The Bad News
According to rainforest expert Rhett Butler, who wrote the book A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face, "Deforestation rates, after decreasing during the early 1990s, have increased dramatically since 1994. In 1998, Brazil released long-awaited deforestation statistics revealing a disturbing, but not unexpected increase in forest clearance.In the Caribbean, deforestation rates were 1.7% annually from 1990-1995, a high rate for a region with such degraded forests. Most of this destruction resulted from clearing for development and small scale agriculture on the part of peasants.
In Central America, deforestation rates from 1990-1995 were extremely high: 2.2% annually, meaning that Central America has lost more than 10% of its forests over the past five years. Much of this clearing came from subsistence activities and agricultural schemes, though commercial logging is accelerating in the region.
South America's tropical forests were lost at a rate of 0.6% annually for the first half of the 1990s, translating to a total loss of some 11,500,000 acres (4,655,000 ha) of forest. Brazil's deforestation rate has increased 36% in the period of 1991-94 in the light of increased logging, subsistence activities, and agricultural projects."
The Good News
Rainforests of South America look to be in better shape than those of Africa because of heavy pressure from environmentalists and an increasingly ecologically minded, educated governments. Much of the rainforest is benefiting from some protection. However, they are not always effective.Brazil and Costa Rica, have passed relatively farsighted policies to enhance the protection of forests. Many Neotropical countries have developed ecotourism as a means to generate revenue to protect forests. Costa Rica has entered into a unique bioprospecting contract with an American pharmaceutical company (Merck) and it appears that others may soon follow suit. Funding of large hydroelectric projects seem to be on the decline as funding agencies move to support smaller, more effective projects. However, the forests of the Neotropical realm are facing tremendous challenges from numerous development threats.
