WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – South America’s vast Amazon region harbors one of the world’s most diverse collection of tree species, but more than half may be at risk for extinction due to ongoing deforestation to clear land for farming, ranching and other purposes, scientists say.
Researchers said on Friday that if recent trends continued, between 36 and 57 percent of the estimated 15,000 Amazonian tree species likely would qualify as threatened with extinction under criteria used by the group that makes such determinations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The study covered roughly 2.1 million square miles (5.5 million square km) spanning Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The researchers analyzed Amazonian forest surveys and data on current and projected deforestation areas.
“Many of the species that we suggest may be threatened are used by Amazonian residents on a daily basis, and many others are crucial to Amazonian economies,” conservation ecologist Nigel Pitman of the Field Museum in Chicago.
These range from wild populations of economically important food crops like the Brazil nut and heart of palm, to valuable timber species, to several hundred species that Amazonian residents depend upon for fruits, seeds, thatch, medicines, latex and essential oils, Pitman said.
The trees also are important in their ecosystems for erosion control and climate moderation, Pitman said.
“Scientists have been raising the alarm about Amazonian deforestation for several decades, and projections indicate that forest loss will continue for the foreseeable future,” said forest ecologist Hans ter Steege of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands.
