From: Cool Earth
Knowledge of the different kinds of social groups involved in deforestation is vital if levels of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest are to be lowered, it has been said.
Social understanding of the rainforest is vital, expert claims
Writing in the Ecology and Society Journal, Amazon researcher Philip Fearnside, from the National Research in the Amazon, said that understanding the wide range of people who are affected by trade in the rainforest or who live there is essential.In extracts from the journal published on Mongabay, Mr Fearnside noted that reasons for why different groups add to deforestation levels and how they interact with one another should be explored.
According to Mr Fearnside, people from the north-east of Brazil - which he said is "poor but populous" - are some of the key players in deforestation.
"Typically arriving in the Amazon as colonists or debt slaves … these Brazilians become small-scale farmers, labourers on ranches, goldminers and land invaders, and have substantial effects on the landscape," he claimed.
Mongabay noted that in Brazil, the level of deforestation seen in the Amazon is strongly linked to the state of the country's economy, with slowing down of such activity often correlating with economic trouble.