Fernando Alcoforado *
Forest burning is part of the process of transforming forests into fields and pastures. Fire is the instrument used by farmers to clear the land and prepare it for agricultural activity or to control the development of invasive plants. In most cases, they are carried out at the end of the dry season, when the highest ash volume is obtained and when the vegetation is most vulnerable to fire. Although inexpensive, this process has numerous environmental impacts, especially by escaping control, reaching areas that were not intended to be burned.
At first, burning of forest can act as soil fertilizer, as the ash produced is converted into plant nutrients by the soil microorganisms. However, successive burning of the same region can kill these same microorganisms, making the soil increasingly impoverished and unsuitable for agriculture. The destruction of tropical forests, in addition to reducing the planet’s biodiversity, causes soil erosion, degrades watershed areas, releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causes social and environmental imbalance. The reduction of humidity in the Amazon reduces the rainfall in south-central Brazil.
The main damage caused by deforestation and burning of forest is the destruction of vegetation, habitats, animal death, local extinction of species, loss of organic matter in the soil and exposure to erosion. In addition, they also contribute to the greenhouse effect by releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and are also the cause of air pollution. Farming and logging activities are responsible for much of the deforestation in the Amazon.
The destruction of tropical forests also has consequences on the climate and the water cycle. Pastures and crops absorb less solar energy than the original vegetation and can contribute to a reduction in rainfall and an increase in temperature in the Amazon region. Burning of forest is still responsible for the significant emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2). Burning of forest produces much more carbon dioxide than plants can absorb.
About 70% of the area previously covered by forest, and 91% of the area deforested since 1970 in the Amazon is used as pasture. In addition, Brazil is currently the second largest global soy producer (behind only the United States). As the price of soybeans rises, growers move north toward areas still covered by forest. Under Brazilian law, opening areas for cultivation is considered “effective use” of land and is the first step to obtaining your property. Already open areas are worth 5 to 10 times more than forested areas and are therefore interesting for homeowners who want to resell them.
According to the World Bank’s Assessment of the Risk of Amazon Dieback report, there may be only 5% of forests left in eastern Amazonia in 2075. This process is the result of deforestation, climate change and burning of forest [AMARAL, André. Desmatamento, queimadas e mudanças climáticas podem acabar com 95% da Amazônia até 2075 (Deforestation, burning of forest and changes climate could end up with 95% of the Amazon by 2075). Posted on the website <https://decoamaral.wordpress.com/2010/page/118/>].
This study had the collaboration of Brazilian researchers from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) Carlos Nobre and Gilvan Sampaio who work with the concept of “Amazon Dieback”, a term that would mean a reduction in forest biomass. It can be said that there is a risk of forest collapse.
Tropical forests recycle about 8% of the global carbon present in the atmosphere. It seems little, but it is a crucial process for life on earth. And they do it simply through photosynthesis. Plants absorb the CO2 present in the atmosphere and accumulate biomass in the form of logs, roots and leaves. They thus become giant “warehouses” of carbon. Any disturbance in these “warehouses,” such as those resulting from deforestation, has effects on the global carbon cycle and negative impacts on the planet’s atmosphere.
About 200 billion tons of carbon are stored in the tropical vegetation that covers the planet. Photosynthesis by forest vegetation absorbs an enormous amount of carbon from the atmosphere each year. The Amazon rainforest alone can absorb six billion tons, equivalent to 10% of the world’s photosynthesis. Most of this absorption is compensated, however, by the release of carbon through the decomposition of organic matter and the respiration of the forest itself. The remaining part may be being absorbed by the forest, turning into a carbon dioxide (CO2) sink.
One consequence of deforestation is the destruction and extinction of different species. Many species that can help cure diseases used in food or as new raw materials, unknown to man, are in danger of being destroyed even before they are known and studied. This natural good is well known to the forest-dwelling Indians.
Another aggravating consequence of deforestation is the advance of erosion processes. The trees of a forest have the function of protecting the soil, so that rainwater does not pass through the trunk and infiltrate underground. They slow the runoff velocity, and prevent the direct impact of rainfall on the soil and its roots help to retain it, preventing its disintegration. The removal of vegetation cover with deforestation exposes the soil to the impact of rainfall.
One of the most discussed Brazilian themes abroad – the Amazon – gained even more prominence with the release of reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The world’s largest rainforest faces the danger of partially becoming savannah as a result of deforestation and burning, according to the IPCC.
In addition to these local and regional impacts of forest devastation, there is also a dangerous impact on a global scale. Burning forests, whether in arson, firewood or charcoal for various purposes, has helped to increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
To prevent the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and ensure that natural resources in the Amazon are used rationally for the benefit of its resident population and the economic and social progress of Brazil, as well as in the fight against global warming, it is essential the defense at all costs of the integrity of the Amazon rainforest. The Brazilian people must fight to stop the environmental crime practiced in the Amazon with the complacency of the Bolsonaro government.
These data are presented in the book of our own, Amazônia Sustentável (Sustainable Amazon), published by Editora Viena (Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011).
* Fernando Alcoforado, 79, condecorado com a Medalha do Mérito da Engenharia do Sistema CONFEA/CREA, membro da Academia Baiana de Educação, engenheiro e doutor em Planejamento Territorial e Desenvolvimento Regional pela Universidade de Barcelona, professor universitário e consultor nas áreas de planejamento estratégico, planejamento empresarial, planejamento regional e planejamento de sistemas energéticos, é autor dos livros Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) e Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).
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