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Geography Research Project: Amazon Forest Fires - 2019

The 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires occurred in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay from January 2019 to ongoing. The fires were caused by slash-and-burn clearing of the forest for agriculture. Enforcement of environmental protections had been lax, allowing increased deforestation and fires. The fires raised international concern because the Amazon is the world's largest carbon sink and plays a key role in climate change.

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Abhay G K
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72 views3 pages

Geography Research Project: Amazon Forest Fires - 2019

The 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires occurred in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay from January 2019 to ongoing. The fires were caused by slash-and-burn clearing of the forest for agriculture. Enforcement of environmental protections had been lax, allowing increased deforestation and fires. The fires raised international concern because the Amazon is the world's largest carbon sink and plays a key role in climate change.

Uploaded by

Abhay G K
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH PROJECT

AMAZON FOREST FIRES – 2019

Locatio Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay


n:

Date: January 2019 — ongoing

Cause: Slash-and-burn approach to deforest land for


agriculture

PICTURE SHOWING FOREST FIRES IN SOUTH AMERICA

The 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires season saw an unusual surge in


the number of fires occurring in the Amazon rainforest and other parts of
the Amazon biome contained within the countries of Brazil, Bolivia,
Paraguay, and Peru during the 2019 Amazonian tropical dry season. Fires
normally occur around the dry season as slash-and-burn methods are used
to clear the forest to make way for agriculture, livestock, logging, and
mining, leading to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Such activity is
generally illegal within these nations, but enforcement of environmental
protection has generally been lax. The increased rates of fire counts in
2019 led to international concern about the fate of the Amazon rainforest,
which is the world's largest carbon dioxide sink and plays a significant role
in global climate change.

GEOGRAPHY
OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE ALSO BEEN
AFFECTED

A number of other countries in the


Amazon basin - an area spanning
7.4m sq km (2.9m sq miles) - have
also seen a high number of fires
this year.

Venezuela has experienced the


second-highest number, with more
than 26,000 fires, with Bolivia
coming in third, with more than
19,000. This is a rise of 79% on last year.

Peru, in fifth place, has seen a rise of 92%.

The size of the fires in Bolivia is estimated to have doubled since late last
week. About one million hectares - or more than 3,800 square miles - are
affected.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES
Attention to the wildfires increased in the week prior to the G7 summit
discussions on August 24–26 in Biarritz, France, led by President Macron.
Macron stated his intent to open discussions related to the wildfires in the
Brazilian part of the Amazon and Bolsonaro's response to them. Merkel
has also backed Macron's statements and planned to make the issue a
part of the G7 discussions. Macron further stated that possible
international statute to protect the rainforest may be needed "if a
sovereign state took concrete actions that clearly went against the
interest of the planet". Bolsonaro expressed concern to United States
president Donald Trump, that with Brazil not part of the G7, the country
would be unrepresented in any such debate. Trump offered to take the
position of the Brazilian government to the meeting and said that the US
government did not agree to discuss the issue without Brazil's presence.
During the summit, Macron and Chilean president Sebastián Piñera
negotiated with the other nations to authorize US$22 million in emergency
funding to Amazonian countries to help fight the fires.

GEOGRAPHY
GEOGRAPHY

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