The Amazon rainforest could be lost in 40 years if development projects to improve road and river transport in the region are undertaken.
LONDON: The Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical jungle in South America, could be lost in 40 years if development projects to improve road and river transport in the region are undertaken, according to a report.
Plans have been drawn up to boost trade links between ten economic hubs on the continent, but threaten to bring "a perfect storm of environmental destruction" to the world's oldest rainforest, 'The Guardian' reported on Tuesday, citing the report from Conservation International.
The organisation has recently examined the projects funded under the multinational government-backed Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA).
"Failure to foresee the full impact of IIRSA investments, particularly in the context of climate change and global markets, will bring about a combination of forces that could lead to a perfect storm of environmental destruction," Conservation International scientist Tim Killeen said.
Part of the improvements will see motorway-style roads built from the Andes, across the Amazon to the Cerrado tropical savannah, linking the Pacific to the Atlantic, "which will raise the risk of widespread deforestation", according to the report.
Improved transport networks throughout the Amazon will make it easier for inaccessible areas to be logged and burned, disrupting the ecosystems that support native species and indigenous populations, it said.
"Damage to the ecosystem could have wide-ranging implications," the Conservation International warned.
The group has also urged the governments backing the IIRSA to take greater account of the ecological impact of the projects and encourage more sustainable use of the region's resources.
"If Amazonian countries agreed to reduce deforestation rates by five per cent a year for 30 years, the saved forest would potentially qualify as a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and generate more than three billion pounds a year over the lifetime of the agreement.
"Biofuel crops, such as sugar cane, could be planted on the 250,000 square miles of land that has already been deforested, and fish farms could exploit the natural water reserves," Killeen said.
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