Following up on the current fires in the Amazon forests of Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, we want to share with you our latest analysis of the situation. Please see today’s MAAP report, which provides real-time satellite data of the region and shows up-close satellite images of what the fires actually look like across all three countries, and how they are impacting Amazonian forests.

Continuous uncontrolled fires of this scale will bring the forest closer to an irreversible tipping point – a degree of deforestation at which the Amazon basin will no longer be able to generate its own rainfall and will become a fire-prone savanna. Some estimates place the level of deforestation needed to reach this tipping point at 20-25%. Current deforestation is at 17%.

That’s why our forest conservation efforts focus on prevention. We partner with local communities and landowners to develop and implement sustainable practices for forests and agricultural lands that reduce deforestation and build resilience against fires. We also work with national and municipal governments in Peru and Bolivia to ensure the protection of conservation areas that help keep us from reaching that tipping point.

In response to the current fires, we are collaborating with actors on the ground in Peru and Bolivia to generate reliable information to implement actions that will help local organizations and residents of the affected areas. Although we do not work on the ground in Brazil, our deforestation reports are available to the Brazilian government and public.

Read our latest MAAP report.

The fires in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and Bolivia have been burning for three weeks now. Thousands of acres of forests have been lost.

Although Amazon Conservation cannot stop the current fires from happening – at this point, only national and local authorities can – we can help prevent them from happening.  We are doing our part to support current efforts in Bolivia, by working with several organizations to generate reliable information to implement actions that are helping firefighters and inhabitants of affected areas.

Amazon Conservation has been working on the ground in the Amazon of Peru and Bolivia for 20 years, and providing local communities and governments with fire prevention training and supplies, so that local people can be better prepared and at the forefront of preventing and fighting forest fires. We also work directly with land owners to help them manage their land in a more sustainable manner, to reduce fire risk, if they do happen, to limit their spread and impact.

Not only do we carryout this on-the-ground, in-country support, but we also provide governments and the general public with key information about new fires in the western Amazon. Using our real-time satellite monitoring program (MAAP), we quickly locate burning forests and report this information in real-time to local authorities so that they can take action on the ground before the situation escalates as it has in Brazil. By releasing this information publicly on our website, we provide the public with key data on deforestation that is happening now so that they can compel authorities to take action.

“The majority of fires are caused by human activity,” said John Beavers, Amazon Conservation’s Executive Director. “And only human activity can prevent and stop them. Now more than ever we need to band together. In the same way that the world came together to reconstruct the Notre Dame Cathedral when it burned, we must do the same for the Amazon now.”

Consider making a donation to prevent fires in the Amazon here: https://bit.ly/2q2Tmwh

The rainforest is a highly diverse and complex ecosystem, of which only a very small percentage is known. Because the impact of different disturbances within it is not fully understood, protecting its integrity should be the end goal. However, the threats affecting this ecosystem are only increasing over time, including deforestation and mercury pollution caused by mining.

Mercury can be found in many forms, and while these are naturally available in the environment, a great amount results from its use in human activities like gold mining. Furthermore, although not all of its forms are toxic, methylmercury, the most bioavailable and toxic, bio-accumulates within the food chain, affecting a wide range of species. Bioaccumulation of this neurotoxin in birds has been seen to affect the fitness, coordination, reproduction and survival of species. Its effects include lethargy, loss of appetite, aberrant parenting behavior and reduced motivation to forage. Unfortunately, mercury’s persistence in the atmosphere and ability to travel great distances has allowed it to contaminate areas far from the original source.

Aquatic systems are most efficient at converting mercury to methylmercury, increasing the risk of aquatic species. Because of this, much of the attention and studies of mercury contamination in birds has been focused on species associated with bodies of water. Conversely, terrestrial habitats and their wildlife have received little attention. Variations in soil moisture are expected to increase the bioavailability of mercury; increasing the risk of the long, wide, and complex food webs found in tropical systems.

Because birds are often near or in the top of food chains, they are highly prone to accumulating mercury in their bodies. However, this fact does also make them very good bio-indicators of environmental mercury contamination. They are common, conspicuous, and sampling of feathers and eggshells can confidently detect levels of heavy metals in a non-invasive manner. Particularly in tropical rainforests, more work needs to be done to assess the impact of mercury on birds.

The increasing threat mercury pollution poses to the tropics is drawing more and more attention to this region. As a short-term measure, it is necessary to replace current gold mining techniques, with already existing mercury-free methods. By moving away from this metal, we will ensure healthy human and wildlife communities and more crucially a healthy ecosystem.

Further readings:

Egwumah F.A, Egwumah P.O & Edet, D.I. (2017). Paramount roles of wild birds as bioindicators of contamination. Int J Avian & Wildlife Biol. 2(1):194‒200. DOI: 10.15406/ijawb.2017.02.00041

Appel, Peter & Jøsson, J.B.. (2010). Borax – an alternative to mercury for gold extraction by small-scale miners: Introducing the method in Tanzania. Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin. 87-90.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, has released a new report on the intersection of climate change and land use. 

The report analyzed over 7,000 scientific publications on the topics of land-climate interactions, including land degradation, desertification, and food security. It found that changes in land conditions, either from land-use or climate change, affect global and regional climate, and at the regional scale, these negative conditions can reduce or accentuate warming and affect the intensity, frequency, and duration of extreme climate events.

Manu National Park, Peru – August 06, 2017: Family of Capybara at the shores of the Amazon rainforest in Manu National Park, Peru

The report also found that in order to keep warming to 1.5ºC or well below 2°C as recommended by the Paris Agreement, major changes in how we use land need to take place. Sustainable land management, including sustainable forest use, can prevent and reduce land degradation, maintain land productivity, and sometimes reverse the adverse impacts of climate change on nature and people.

IPCC concluded that one of the central strategies to mitigate climate change is to protect the forests and wetlands that are still standing and to restore as much of the currently degraded land as possible. This is the type of conservation action we are taking in the headwaters of the Amazon – one of the last wild places left on Earth. By creating new conservation areas, empowering forest users and farmers to use land and natural resources sustainably, and reforesting degraded land, we help mitigate the effects of climate change on all of us. 

Read the IPCC full press release here.