October 4, 2019

Since the beginning of winter in South America (summer in the Northern Hemisphere), more than 200,000 wildfires have struck the Amazon rain forest of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Some 30 million acres (12 million hectares) of wilderness have been lost in the fires, causing incalculable damage to the environment. The unusually severe fire season was blamed on winds and high temperatures as well as the ancestral practice of chaqueo (slash-and-burn farming). But many fires were thought to have been illegally set to clear land for large corporate agriculture, logging, and mining interests. Blame also fell on lax policing and the weakening of the environmental protection system in Brazil, where most of the fires occurred.

On Aug. 27, 2019, smoke rises above charred trees in the Amazon rain forest of northern Brazil. Credit: © Joao Laet, AFP/Getty Images

Forest fires are common in the Amazon during the dry season, from July to October. The fires are sometimes caused naturally by lightning strikes and exacerbated by drought, but most of the recent fires were probably started by people wanting to clear the land for other uses. There has been a vast increase in large, intense, and persistent fires along major roads in the Amazon, for example, something inconsistent with the randomness of lighting strikes. Climate change too is making the fires worse, as dry seasons in the Amazon become ever dryer, hotter, and longer.

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The Amazon rain forest covers much of northern South America. About two-thirds of the rain forest lies in Brazil. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The fires (and the fire starters) have received divided attention in the Palácio do Planalto, the official workplace of the president of Brazil in Brasília, the capital. There, President Jair Bolsonaro has decreased environmental protections since taking office in January 2019, allowing an increase in deforestation—both legal and illegal, and always a problem—in the Amazon. Bolsonaro too has refused much international aid to help fight the fires, which continue to burn and destroy large portions of the rain forest. Bolsonaro eventually deployed some 44,000 soldiers to help the understaffed firefighters in the rain forest, and he agreed to coordinate firefighting efforts with other Amazonian countries. At the end of August, after the fires had raged for months, Bolsonaro also announced a 60-day ban on the legal setting of fires to clear land.

Deforestation results in the loss of vast areas of tropical rain forest each year. This photograph shows an area of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil that has been destroyed as part of slash-and-burn agriculture. In this method, farmers cut down trees and burn them. The ashes enrich the soil for only a brief period before the nutrients are depleted. The farmers then clear another area of forest. Credit: © Julio Etchart, Alamy Images

All seven Brazilian states that include parts of the Amazon have experienced sharp increases in fire activity in 2019. Numerous wildfires are also consuming alarming amounts of rain forest in the Amazonian regions of Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. The massive number of wildfires has greatly increased emissions of toxic carbon monoxide and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to global warming. Smoke from the fires has obscured skies and aggravated such health problems as asthma, bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in people throughout the region.

November 2, 2017

A recent report released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Brazilian Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development details 381 new animal and plant species discovered in the Amazon rain forest over a 24-month period. The report, titled “New Species of Vertebrates and Plants in the Amazon 2014-2015,” lists 216 new plants, 93 new fish, 32 new amphibians, 20 new mammals, 19 new reptiles, and 1 new bird in the vast Amazon region that spans several South American countries. The Amazon rain forest contains a wider variety of plant and animal life than any other place on Earth.

Milton’s titi monkeys (Callicebus miltoni), also known as fire-tailed zogue zogues, are seen here in the jungles of the Mato Grasso in Brazil. The monkeys were among 381 new animal and plant species recently discovered in the Amazon rain forest. Credit: © Adriano Gambarini, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia/SciELO

Among the new species of Amazon fish is the freshwater honeycomb stingray (Potamotrygon limai). Most stingrays live in shallow parts of the world’s oceans and in saltwater bays, but the honeycomb stingray lives in fresh water. The pattern on its back, or dorsal side, is usually dark brown with honeycomb-like speckles. The new mammals include a previously unknown species of pink river dolphin (Inia araguaiaensis). Analyses of skull bones of the new pink river dolphin show it to be different from other Amazon River dolphins and Bolivian river dolphins. Scientists believe the newly described dolphin parted from its Amazon basin cousins some 2.8 million years ago. There may be about 1,000 of these newly found pink river dolphins in the Amazon River system. The construction of hydroelectric dams and industrial, agricultural, and cattle ranching activities threaten the new pink river dolphin as well as many other forms of life.

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The Amazon rain forest, the richest and most diverse ecosystem on Earth, covers much of northern South America. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Another new Amazon mammal is Milton’s titi monkey, known locally as the fire-tailed zogue zogue (Callicebus miltoni). Milton’s titi is known for its long, red-orange bushy tail and ocher sideburns and beards. The small primate weighs about 3 1/3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) and is named in honor of Milton Thiago de Mello, a noted Brazilian primatologist. The newly described monkey lives in southern parts of the Amazon region. Unfortunately, the small new titi population is threatened by deforestation.

This most recent WWF report is the third in a series that has listed some 2,000 new animal and plant species over the past 17 years. The report comes amid growing environmental disputes between mining interests and conservationists in Brazil, where a majority of the Amazon rain forest lies. Accelerated rates of habitat destruction in the region could push many of these new species to extinction before scientists have the chance to study them. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has already labeled several of the newly identified plants and animals as threatened or endangered. In addition, the WWF is calling for urgent action to protect the Amazon rain forest itself. Aside from deforestation and pollution from agriculture, logging, and mining, a recent presidential decree in Brazil may eradicate an Amazonian nature reserve the size of Switzerland.

August 17, 2017

Tomorrow, August 18, marks the 150^th birthday of British explorer Percy Fawcett. Fawcett gained fame in the early 1900’s for exploring parts of the Amazon rain forest of South America. Fawcett’s fame was reignited earlier this year with the release of The Lost City of Z, a film about Fawcett’s intriguing adventures. Fawcett believed that the ruins of an advanced ancient civilization—an unknown city he called “Z”—lay deep in the jungle wilderness of Brazil. Fawcett disappeared looking for Z in 1925.

Colonel Percy Fawcett in 1911. Credit: Public Domain

Percival Harrison Fawcett was born on Aug. 18, 1867, in Torquay, Devon, England. He was an officer in the British Army and an expert surveyor. In 1906, the Royal Geographical Society, a British organization that sponsors scientific expeditions, invited Fawcett to survey the frontier shared by Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru. He spent 18 months in the jungle, in the Mato Grosso area, where he learned much about the peoples of the jungle.

After fighting in Belgian Flanders during World War I (1914-1918), Fawcett returned to Brazil. He was fascinated by stories of a magnificent city in the Amazon jungle. Historians believe he may have heard of this hidden city from Manuscript 512, a document written by Portuguese explorers in the late 1700′s. The document describes the ruins of an ancient city built of stone in the jungles of Brazil. However, the document does not specify the city’s location. Fawcett planned an expedition into the interior Amazon Basin to discover this lost city, which he called “Z.” In 1925, with his son Jack and Jack’s friend Raleigh Rimell, he departed into the jungle. Nothing was heard of the party again.

Many scholars believe Fawcett and his companions were killed by hostile indigenous (native) people or perhaps died of disease or starvation as they searched for the “lost city of Z.” In the years after Fawcett vanished, several expeditions attempted to find him, and as many as 100 people died while searching for traces of his expedition. The fate of the Fawcett expedition remains an unsolved mystery today. Percy Fawcett’s younger son, Brian, wrote of the expedition in Exploration Fawcett (1953). The 2017 film The Lost City of Z was based on a 2009 book of the same name by U.S. journalist David Grann.