天美传媒

Deforestation Rises in the Rainforest

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Posted on February 15, 2022

Thomas Becnel

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Dr. Gabriel de Oliveira, an assistant professor of geography at the 天美传媒, uses analysis of satellite images to monitor rates of deforestation in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil.

In the January issue of Science magazine, he shows a dramatic increase of deforestation in 2021, especially on indigenous lands where before there had not been as much illegal logging, burning and mining.

More than 13,000 square-kilometers of rain forest were cleared last year, according to his research, which is 69 percent above the average annual deforestation rate over of the last decade.

鈥淲e saw this spike in deforestation on indigenous lands, which are our last resort,鈥� de Oliveira said. 鈥淭he indigenous lands are the future of the Amazon.鈥�

More than 20 percent of this deforestation occurred on Apyterewa Indigenous land in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Illegal logging there began in 2018, followed by the burning of land for pasture and farming, with no effective law enforcement to protect the rainforest. The rate of deforestation is just the latest alarming research for one of the most important and endangered ecosystems in the world.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a big reaction in Brazil, the U.S. and Europe,鈥� de Oliveira said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been contacted by major news outlets in different countries and by politicians and environmental activists around the world.鈥�

The South professor is from the city of Porto Alegre in the southern part of Brazil. He earned a master鈥檚 degree and Ph.D. in remote sensing from the National Institute for Space Research in S茫o Jos茅 dos Campos, S茫o Paulo. Most of his research focuses on images from three NASA satellites orbiting the Earth.

De Oliveira鈥檚 research interests include vegetation dynamics, biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and water and carbon cycling. He did postgraduate work at the University of Kansas and the University of Toronto before coming to Mobile last fall.

鈥淥ne of the main reasons is the location,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 have a great interest in working with the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Also, the weather. Toronto and even Kansas were pretty cold for someone from Brazil. My hometown is at the same latitude as Mobile, with a very similar climate.鈥�

Though much smaller than the Brazilian rainforest, the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta is one of the most diverse regions in the United States. Naturalist E.O. Wilson described it as an 鈥淎merican Amazon.鈥�

In his second semester at South, de Oliveira is teaching environmental geography, remote sensing, and computer graphing and maps. He鈥檚 shared his Science article with students. He鈥檚 been impressed by their questions.

De Oliveira has been studying the Amazon for more than a decade. He鈥檚 visited the rainforest many times. This year, he鈥檚 gotten a faculty development grant from the Office of Research and Economic Development to help pay for trips to Brazil in June and December.

鈥淪ometimes we need ground data to validate our remote sensing estimates,鈥� he said. 鈥淏asically, I鈥檝e been to all the states of Brazil in the Amazon, and also Peru and Bolivia.鈥�

De Oliveira had never visited the Amazon until he became a graduate researcher. He fell in love with what he calls the vastness of the rainforest and river networks. He has to remind himself that he is a scientist, not an activist or politician. 

His contribution to the preservation of the Amazon is precise data and accurate analysis.

鈥淎s a citizen 鈥� a citizen of the world, not just Brazil 鈥� it makes me feel like I鈥檓 doing my part,鈥� de Oliveira said. 鈥淚 feel relieved when I have a big paper in Science. At the same time, it鈥檚 very tough, because sometimes you don鈥檛 see results in practice. My part as a scientist is done. Now it鈥檚 up to lawmakers and politicians to do something about it. I hope our article helps bring international pressure to make the Brazilian government do something to protect this beautiful and important ecosystem for future generations.鈥�

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