Agroforestry comes to the rescue in fight against Amazon rainforest deforestation
Since the mid-1970s, 1/5th of the Amazon has been cut down. Even more alarming still, between logging, severe droughts and fragmentation more than half the rainforest could disappear by 2030.
The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. It covers an area that’s over 2 million square miles — 40% of the South American continent — and houses at least 10% of the planet’s known species.
A loss at this scale would cause countless deaths of millions of rainforest animals including monkeys, jaguars and butterflies, and would likely lead to the extinction of entire species. Not only that, but the loss would also impact the region’s climate patterns and threaten water access and food security for millions of people throughout South America.
The impact of the Amazon’s destruction on the climate would not just be felt in South America, but rather across the world over. Worldwide, deforestation is one of the major causes of climate change, and the Amazon rainforest in particular takes a critical role in capturing earth-warming carbon dioxide and releasing life-sustaining oxygen back into the atmosphere.
Last year, the Amazon captured an estimated 1.5bn metric tons of carbon dioxide — for context, the United States released 5.2bn metric tons of carbon into the air in 2015. During the last twenty years, however, there have been two “once-in-a-century” droughts, one in 2005 and the other in 2010, that killed rainforest trees across millions of square miles. Researchers say that as the trees died following the 2010 drought, the Amazon, instead of capturing carbon dioxide, was going to release 5bn metric tons (another United States) back into the atmosphere.
If the Amazon forest were to shrink by over 50%, it would release 15-26 billion tons of carbon that it has been storing for thousands of years into the air. This would cause a positive feedback loop leading to an even faster heating atmosphere. Amazon researcher Dr. Simon Lewis said it could go from “carbon sink slowing climate change to a major source of greenhouse gases.”
Why is Amazon deforestation happening?
The deforestation of the Amazon isn’t happening because of a lack of arable land in the region. For instance, Brazil, which holds nearly two-thirds of the vast rainforest, boasts 300 to 400m hectares of arable land, of which only 50m is under cultivation. Rather than a lack of land, deforestation in the Amazon is the result of poor land use.
Poverty-stricken farmers in Brazil and other countries use a practice called slash-and-burn agriculture, where a farmer clears land for two or three years of use, after which they move on. The land won’t be usable again for nearly a generation, when the farmer returns to burn the secondary growth, and repeat the process.
Furthermore, as a result of rising population pressure, the time that fields are left unused has been reduced. This means that fragile rainforest soils lose their richness as a lack of forest canopy cover strips nutrients from the land that is now directly exposed to the climate’s relentless rainfall and blistering tropical sunlight.
Due to the way that agriculture is being practiced, in many cases, the ecological integrity of the rainforest must compete against the region’s economic activity, and more often than not the rainforest loses. However, there is a form of agriculture that transcends this dichotomy and offers an economically and ecologically sustainable way forward: agroforestry.
Agroforestry addresses both economic and environmental concerns
Agroforestry is the intentional combination of forestry and agriculture where harvestable trees or shrubs are grown alongside crops or pastureland. According to editor-in-chief at environmental publication Mongabay, Rhett Butler, agroforestry is a tremendous solution for Amazon deforestation because it offers a single answer that serves both to restore ecological integrity of the forest ecology while at the same time promoting economic activity in the region.
“There’s huge potential to help restore vast areas of deforested land in the Amazon using agroforestry,” said Butler.
Agroforestry is both productive and profitable for the regional economy and its expansion doesn’t promote outright destruction of the rainforest. In fact, it provides a wide range of “ecosystem services” ranging from “carbon storage to housing biodiversity.”
Researchers have pointed out that agroforestry plantings help degraded land in the Amazon restore species diversity and improve soil quality in comparison to farmland where no trees are planted. The practice also contributes to the fight against erosion and soil degradation by providing canopy protection from the rain and sun, therefore promoting long-term sustainability and productivity for the farm.
In a world where food security presents a growing threat, Butler also points out that agroforestry is more “resilient against climate change.” That’s because the trees provide other food sources and the canopy layer offers protection from extreme weather events.
A common form of agroforestry in the Amazon, for instance, would be grazing land where cows roam under productive shade trees that either provide fruit, such as avocados, or sustainable timber production. Integrating cattle or livestock with agroforestry provides ranchers with higher quality land for longer, reducing their need to cut down further acres of the Amazon.
In addition to pasture lands, annual crops that are planted on the ground underneath the trees in agroforestry farms include pineapple, tomato, pepper, as well as various beans and root vegetables, among many other. The fruit trees that are planted alongside ground crops include avocados, guava, citrus and bananas. Farmer also plant timber species that will reach maturity in a short period of time.
Finally, there is also growing global demand for the specialty commodities that are produced on trees from the rainforest. Amazon agroforestry tree products that are under increasing demand include brazilian nut, açai, guarana, cabassu, cupuasu, and other medical plants.
Invest in agroforestry to save the rainforest and make money
Butler argues that one of main benefits economically of agroforestry is that it offers “diversified income streams” for farms.
Agroforestry – The Future of Global Land Use explains how by harvesting a variety of products through agroforestry, farms in the Amazon can take a “multi-chain” approach to agriculture. In this approach, they focus first on opportunities in more established markets, such as coffee or cacao, but also on “secondary chains,” such as fruit or timber, which gives them access to a new market in addition to their primary commodity.
This way the farms not only develop more than one source of income, but it also provides them with something of a hedge bet in the case that the commodity prices on their primary product suddenly fluctuates. In some countries where agroforestry is encouraged, these farms are also eligible for subsidies.
While the potential for agroforestry success in the Amazon is realized once in awhile with government or NGO support, the book argues that a lack of appropriate credit options and funding prevents the adoption of complex agroforestry systems in the region. Furthermore, they don’t have the necessary technology and training.
Agroforestry does require a substantial initial investment to get off the ground. Over time, the return on investment is significant, but it can take several years before the farm begins turning profits on its tree-based commodities. However, the primary stream commodities from the annual planting provide short-term yields and early returns.
Going forward: time to invest in agroforestry
In a world where food security presents a growing concern, agroforestry will help protect agriculture in the Amazon region and maintain a resilient food supply. For investors, agroforestry is not only but it also protects the rainforest and promotes sustainability worldwide, but it also presents an improved way to turn a profit on agricultural investments in the Amazon.
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