Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
13/07/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Study shows that 80% of the expected extinction because of habitat loss in recent years come 2050
British researchers estimate that by 2050, fifty species of vertebrates will disappear from the local inhabitants of the Brazilian Amazon. They formulated a mathematical model based on the historical rates of deforestation and disappearance rates of species by habitat loss and concluded that even with the decline in deforestation, there is an old bill to be paid. The researchers from Imperial College London explained that the local extinction of vertebrate species have so far been minimal - 1% of the species in 2008 - but the price will come from habitat loss in the coming years.
"When you clear a forest, does not kill instantly species such as birds. They fly to the next area of forest saved. But when the birds arrive, there are animals crammed into a small habitat, so they have a high competition, lack of food and place to play. Thus the population declines slowly, "explained Robert Ewers, from Imperial College London and author of the study published today in the journal Science.
Ewers says that this process called extinction debt can take decades to happen completely, but if no action is taken the species will disappear. "Deforestation in the past have resulted in the coming years. Therefore, in the Amazon, more than 80% of the expected extinction because of habitat loss history is yet to come, "he said.
For Ewers, as extinctions will not happen until next year, there is a "window of opportunity" to restore habitats and provide enough space for the species live. "The longer it takes, it is more likely that extinctions happen before the situation is reversed," he said.
Change of focus
To the ecologist Thiago Rangel, Federal University of Goiás, rather than worry about creating protected areas, we must focus on regenerating degraded areas of the Amazon. He states that abandoned agriculture and livestock can be regenerated quickly as possible and restore biodiversity. "Thus, we would be giving this a debt default of extinction," he said.
"In Brazil, we have focused on forest regeneration. Focus it may be more feasible to focus on the creation of conservation units in remote areas of the agricultural frontier, "he said.
For Rangel, more important than the numbers reported in the study are the areas where there is a greater loss and where we need to regenerate the vegetation. "The Amazon is still preserved, which is very good. There is also a sharp drop in deforestation in recent years. This study is important to formulate policies at a time so opportune, "he said.
Source: Environment Brazil
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.