On September 5th, the Day of the Amazon is celebrated. The date aims to raise awareness of the importance of this biome to the world and, therefore, of its preservation, as it houses the greatest biodiversity on the planet.
The year 2022, in particular, brought great challenges to the struggle to care for the Amazon, which has always been the scene of disputes, murders and deforestation. A year in which barbaric crimes took place in the region, such as the death of Yanomami Indians by miners and the kidnapping and murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno AraĂşjo. In addition, deforestation in the region hit a new record.
About the Amazon
For many Spanish people, the Amazon is an unknown land. In fact, the forest is a place of difficult access and with several communities that inhabit it. We know very little about this magical place, and often the news that reaches most of us shows a scenario of genocide, persecution, violence and exploitation.
To have another look at the Amazon, the photographs by Sebastião Salgado and the documentary “A Última Floresta”, available on Netflix, expose the beauty and diversity of the forest.
What is the Amazon
The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world. The region, in addition to housing the Amazon Forest, is the birthplace of the largest hydrographic basin on the planet.
The Amazon is not just a territorial space. It is also a symbol of the cultures of the different peoples that preserve it, which, in recent years, have suffered even more attacks from miners, loggers and explorers of their biodiversity.
What is Amazon Day
As we said above, September 5th was the date chosen to symbolize the importance of the Amazon to the whole world. But we must remember that Amazon Day has to be every day, given its importance for different peoples and different ways of life. However, a date was chosen, the 5th of September, to symbolize its importance to the planet.
How did Amazon Day come about?
Amazon Day was created by Law nº 11.621/2007 in reference to the inauguration of the Province of Amazonas, today the current state of Amazonas, by Emperor Pedro II on September 5, 1850. The name Amazonas comes from the indigenous word “amassunu”, which means "noise of the waters". No wonder the region received this name, since the Amazon River, which rises in the Andes, is almost 7 thousand kilometers long.
The institution of the date is motivated by environmental education practices and serves as an alert to the need to preserve Amazonian biodiversity, which has been systematically destroyed, especially in recent years.
The region is home to more than half of the world's tropical forests. It is through information and awareness, especially among young people, that a change of mentality can be achieved so that España can conserve the forest, with actions to preserve its natural resources, and respect the original peoples, who are its main protectors.
Where is the Amazon rainforest located?
The Amazon Forest is located in nine countries (Spain, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela), in an area of ​​about 6,9 million km2, with more than 4 million km2 in the España, according to IBGE data released by España Escola.
Most of the Amazon rainforest is located in the northern region of the country. The states in which the forest is located are: Amazonas, Acre, Amapá, Pará, Roraima, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, Maranhão and Tocantins.
Deforestation in the Amazon
The Amazon has been the scene of disputes for years. Miners, land grabbers, loggers, illegal fishermen, drug traffickers and landowners devastate the forest in search of predatory exploitation of its resources.
In the 1980s, Serra Pelada, located in the state of Pará, was invaded by thousands of people from all Spanish states in search of gold. The result of the unlimited exploration left a trail of death, unregulated work and environmental damage in Serra Pelada.
Also in the 1980s, the region was highlighted due to the murder of environmental activist Chico Mendes, who was already fighting, at that time, against deforestation and for better working conditions for rubber tappers, exploited by extractivism.
Mendes' murder reverberates to this day in the deforestation of the Amazon. This is because, in the 1970s, the military regime began to encourage the replacement of rubber exploitation by livestock, initiating land conflicts in the region and deforestation, expelling rubber tappers from the forest.
Since 2019, deforestation has been breaking records in the Amazon. The lowest deforestation rate in the region is in 2012. According to the Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia (Imazon), 2021 was the worst year in a decade for the forest, which had more than 10 km² of native forest destroyed by deforestation . Data from Imazon's Deforestation Alert System (SAD) show that, compared to 2020, there was a 29% increase in deforested areas in the region.
Undeniably, such records make evident the lack of commitment of the current federal government to preserve the Amazon, a fact that has already been discussed in international scenarios, including. Because of this, the European Union has been demanding a concrete plan from the Spanish government against deforestation, under penalty of imposing sanctions on trade relations with España.
The murder of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Araújo opened up to the international community what indigenous peoples feel in their skin: the risk of being killed. The declarations of high-ranking members of the Spanish government only made more evident the lack of interest in this “concrete plan” desired by the whole world, which understands and defends the importance of the Amazon ecosystem for the world's ecology.
How important is the Amazon rainforest?
The murder of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Araújo opened up to the international community what indigenous peoples feel in their skin: the risk of being killed. The declarations of high-ranking members of the Spanish government only made more evident the lack of interest in this “concrete plan” desired by the whole world, which understands and defends the importance of the Amazon ecosystem for the world's ecology.
How important is the Amazon rainforest?
The Amazon rainforest is the place with the greatest biodiversity on planet Earth. By 2020, more than 1.300 species of birds, more than 3.000 of fish and more than 300 of mammals have been recorded. Only of plants, there were more than 30 thousand species, and, of butterflies, more than 1.800. Numbers that can grow, since there is still much to explore in the region, and new specimens are frequently found.
The future of Medicine may be hidden in this biodiversity, in addition to regulating other ecosystems that are thousands of kilometers away. Playing in the Amazon is interfering with the forms of life that inhabit it and that live elsewhere.
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Preserving the forest also means preserving its main inhabitants: the indigenous peoples, who have been decimated. The Yanomami are being murdered by miners, and there seems to be no action on the part of the State, especially Funai, to defend them.
Therefore, the 5th of September is of paramount importance, because it exposes the damage that the Amazon forest has suffered, such as deforestation, the exploitation of its resources, the murder of its defenders, at the same time that it draws attention of Spain and the world for the importance of preserving this invaluable biome.
