Research Trip Across Western Amazon

[Tank]

First Research Trip Across Western Amazon Yields Surprising Results

ScienceDaily (July 9, 2010) â€" During his unprecedented expedition into the heart of the Amazon, Michigan State University geographer Bob Walker discovered surprising evidence that many of the Brazilian government's efforts to protect the environment are working.

As expected, Walker and two fellow scientists -- the first research team to travel a 700-mile stretch of the so-called Transamazon Highway in the western Amazon basin -- confirmed the existence of illegal logging and gold-mining operations that threaten further damage to the world's largest rainforest.

But the researchers also found massive areas of undisturbed forest in the form of nationally protected areas and indigenous reserves -- as well as examples of where the government had halted unofficial road building...

[The Magic Pudding]

It's nice to see a partially good news story.
I've heard before how environmentalists may have exaggerated the destruction of the Amazon during the 1970-90s.
This encouraged conservation efforts, and the situation isn't as bleak as we might have imagined.
Thanks to those Brazilian politicians and people who are fighting the good fight.
I don't think I'll ever visit the Amazon, but I need to know it's there.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Good news indeed.  The rain forest is essentially the world's carbon scrub.

[karadan]

One of the really amazing things which has warmed my heart is how the government of Brazil (and other nations) have enabled the logging workers to persue other means of employment through eco-tourism. They've paid for their training, relocation and accomodation just so they wouldn't get disenfranchised by 'these stupid laws our government is enforcing'. Now the people that would have been deforesting enormous areas are now helping to protect it.

[Tank]

^^^ Excellent policy.