Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Facts

Of all the jungles that we can find on the planet, without a doubt, the Amazon is the most important of all. This is due to its large size and the great diversity of plant and animal species it houses. Despite this, it is one of the most threatened ecosystems due to the rapid process of deforestation to which it is being subjected in recent decades. To give us an idea, between 1970 and 2016, almost 20% of the surface of the Amazon rainforest has disappeared, which implies an irreparable ecological damage. Join me today on this tour to enjoy these interesting Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Facts.

Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Facts

If you want to know a little more about the Amazon Rainforest Deforestation Facts, its most important causes and consequences, read the post because we explain below.

• The Amazon region is a giant ecosystem of rainforests covering an area of almost 7 million square kilometers. A fluvial network of 100,000 kilometers makes up the Amazon Basin, which depends on the existence of the forest, because 50 percent of the rainfall in this region occurs because of this forest system. A forest with lower humidity is more vulnerable to fires.
• Increasing carbon dioxide emissions contributes more to climate change, which in turn reduces the humidity of the forest making it more susceptible to fires, which in turn emit more carbon dioxide, generating a devastating vicious circle.
• Of the total carbon emissions into the atmosphere, it is estimated that 20 percent come from the loss of tropical forests. Brazil, with 400 million hectares of Amazonas, is the country in the world that has the largest amount of forest, but it is also the fourth in the world in emissions of greenhouse gases and 75 percent of Brazilian emissions come from deforestation.
• From 2003, when the mad cow disease in Europe multiplied the demand of grain for animal feed, the advance of soybeans over the Amazon Rainforest experienced a great boom after the occupation and destruction of practically all the Central-West reserve Brazilian.
• Violent evictions from peasant communities, slave labor and social conflicts over land were increasingly frequent. Only in the 2004-2005 period, 1.2 million hectares of Amazon Rainforest were deforested to cultivate soybeans. National champion in the production of soybean, the state of Mato Grosso, after the reserve areas, he cut much of the Amazon Rainforest in its territory, becoming also the champion of deforestation and fires in 2003, with a 48 percent of the total.
• In most cases there is the expulsion of small farmers (sometimes by force) from their own lands, which are incorporated into the soybean-growing haciendas. Those who sell their land end up settling in the peripheries of urban centers, rapidly worsening the process of favelization of these areas. But attacks are also increasingly frequent – with death threats and destruction of property – to families who refuse to sell.
• The Brazilian Indians live in a situation of permanent risk, above all because of the threats of landowners who seek to access the areas that the State grants to the indigenous people by law. The avidity of logging companies has led to numerous litigation. In 1998, the Parliament denounced that 72 reservations of Indians had been invaded by lumberjacks of foreign companies, taking advantage of the fact that the State does not have enough officials to monitor such a vast territory.
• In January 2007, it was estimated that the Brazilian Amazon had lost, only in the last 40 years, 17 percent of its extension, which is equivalent, for example, to a territory larger than occupied by France. And despite the fact that by then Brazil had managed to reduce the rate of deforestation by 50 percent in December 2007, a report from the World Wildlife Fund warned that climate change could inexorably accelerate the destruction of the Amazon. According to the report, if existing agricultural and livestock methods persist and the fires, droughts and massive logging continue, 55 percent of the Amazon Rainforest will have disappeared or will be seriously damaged in the year 2030.
• The destruction of the Earth’s lung – which absorbs carbon dioxide and emits oxygen – would cause the emission of between 55,500 and 96,900 million tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the greenhouse gases emitted worldwide in two years.
• That in turn would cause another A percent of the forest to disappear because climate change would reduce rainfall by 10 percent in the next 23 years. If there is no immediate remedy, it would not only be a disaster for the millions of people who live there, but for the stability of the global climate.

Hiking tours in the Amazon

Many are the routes that pass through the Amazon, but none is like the Inca Trail Tours, the most famous pedestrian path in the Americas. After flying from the capital of Perú, Lima, you will arrive in Cusco to walk for four days along a path through forests and dense fog, millenary stone steps and discovering the ruins of ancient fortifications and Inca cities, and all the time enjoying majestic views. 

• Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu 5 days
• Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu 5 days
• Inca Quarry Trail 4 Days
• 2 Day Inca Trail Tour
• 2 Day Inca Trail with Camping
• 3 Day Inca Trail
• Vilcabamba Hike to Machu Picchu 6 days
• Choquequirao trek to Machu Picchu 9 days
• Ausangate trek 7 days

If you want to visit Machu Picchu, we recommend you to book your Machu Picchu Ticket in advance, so you will enjoy your Vacation in Machu Picchu without any problem.

When is the best time to visit the Amazon?

The best season is during the dry season, which covers the months April to the end of September. In October the rains begin and you can enjoy the Amazon and find Machu Picchu clearly of clouds. If you travel in June, we recommend you to book the Inti Raymi 2020 Tour that takes place in June 24th, and also hike the Palcoyo Mountain Tour, which is an incredible Rainbow Mountain located in the Andes.