According to the Center for International Forestry Research a large amount of the deforestation occurring in the Brazilian rainforest is driven by the demand for Brazilian beef and the economic incentives therein.

“Probably 80 to 90 percent of all cleared land in the [Brazilian Amazon] is attributable to some form of pasture or ranching,” said Robert Walker, a geography professor at Michigan State University and an expert on land-use change in the Brazilian Amazon.

In the last three decades Brazil has annually deforested an area greater than the size of Connecticut, approximately 6,500 square miles of Amazon. The rate of deforestation in this area has grown about 600 percent in the last 60 years, and according to satellite imaging in some areas the rate of deforestation has increased by 50% since last year.

In addition to the ecological havoc wreaked by deforestation, the destruction of the Brazilian Amazon has landed Brazil as the fifth or sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide today, most of which is due to deforestation.

Cattle ranches will continue to be a major threat to the Brazilian ecosystem unless the demand for Brazilian Beef decreases and thus the profitability of cattle ranching decreases.

The race to save the Brazilian Rainforests has begun, and only time will tell whether or not an increased awareness for sustainability coupled with government action at preserving the Amazon will prevail against the current perilous rate of deforestation.

Discussion question: How will reducing deforestation affect the local Brazilian economy?

News Article: http://www.livescience.com/environment/090109-bts-deforestation.html

Scientific Article: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?org=NSF&cntn_id=112962&preview=false