The Amazon plays a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide for the world and providing biodiversity, and many say this deforestation contra- dicts the very purpose of a climate summit. COP must surely have the world’s top climate scientists on board. One wonders, have they been fully consulted?
Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km through the rainforest into Belém. Forest dwellers who used to harvest natural fruit for a living have now lost their source of income. A worry is that the road will lead to more deforestation. It leaves two disconnected areas of protected forest. Scientists are concerned it will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife.
Professor Silvia Sardinha is a wild- life vet and researcher at a university animal hospital that overlooks the site of the new highway. She and her team rehabilitate wild animals with injuries. They release them back into the wild - something she says will be more difficult with a highway on their doorstep.
The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his environment minister say this will be a historic summit because it is “a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Ama- zon’. The president says the meeting will provide an opportunity to focus on the needs of the Amazon, show the forest to the world, and present what the federal government has done to protect it. But Sardinha says that while these conversations will happen “at a very high level” th...
Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km through the rainforest into Belém. Forest dwellers who used to harvest natural fruit for a living have now lost their source of income. A worry is that the road will lead to more deforestation. It leaves two disconnected areas of protected forest. Scientists are concerned it will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife.
Professor Silvia Sardinha is a wild- life vet and researcher at a university animal hospital that overlooks the site of the new highway. She and her team rehabilitate wild animals with injuries. They release them back into the wild - something she says will be more difficult with a highway on their doorstep.
The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his environment minister say this will be a historic summit because it is “a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Ama- zon’. The president says the meeting will provide an opportunity to focus on the needs of the Amazon, show the forest to the world, and present what the federal government has done to protect it. But Sardinha says that while these conversations will happen “at a very high level” th...
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The Mercury (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 24, 2025