Deforestation = more malaria; study

Reuters reports that malaria rates rise when the forests are cut down in the Amazon according to a study by U.S. researchers.

The scientists found in their study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, a 48 percent increase in malaria rates in Brazil after 4 percent of the tree cover was cut down.

"Conservation policy and public health policy are one and the same," Jonathan Patz, the professor who oversaw the work, said in a telephone interview. "How we manage our landscapes and, in this case, tropical rain forest has implications for public health."

Malaria, caused by a parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, kills about 860,000 people a year globally, according to the World Health Organization. Brazil has about 500,000 cases a year of malaria, most carried by Anopheles darling mosquito.

Patz's team has been tracking mosquito populations and how they change as forests are cut down in Brazil and Peru. They took satellite data showing changes in tree cover in one county of Brazil's Amazon region and linked it with health records showing diagnosed cases of malaria.

Read the full story: Cleared forests lead to rise in malaria in Brazil

Photo from Nature's Crusaders / Stephen Ferry / Getty

"15 most toxic places to live"

Mother Nature Network reports on the 15 most toxic places to live:

Included in the list are:

Citarum River, Indonesia: the vast amounts of trash clogging up the waterway makes it look like a landfill rather than a river

Rondônia, Brazil (picture): slash and burning the Amazon rain forest to raise cattle has ruined the area

Lake Karachay, Russia: it was used by the former Soviet Union as the dumping spot for nuclear waste

See the slide show: The 15 most toxic places to live

Photo by National Geographic / Getty Images

Controversy over proposed Amazon dam

Brazilian Amazonian Indians are protesting a dam project over the Xingu river that would displace thousands from their native lands, divert rivers and open up rainforest areas to exploitation.

Watch the Reuters report:

Amazon die-off due to cleaner skies?

Is the above picture what the Amazon needs to stay healthy?

Yes according to Reuters who highlighted an interesting conundrum between the reduction of coal emissions leading to drought in the Amazon rain forest:

"The study in the journal Nature identified a link between reduced sulphur dioxide emissions from coal burning and increased sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic that boosts the drought risk in the Amazon rain forest.

With the rain forest already threatened by development, higher global temperatures could tip the balance, they said."

Read the full story: Clean air could kill the Amazon

More Amazon should be cut down for food says Brazilian leader

Reuters reports that the governor of Brazil's largest soy producing region wants to help stem the so-called global food crisis by clear-cutting more of the Amazon rain forest for farm land.

Blairo Maggi of Mato Grosso state (in western Brazil) said in a local paper that as the global food crisis grows it will be "inevitable to discuss" either growing food or protecting the environment. He goes on to say that as a solution his country has the "space to raise [agricultural] production."

Mato Grosso has the distinction of being the most deforested state in 2007 but its northern half is still covered with Amazon rain forest.

Images above from NASA compare deforestation in Mato Grosso from June 17, 2002 center and June 28, 2006 top

Read the full story: Brazil "soy king" sees Amazon as food solution

For-profit ecotourism in Peru reaps many rewards

The Economist magazine highlights how a for-profit ecotourism outfit in Peru has the best interests of the Amazonian rain forest in mind... something that NGOs or non-profits have struggled with.

The area of the Amazon in Peru is fast becoming an eco-tourist destination with a reported 20-times increase in the past 15 years.

Rainforest Expeditions operates Posada Amazonas the largest tourism outfit in the area. Its goal has always been conservation through tourism, which has been successful, but it has also enriched the local families in the area as well. RE has actively involved the local community in the tourism projects, the locals get most of the profits and eventually will take over entire control. The peoples literacy, health and nutrition levels have benefited greatly while the forest has remained intact.

But the future of Peru's rain forest is still up in the air because of a newly paved road straight through it leading directly to Brazil. Past statistics of paved roads leading into Brazil's Amazon have shown that an increase in damaging development has occurred.

Read the full story: Rumble in the jungle