Doha, May 08 (QNA) - Global efforts to stop the depletion of the Amazon Rainforest, which represents the first source of a clean environment in the world, are coming together amid international warnings of imminent danger. The world's largest rainforest is being targeted by illegal deforestation and fires that have depleted many of its areas, leading to the emission of huge amounts of greenhouse gases that lead to a rise in the planet's temperature.

The Amazon Rainforest includes about 40,000 species of plants, 2.5 million species of insects, and more than 2,000 species of birds and mammals, accounting for 10 percent of all species of plants and animals known to exist on our planet, and is distributed over an area estimated at 6.7 million square kilometers. The rainforest is shared by nine South American countries, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, and French Guiana. However, Brazil encompasses 60 percent of it and bears the greatest burden in sustaining its production.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva summarized the Amazon Rainforest issue with his country's lack of international support required to conserve its forests after years of neglect. During Silva's meeting with King Charles in London on the sidelines of his coronation ceremony, the king recommended protecting the Amazon to which he simply replied that Brazil needed international support for the required projects. In that case, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for a donation of about GBP 80 million, just over USD 100 million, to support Brazil's efforts to provide the necessary needs to conserve the Amazon.

According to a new study published by the Communications Earth & Environment journal last month, forest fires in the Amazon basin destroyed 519,000 hectares of forest between May 19 and Oct. 31, 2021, and this, in turn, led to Brazil losing most of its forest cover, noting that every hectare burned of the Amazon Rainforest spreads diseases that cost at least USD 2 million to treat.

According to the study, the first of its kind to quantify the ability of forests to absorb pollutants, preserving the Amazon rainforest could prevent thousands of cases of fatal respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and reduce healthcare costs, with its ability to absorb up to 26,000 metric tons of particulate matter each year, particularly fire smoke and residues. Forest fires are responsible for 90 percent of global emissions of particulate matter released by fires, including those that occur in the Amazon Basin.

The Rainforest Trust website, which specializes in forests, highlights what rare trees and animals in the Amazon can provide in terms of treatments and medicines for many current and future diseases and viruses, not to mention the environmental and climatic balance of our planet. Meanwhile, a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) indicates that the Amazon region has lost more than 17 percent of its forests during the last 50 years.

Since 2020, more than 20 investment institutions around the world have mobilized to save the Amazon forests from illegal cutting and exploitation and to provide an environmental activity that guarantees their permanence, but the results were below ambition, due to some overlooking the greed of timber merchants, furniture companies, soybeans, and cattle farms that subsist on the deforestation of the rainforest, according to Greenpeace.

Global efforts aim to enhance the vital role of the Amazon Rainforest in regulating the Earth's climate, preserving global biodiversity, and providing the necessary ecosystem for humans. 

After Lula da Silva won the presidency of Brazil at the end of 2022, ambitions rose, and things began to change, albeit with small steps. The work of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) started in the state of Para, which has rainforests, to prevent loggers and cattle breeders from deforestation illegally to stop incursions into the forest and fine those caught for logging.

    In this context, an international study published on the "EurekAlert" website regarding the importance of recognizing the rights of the indigenous people in the Amazon Rainforests, and their role in its growth, maintenance, and preservation referred to the regions in which the Brazilian authorities recognized the legal rights of their indigenous people, only five regions so far, and distinguished from other urban agglomerations, in that its forests have the highest rate of absorption of fire smoke particles by up to 27 percent. The five regions include 383 areas recognized by the indigenous population, extending over an area of more than one million and 160 thousand square kilometers.

    The results of the study say that the protection of indigenous peoples, their forests, and their rights such as the provision of public health care increases the possibility of protecting large forest areas and the adjacent areas within 500 km from forest fires.

    A study published in the journal Nature showed that the Amazon region was responsible for bringing rain to the surrounding region, with 15,400 cubic kilometers of rainfall annually, the highest rate of precipitation in the world. Deforestation has reduced the level of precipitation even in neighboring regions by 25 percent, causing an increase in drought and threatening the supply of food and drinking water.

  National Geographic drew attention to the role of one of the most important organisms in the streams of the Amazon River, which is diatoms, a type of algae, as it says that these organisms live on the consumption of Silicon, which is a secret source to supply the earth with oxygen as an outcome of photosynthesis. It is estimated by scientific studies that it produces 20 percent of the Earth's oxygen.

    Here it is necessary to point out the relationship between the Amazon forests and the African desert, as a scientific study conducted and published in 2015 by a research team affiliated with the US Space Agency (NASA) based on the monitoring of its satellites concluded that there is a relationship between the driest regions of the earth, the deserts of Africa and the largest, wettest and rainiest tropical region, the Amazon.

  For the first time, NASA scientists were able to build a 3D model that shows the movement of dust coming from the desert across the ocean, and measure the amount of dust, its speed, and the quantities of phosphorus in it, as the plant life in the Amazon depends on the nutrients that dust and soil coming from Africa bring to the soil of the Amazon, giving it its fertility that the torrents of rain and rivers constantly scoop up.

    Therefore, the Amazon forests represent the lungs of the earth or the beating heart of the earth, as some scientists call it due to the role of millions of trees in the Amazon region in working as a huge vital pump that generates water movement cycle that preserves the climate on our planet. (QNA)