Forests around the world are under continuous pressure from indiscriminate felling of trees and building or changes in land use. The Amazon is under more pressure every day, since its ecological value is much higher. There are many factors that make the ecological integrity of the ecosystems that make up the Amazon increasingly detrimental.
What is it should be done to fix these problems and contribute to the conservation of forests with a good economic return?
Impacts on the Amazon
There are factors that influence the proper functioning of the Amazon ecosystems. We begin with the extension of areas for agricultural uses, cultivation of pastures for livestock production, export, felling of trees for wood, etc. In addition to these economic activities, there are impacts produced by changes in land use. For example, infrastructure such as roads and dams are built for the production of hydroelectric energy.
The Amazon has renewable resources, but as long as they are exploited with a certain degree of sustainability, such as wood. It is said that the Amazon it is the lung of the world, but not for that, it is infinite. To obtain wood resources in a sustainable way, it cannot be overexploited beyond its carrying capacity.
Loss of soil
Given the pressure exerted by these impacts, it has been possible to conclude that in the period between 2001 and 2012 it has been lost about 1,4 million hectares per year on average. This figure is quite difficult to analyze, since various economic, political and social issues influence them.
The solution to this loss of soil consists in the meeting of people in charge of the activities carried out in these places and in the planning of policies that can mitigate the impacts that these activities cause. As a result of the design of the policies, a development model could be established to exploit the Amazon in a sustainable way, preserving the future of the ecosystems and their fragile ecological balance.
Positive actions
Until this more sustainable planning takes place on the exploitation of the natural resources of the Amazon, it is necessary to make adjustments in the way in which current activities are carried out. To begin with, it is necessary to make adjustments to the financial systems of the activities that cause impacts in the Amazon. After the activities of exploitation of resources such as wood or agricultural landThere are large companies and banks that find interest in this type of activity.
Directly or indirectly, these entities have a link on the state of the ecosystems, since without the necessary financing, the activities could not be carried out and there would be no such impacts on the Amazonian biomes.
Achieve sustainability
There are numerous private sector actors that are committed to reducing deforestation and loss of soil in the Amazon. For example, him Consumer Goods Forum has committed to reducing net deforestation to zero by 2020. On the other hand, we find ourselves the New York Declaration on Forests, which aims to cut the loss of natural forests in half by 2020.
Because achieving sustainable exploitation benefits both companies and the forest, sustainability must be increased in this area. If an activity causes a loss in the quality and quantity of the soil, the amount of money that has been invested in a project can be put at risk.
In order to achieve this sustainability, some international agreements and risk management frameworks focused on environmental sustainability for the financial sector have emerged over the last decade. Some of the most important are Equator Principles, the Declaration on Natural Capital and the Soft Commodities Compact. These agreements are focused on the ability to evaluate and guarantee that resource exploitation projects do not affect deforestation in the Amazon.