ACQUIRE
LIST OF DATA NEEDS
-Current/projected/past rates of deforestation of the amazon.
-Reasons/causes for deforestation.
-Which countries have the lest restrictions surrounding deforestation laws.
-What environmental consequences are we currently facing due to the deforestation of the rain forest.
-What projected environmental consequences will we begin to face if we continue at this deforestation rate
-What companies are involved in the deforestation process.
-What is the involvement of native peoples in the deforestation process.
-How fragile is the ecosystems within the Amazon Rainforest.
-What is the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest.
DATA
According to mongabay.com:
Small-scale agriculture: 20-25%
Other: 1-2%
Large-scale agriculture:5-10%
Logging: 2-3%
Cattle Ranching: 65-70%
According to National Geographic.com, “Farming the Amazon:
-Close to 20% of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down in the last 40 years
-More deforestation in the last 40 years than in the last 450 years since European colonization
-Scientists predict another 20% will be lost in the next 20 years
-The Amazon produces half of its own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere
-Drought Afflicted the Amazon in 2005 (Drought is a effect of deforestation), reducing river levels as much as 40 feet (12 meters). Affecting hundreds of Communities. (Global warming will result in more droughts and deforestation contributes to global warming).
- Deforestation rates fell more than 30 percent in 2005
market.nt.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/last-of-amazon/
According to the Guardian, nearly one-fifth of the Brazilian Amazon (nearly the size of France) had been deforested in 2007, most of that coming in the 40 years prior to 2007.
Deforestation rates dropped by roughly 75% between 2004 and 2012 according to the Climate Policy Initiative
ArcGIS Layers:
Deforestation of the Amazon from 2000-2013 layer
http://kits.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=aa168b1a3cfc46b29a573a9ad21c0da5
Amazon Protected Areas Direct Use
http://kits.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9fa4bc76c6db42d6b4391df7a6190087
Amazon Protected Areas Indirect Use
http://kits.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c475d8cf43dd489895734467ada4dc85
Amazon Indigenous Territories Mapped in the Amazon Biome
http://kits.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=a181ed4b47f64146990f469f9e4fe336
Our group decided that we needed stats that would tell what types of deforestation was occurring, as well as what percentage of the total deforestation this accounted for. This information is important because it sheds light on what the most influential industries are in the Amazon rainforest and allowed us to research their respective sustainability. Next, we gathered data on the current rate that the Amazon is being deforested. This is a crucial piece of information because it not only tells the story of deforestation in the Amazon, but also allows for future deforestation trends to be predicted. In order to complete our foundational research, we gathered data on how much deforestation actually occurs in the Amazon, so that we could have a quantifiable point of reference for how much sustainable deforestation is occurring and if it is a significant. Another data set we acquired statistics for was indigenous land rights. These statistics are relevant to sustainability because many indigenous peoples are strongly opposed to deforestation and are actively fighting it. Finally, we also included data on how much wood is removed, as well as how many trees are planted annually by each country whose borders enter the Amazon bioregion. While these statistics do not exclusively apply to the Amazon, they do give an idea of what each country's policies are regarding forest management.
One way that we gathered our data was by combing through websites and extracting individual statistics and numbers. We also went into one of those websites sources and found the prominent data table that is displayed in our ACQUIRE section. A large amount of our data came from ArcGis layers which already contain geographic data.
One huge problem we encountered was finding actual sustainable logging statistics. We determined that this was due to a number of issues. Unfortunately, the actual definition of what is sustainable deforestation in the Amazon is very vague. The legislation surrounding the issue also varies from country to country.