AMAZON 1: Conservation Challenge/Soya bean destruction

Left) Map of US overlaid on Amazon basin [Woods Hole Research Center]

A Challenge to Conservation: 'The Amazon emerges as a rare opportunity for comprehensive conservation, because it remains mostly undisturbed. Eighty percent of the forest is still standing, and forest-dependent economies have proven themselves to be competitive with forest-replacing economies. It is not too late to devise ways of managing the Amazon rainforest to protect its biological diversity, its hydrologic functions, and its critical role in climate regulation, while also addressing the needs and aspirations of its people. '



Find out more about the work being done in Amazonia and other major forest regions of the world by the Woods Hole Research Center



The Guardian/April 6, 2006
A handful of the world's largest food companies and commodity traders, including McDonald's in the UK, are driving illegal and rapid destruction of the Amazon rainforest, according to a six-year investigation of the Brazilian soya bean industry.Read the full story by John Vidal here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,,1747904,00.html

Read the original Greenpeace report here:http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/7556.pdf