Latin America (South America, Central America, and the Caribbean) will be
one of the most important regions of the world in the next century both
socially and environmentally. It hosts powerhouse economies, like
Brazil's, but is dominated by rural poverty. The region is also home to
the earth’s center for primary productivity: The Amazon Basin. The combination
of these factors makes development in Latin America particularly important, as
growth rate is so high and socioeconomic status in many areas very low. This is
leading to severe habitat fragmentation via anthropogenic expansion, which is
threatening biodiversity and ecological systems such as Amazonian rain forests,
dry forests, and subtropical grasslands.
Preserving biodiversity through habitat maintenance is of paramount importance, as the productivity that biodiversity enables is responsible for sinking huge amounts of atmospheric carbon and also for stabilizing ecosystems in South America. Maintaining biodiversity will be key to maintaining the healthiest environment possible in the foreseeable future as the global climate changes.
The means by which most habitat is fragmented and most species lost is by deforestation, of which there are many underlying causes, including agricultural and infrastructure developments (Geist and Lambin, 2002). The biggest and most controversial recent infrastructure development has been the construction of the Interoceanic Highway, which fragmented habitat across the South American continent. There are socioeconomic and political drivers of these issues too, including impoverished rural communities, technological advancement, and market factors. Below is a diagram from Geist and Lambin of both direct and indirect drivers of deforestation causational factors.
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| Examples of biodiversity in Peru. Images by Genia Hill. |
The means by which most habitat is fragmented and most species lost is by deforestation, of which there are many underlying causes, including agricultural and infrastructure developments (Geist and Lambin, 2002). The biggest and most controversial recent infrastructure development has been the construction of the Interoceanic Highway, which fragmented habitat across the South American continent. There are socioeconomic and political drivers of these issues too, including impoverished rural communities, technological advancement, and market factors. Below is a diagram from Geist and Lambin of both direct and indirect drivers of deforestation causational factors.
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| Figure from Geist and Lambin, 2002:
"Causative pattern of tropical deforestation (n = 152 cases). Systems dynamics commonly lead to tropical deforestation. No single or key variable, such as population growth or shifting cultivation, unilaterally impacts forest cover change; synergies between proximate causes and underlying (social) driving forces best explain tropical forest cover losses. A recurrent set of mainly economic, political, and institutional driving forces underpins proximate causes, such as agricultural expansion, infrastructure extension, and wood extraction, leading to deforestation. Though some investigators have claimed irreducible complexity is the explanation, distinct regional patterns exist" |
