The Hindu Business Line : Amazon jungle 'could be lost in 40 years'

LONDON: The Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical jungle in South America, could be lost in 40 years if development projects to improve road and river transport in the region are undertaken, according to a report.

Plans have been drawn up to boost trade links between ten economic hubs on the continent, but threaten to bring "a perfect storm of environmental destruction'' to the world's oldest rainforest, 'The Guardian' reported today, citing the report from Conser vation International.

The organisation has recently examined the projects funded under the multinational government-backed Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA). "Failure to foresee the full impact of IIRSA investments, partic ularly in the context of climate change and global markets, will bring about a combination of forces that could lead to a perfect storm of environmental destruction,'' Conservation International scientist Tim Killeen said.

Part of the improvements will see motorway-style roads built from the Andes, across the Amazon to the Cerrado tropical savannah, linking the Pacific to the Atlantic, "which will raise the risk of widespread deforestation'', according to the report. Impr oved transport networks throughout the Amazon will make it easier for inaccessible areas to be logged and burned, disrupting the ecosystems that support native species and indigenous populations, it said. - PTI

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