you have to respond effectively.”

Luis Fernandez, executive director of CINCIA and research associate professor in the department of biology

CINCIA scientists also are studying native species that can be used for post-mining reforestation. The 115-acre experiment at CINCIA’s headquarters is the largest in the Americas.

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Wake Forest University established CINCIA in 2016 through CEES. With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Wildlife Fund, IIAP, the Amazon Aid Foundation, Ecosphere Capital Partners/Althelia Climate Change Fund, ESRI Global Inc., UNAMAD, and Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología, CINCIA has brought together scientists and conservationists to develop solutions for sustainable use of tropical landscapes, combat environmental destruction and improve health in Madre de Dios.

https://news.wfu.edu/2018/11/08/rainfor ... h-in-peru/

[Lisbeth]

World's forests 'in emergency room' after years of losses

2019-04-30 07:54 - Al Jazeera

The world lost 12 million hectares of tropical tree cover in 2018 – the equivalent of 30 football pitches a minute – researchers said on Thursday, warning the planet's health was at stake.

It was the fourth highest annual decline since records began in 2001, according to new data from Global Forest Watch, which uses satellite imagery and remote sensing to monitor tree cover losses from Brazil to Ghana.

"The world's forests are now in the emergency room," said Frances Seymour, senior fellow at the US-based World Resources Institute (WRI), which led the research.

"It's death by a thousand cuts – the health of the planet is at stake and band-aid responses are not enough."

Seymour said the data represented "heartbreaking losses in real places", with indigenous communities most vulnerable to losing their homes and livelihoods through deforestation.

"Forests are our greatest defence against climate change and biodiversity loss, but deforestation is getting worse," said John Sauven, executive director of the British branch of environmental group Greenpeace.

The loss of huge swaths of forest around the world also has major implications for climate change as they absorb a third of the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions produced globally.

"Bold action is needed to tackle this global crisis including restoring lost forests. But unless we stop them being destroyed in the first place, we're just chasing our tail."

The study found much of the loss occurred in primary rainforest – mature trees that absorb more carbon and are harder to replace.

New deforestation hotspots

The rate of destruction in 2018 was lower than in the two previous years. It peaked in 2016 when about 17 million hectares of tropical forest were lost due partly to rampant forest fires, according to the WRI.

The study highlighted new deforestation hotspots, particularly in Africa, where illegal mining, small-scale forest clearing and the expansion of cocoa farms led to an increase in tree loss in countries such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

Indonesia was a rare bright spot, with primary forest loss slowing for two years running, after the government imposed a moratorium on forest-clearing.

Indonesia has the world's third largest total area of tropical forest and is also the biggest producer of palm oil. Environmentalists blame much of the forest destruction on land clearance for oil palm plantations.

"We hope that this is a sign that our policies so far are having an effect," said Belinda Margono, a director at the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Last year, leading philanthropists pledged a $459m commitment to rescue shrinking tropical forests that suck heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a Global Climate Action Summit in California.

But experts said more needed to be done.

"Deforestation causes more climate pollution than all the world's cars, trucks, ships and planes combined," said Glenn Hurowitz, chief executive of Mighty Earth, a global environmental campaign organisation.

"It's vital that we protect the forests that we still have."