A new study shows that deforestation in the Amazon threatens more than half of its tree species population. Researchers published new findings that studied the status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species.
Study shoes up to 57 % of Amazon's trees specie's should qualify as threatened says the international union for conservation of nature Red List, the leaders in authority on threats to specie conservation.
The numbers of threatened plants in the Amazon has increased to 22% in Plant Species and 36% in Tree Species prior to previous findings.
Nigel Pitman, a tropical ecologist at the Field Museum in Chicago says, " We've never had a good idea of how many Amazonian species were vulnerable".
Dr.Pitman, together with more than 150 researchers from different institutions have come up with this new data. Trekking into the Amazon to collect flowers, branches, leaves and fruits in around 3000 acres of Amazonian forest. 76,000 species were assessed and 22,000 of these animals, fungi and plants are at risk.
The data was collected and was created a computer model that analyzed it under two scenarios. The first scenario called, "business as usual", points out that by 2050, about 40% of the original Amazonian forest will disappear. The second scenario, aims that the government will have enacted stronger preservation regulations, estimate only 21% of the Amazonian forest will be destroyed.
"Fortunately, deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon, which represents about 60 % of the total Amazon area, have decreased by 75% since 2005" says Timothy J. Killeen, a botanist at Agtec-Amazonica in Satna Cruz, Bolivia.
The current situation of the Amazon is doing better than the researchers, best-case scenario predicted, because the team is expanding parks and protected areas said Dr.Killeen.
Because of a quick change in government policies, estimated threatened species were valid in the statistic of the research, despite the current good conditions of the Amazon.
