22/03/2006 - Curitiba,
Brazil – Climate change and deforestation could
convert the majority of the Amazon rainforest into
savannah, with massive impacts on the world’s biodiversity
and climate, WWF said today at the 8th UN Conference
of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Presenting a review of scientific
research on the Amazon and climate change, WWF says
that climate-modelling studies are projecting a
warmer and drier environment for the region, which
will likely lead to a substantial decrease in precipitation
over much of the Amazon. Such changes would result
in significant shifts in ecosystem types – from
tropical forest to dry savannah – and loss of species
in many parts of the Amazon.
“A changing climate poses a substantial
threat to the Amazon forests, which contain a large
portion of the world’s biodiversity. Threats here
translate into threats to biodiversity at large,”
said Lara Hansen, WWF's chief climate change scientist.
"The world needs to urgently evaluate vulnerability
to climate risks and integrate them into biodiversity
conservation efforts.”
According to the WWF survey, the
combination of human activities – such as deforestation
and logging – and climate change, increases the
drying effect of dead trees that fuels forests fires.
In the absence of effective measures,
global warming and deforestation could convert from
30 up to 60 per cent of the Amazon rain forest into
a type of dry savannah, according to research carried
out under the auspices of Brazil's National Space
Research Institute (INPE).
The climate in northwestern South
America, including the Amazon region, has already
changed over the last century. For example, the
average monthly air temperature records have increased
by 0.5–0.8°C from 11000 to 2000.
“We are running a serious risk
of losing a large piece of the Amazonian tropical
forest,” said senior INPE scientist Carlos Nobre.
“If warming exceeds a few degrees Celsius, the process
of ‘savannisation’ may well become irreversible.”
Currently, the Amazonian forests
act as an important sink for carbon dioxide (CO2),
a gas emitted mainly from the burning of fossil
fuels coal, oil and natural gas, and the major driver
of global climate change. However, up to about 20
per cent of CO2 emissions stem from deforestation.
If its destruction continues, the Amazon rainforest
could become a net source of CO2, WWF says.
WWF believes governments should
send a powerful political signal about the need
to protect the world’s biodiversity and climate.
At COP8, countries of the Amazon basin must announce
quantitative commitments to reduce deforestation.
“Both the burning of fossil fuels
and deforestation must be urgently and significantly
reduced in order to save the world’s biodiversity
and people from catastrophic climate change,” said
Giulio Volpi, coordinator of WWF's Climate Change
Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Here in Curitiba, there is a
unique opportunity to address the deadly combination
of deforestation and climate change. Amazon countries
need to commit to stop deforestation, for the benefit
of present and future generations.”
