Increasingly Devastating Amazon Fires

It is very unfortunate fires are increasingly and continue to destroy the Amazon.  Causes are several, but the main one could be attributed to the human activities carried on the Amazon. Such activities include; logging, mining, hunting, farming, cattle and beekeeping. Statistics as retrieved from the National Geographic Website show the Amazon is losing the equivalent of nearly one million soccer fields of forest cover each year, much of which is cut down to make way for agriculture. If it is necessary to carry on with agricultural activities in the Amazon, then I would suggest demarcation be done, a ‘buffer’ zone be created so that it can help prevent fire from spreading widely.

Conservation of Amazon forests is vital to the world ecological systems. With the increased global air pollution, trees and other vegetations in the Amazon help to absorb greenhouse gasses emitted on air, hence reducing the severity of air pollution.

Effects resulting from the Amazon fires is highly devastating. There is great loss in terms of flora and fauna. On top of that there an increased heat. To some extent this situation has significantly contributed to global pollution because trees that helped to produce oxygen and trap greenhouse gases on the atmosphere are no longer there.  

Solution towards the Amazon fires is within us. Human activities in the Amazon such as logging, hunting, farming and beekeeping should be highly controlled, monitored and carefully managed. If possible, such activities should be stopped altogether or else find other alternative source of income. For instance, in Tanzania, communities living near forest catchments with rivers feeding the mighty Rufiji River Basin are empowered to form Village Saving and Lending Associations (VSLAs) where they can borrow money to run income-generation activities such as fish farming and chicken rearing.

Likewise, we can establish Community-based participatory forest conservation groups, as well as formation of patrol groups responsible for patrolling the forest. These groups should be equipped with all the necessary tools and high-tech equipment for fire detection and communication for early warning.

The Amazon forest is important not only for Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Suriname, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana, and French Guiana where it covers, but also for other countries as it is crucial to the global climate. Therefore, governments should dedicate more resources needed for controlling fire. Continued awareness campaigns on controlling forests fires should be carried out. Prevention is better than cure.   It is only by doing so and seriously working on the solutions, the Amazon will survive and remain to serve as ‘lungs of the world.’