Amazon Rainforest
Credit: Asociación de Capitanes Indígenas Yaigojé Apaporis

What we like to call the Boreal Forest’s ‘sister’, the Amazon, is an amazingly large and ecologically diverse region, and one where several boreal-breeding birds like the Blackpoll Warbler and the Solitary Sandpiper spend their winters. It’s also a member of the ‘family of five’ largest intact forest regions left on Earth.

Deforestation in the Amazon had seemed to be on the decline for the past half decade, even making it one of Grist’s top five forest stories of 2010 (large conservation initiatives in Canada’s boreal was another one I might add). However this progress seems to have been reversed, with the World Wildlife Fund recently finding that deforestation in the Amazon appears to be up, and potentially worse is that some politicians are attempting to roll back legal protections of Brazil’s Amazon.

You can read the full story here:
http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?200376/Deforestation-up-in-part-of-Brazil-with-forest-protections-on-chopping-block

Let’s hope they find away to go back to what seemed to be a decline in deforestation and make sure forest protection laws and efforts be at the forefront of land use policies!