The Brazilian nut tree and the plants that produce produce cacao and açaí palm are among the more than 50 percent of tree species threatened by deforestation in Amazon, according to new research published Friday in the journal Science Advances.
According to United Press International and the New York Times, the international team behind the new study compared data collected from the forest with maps of projected deforestation—and found that between 36 percent an 57 percent of the 15,000 species of plants in the region should qualify as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
The project, which involved more than 150 researchers from 100 institutions in 21 countries, also found that the number of globally threatened plant species may increase by about 22 percent, and that the number of globally threatened tree species could spike by more than one-third.
“We aren’t saying that the situation in the Amazon has suddenly gotten worse for tree species,” Dr. Nigel Pitman, an ecologist with the Field Museum in Chicago, said in a statement. “We’re just offering a new estimate of how tree species have been affected by historical deforestation, and how they’ll be affected by forest loss in the future.”
Stricter regulations key to limiting losses
Dr. Pitman and his colleagues had previously reported that the Amazon is home to more than 15,000 species of trees. Their new research, based on information from 1,485 two-acre plots of land, estimates that as many as 8,690 of them could face extinction due to deforestation.
Once they had collecting enough data, they created computer simulations based on two different scenarios, the New York Times explained. In one, the “business as usual” model, an estimated 40 percent of the original Amazon forests would disappear by 2050. In the second, which involved a stricter series of regulations, an estimated 21 percent of the forest would meet such a fate.
Furthermore, the team reported that under the first model, 8,690 of current tree species should be considered threatened, while under the second model, only 5,515 should be. Since similar trends are applicable throughout the tropics, Dr. Pitman’s team argues that most of the 40,000-plus tree species in this part of the world are likely also at risk of dying out completely.
While more than half of the Amazon basin is now covered by indigenous territory and protected areas, threatened species can only be saved if they experience no further degradation, they said. As co-author William Laurance from Australia’s James Cook University explained: “It’s a battle we’re going to see play out in our lifetimes. Either we stand up and protect these critical parks… or deforestation will erode them until we see large-scale extinctions.”
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
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