Leaning Activity 

In this module, we learned about the threats to biodiversity in The Amazon Rainforest. As we read, deforestation is one of the largest threats to the ecological environment in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests in regions along the equator of South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa are critical to the world’s carbon cycle. For this learning assignment, you will use Google Earth to identify a large region of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest of South America and connect the threats experienced there to the U.S.

1. Use Google Earth to locate a deforested area in the Amazon basin (hint: look around highways, river systems, and cities). Include a screenshot of the deforested area of land you selected.
2. Do some research and identify the location. Explain why it is deforested. What is its purpose? Include any biodiversity that is threatened, or impact the deforestation has on the community. In a paragraph of 200-300 words summarize your findings.
3. Use what you have learned from researching this area and connect it to the U.S. (or your hometown or surrounding area if relevant). This threat could have occurred in the past or is one occurring now. In a paragraph of 200-300 words address this connection and explain why conservation is necessary against these threats.

Response 

1.Puerto Maldonado, Perú.

2. Puerto Maldonado is the capital of the province Madre de Dios. In the image I can identify route 30C, this is a section of the Interoceanic Highway that spans across South America and connects Peru to Brazil. The Interoceanic Highway is controversial because it is paved through the Andes mountains in Peru and the Amazon basin in Brazil. Along its path, the areas surrounding the highway are now developing. As we can see in the image, there are large patches of deforested rainforest along the route and river. Although, Puerto Maldonado existed before the highways formation between 2006 and 2011 it has become a location under increased migration of gold miners and loggers and is a hotspot for ecotourism along the Madre de Dios river. I could not find a specific species extinction due to this development, but I found excessive literature on how increased migration to Puerto Maldonado increases the threats to biodiversity. Madre de Dios is part of the emerging market between Brazil and China and a location to traffic lumber, beef, soy, citrus, minerals through to Brazil (cite). Indigenous people are the ones most affected along the highways path, and local habitats are ruined from increased mining and logging. In the Madre de Dios, 100 birds and mammal species are critically endangered (cite). As an ecotourist to this region last summer I had the opportunity to witness development along the highway, and specifically hear of the impact this development has had on indigenous people in areas outside the city.

3. While this region experiences large threats to its biodiversity, the region is surrounded by large conservation areas developed and protected by the indigenous to the area. When deforestation occurs in the Amazon, it is a larger threat than deforestation in my area because the climate is critical to the regulation of carbon in the atmosphere; it is a large “sink” for carbon, whereas forests in central Pennsylvania are less substantial to the Earth’s climatic systems and lack great biodiversity. South America’s current development is similar to the U.S. in the 1800s where most of Pennsylvania was deforested for timber in home building. A comparison of the Interoceanic Highway can be made to the U.S. The development of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1896, which increased migration from coast to coast and accelerated gold mining and hunting in the West. Development of our landscape and economy heightened with this transportation development. While the U.S. benefited, the buffalo species and indigenous people paid the cost. The loss of the world’s biodiversity hotspots can impact total climate patterns and are critical to protect, but we must pay attention and allow other countries in the regions develop their economy. One key difference I noticed between protection of Amazon regions and conservation in the U.S. is that indigenous people establish conservation in South America, where the U.S. creates state or national parks. I feel the U.S. is too advanced in our wildlife and landscape destruction to go back, but regions like Madre de Dios understand the importance of conservation. They work to protect their biodiversity but increased ecotourism, and the Interoceanic Highway has posed a large threat for them to manage.

Reference

Kirby, S. (2007). Identifying Sites for Protected Areas Based on Endemic Species Richness and Threat in Madre de Dios, Peru (Doctoral dissertation). Duke University. http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/406/MP_sak4_200709.pdf?sequence=1