A team of researchers traversed a new 700 mile western opening of the Transamazon highway recently and their findings were mixed.
On the one hand, they discovered the existence of illegal logging and gold-mining operations that threaten further damage to the world’s largest rainforest. An estimated 17 percent of the Brazilian rainforest has been destroyed, much of it in the more developed eastern Amazon basin. Bob Walker, a geography professor who lead the study, calls the western Amazon basin the rainforest’s best hope to survive.
Many experts believe too much deforestation could trigger a catastrophic change—or tipping point—that changes the Amazon from tropical forest to dry scrub land.
“The western Transamazon Highway has become the battleground for that tipping point,” Walker says.
Ultimately, he says, the answer lies somewhere in the middle—that is, sustainable growth that protects both the environment and the livelihoods and culture of Brazil’s citizens.
“There seems to be an emerging Brazilian will to fulfill the intentions of protected areas,” Walker says. “There are still many environmental concerns, and we certainly can’t say the battle’s won and we can all go home and pat ourselves on the back. But one thing they’re not doing is giving people a complete license to deforest the Amazon."Inevitably when a new highway is opened up, there is the invitation for all kinds of development. Previous inaccessible areas of rainforest are now vulnerable to get rich quick schemes and commercial development. Will one of the last major areas of rich primary rain forest survive?
