Environment and Economics: Importance Deforestation in the Amazon Basin

The Intersection Between Environment and Economics: Importance Deforestation in the Amazon Basin
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The Intersection Between Environment and Economics: Importance Deforestation in the Amazon Basin

Introduction

            The intersecting relationship between environmental protection and economic activities is among the key global issues in the modern world. On the one hand, economic development relies on resources within the environment like energy and raw material. The depletion of non-renewable resources is a threat to global economic progress. Further, an increase in economic activities results in waste material stored within the environment because the earth is a closed ecosystem (Halati & He, 2018). Some of the wastes cause serious public health risks and degradation of the environment.

On the other hand, the protection of the environment appears to be a threat to economic progress because it limits energy consumption and emissions. Given the rising global population, there is an increasing need for extensive economic activities and settlement spaces to accommodate people. In the Amazon basin, extensive deforestation enabled industrial agriculture to be a source of income and food for local and global communities. On the other hand, these activities are perceived as a threat to the forest and the environment. The current paper postulates that the potential long-term impact of deforestation outweighs the short-term goals of employment opportunities, perceived food security, and settlement spaces. Therefore, public discourse on the forest should focus on protection rather than a balance between conservation and economic activities.

 

Background Information

            According to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), the Amazon forest is a vital ecological services provider for local communities and the world. In terms of size and diversity, the forest represents 60% of the global tropical forest cover (WWF, 2020). The forest is vital in filtering and reducing global carbon emissions because of the extensive tree cover. Reducing the forest cover reduces the earth's natural ability to process and filtering carbon dioxide while producing oxygen (Baker & Spracklen, 2019). The forest also controls local and global weather and climate. While the forest creates up to 75% of its precipitation, the impact goes beyond the forest to places as far as Central America and the Western United States. With over 390 billion trees, the forest locks up vast amounts of carbon and therefore, helping in the reduction of global warming. Studies suggest that about 30% of global species are found in the Amazon and are among the most important terrestrial ecosystem in the world (da Cruz, Benayas, Ferreira, Santos, & Schwartz, 2020). The species within the forest pro...