Conflict in the Amazon!

During a two year period, 381 new species were found, including 216 plants, 93 fish, 32 amphibians, 20 mammals, 19 reptiles and one bird. Whilst this is amazing news, this comes at a time when there is pressure to open up Amazon reserves to miners to extract valuable resources. So how many species could be endangered by this action if it is to go ahead?

Conflict is always expected when a valuable resource is available.  In the Amazon Rainforest this is currently an issue as the Government wish to open up the Renca reserve in eastern Amazonia to miners as there is a huge supply of manganese and gold as well as other minerals.  Obviously the government see that economically this will benefit the country; providing jobs and materials which can be utilised in industry or exported.  At a time when globally there are many superpowers, NEEs like Brazil are looking to exploit every economic opportunity to advance in the global economy.  Unfortunately this will come at a price with large scale environmental degradation occurring to species, water cycle flows as well as the social impact on indigenous tribes living in this undiscovered, remote region.

The decree to mine this area is currently blocked, but that won't stop the government trying to push this through.  For more information check out the following report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl...