Ecological concerns

International concern about the ecological consequences of continuing deforestation has been growing and was underscored by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (“Earth Summit”) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. International calls for conservation were based on the view that the Amazon basin is a global resource, one that serves as a control mechanism for the world’s climate and as a genetic repository for the future. The countries of the region, however, tended to look upon such calls as a challenge to “national sovereignty.”

The extent and rate of deforestation have been subject to continuing controversy. Even with the use of satellite imagery, it has been difficult to distinguish between regenerating secondary vegetation and undisturbed forest because of the persistence of cloud cover and sometimes smoke. The employment of radar has made investigations more precise, however. In Brazil deforestation was initiated in Mato Grosso and southern Pará in the 1960s and became widespread over the next two decades in Rondônia and Acre. By the late 1980s nearly two-fifths of Rondônia had been deforested, and the process has continued. In Colombia the upper Putumayo and Caquetá river areas, in Ecuador the region of Napo, and in Peru the Tingo Maria–Pucallpa district have been among the more notable foci of clearing. The cultivation of coca for illicit production of cocaine continues to stimulate such activities in western Amazonia.

The consequences of continuing deforestation have been much discussed. The forest is an efficient absorber of carbon dioxide, and scientists believe that the volume of gas released when substantial parts of the forest are cleared and burned may contribute to global warming through the greenhouse effect (see hydrosphere: Buildup of greenhouse gases). Continued conversion of tropical forest to cropland, pasture, or second-growth forest may reduce the region’s evapotranspiration, thereby interrupting the hydrologic cycle and the recycling of soil nutrients; a likely consequence is an increase in the amount of water running off the surface and greater extremes in water levels (see also Sidebar: Status of the World’s Tropical Forests).

The unique gene pool of the Amazon Rainforest, with perhaps two-thirds of the known organisms of the world, is threatened by continuing deforestation. Particular emphasis has been placed on the threat to biodiversity and the possible loss of as yet unknown and unexploited pharmaceuticals contained in the forest. Finally, also at stake is the survival of many of the region’s indigenous peoples, who have become integrated into the ecosystem of the rainforest and who have acquired significant knowledge on the beneficial nature of its resources.

Early European exploration

In the early days the Amazon River was the only means of access into the forest. Francisco de Orellana descended the main course of the Amazon from the Ecuadoran and Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic in 1541–42. Nearly a century later, Pedro Teixeira went from Belém, Brazil, to Quito, Ecuador, and the region increasingly became known through the explorations of the Portuguese. In 1743 the French naturalist Charles-Marie de La Condamine made a raft trip down the Amazon, during which he made geographic and ethnographic observations of the basin.

At the outset of the 19th century, the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt confirmed the connection between the Amazon and Orinoco systems through the Casiquiare River. The English naturalist H.W. Bates spent time along the Amazon in 1848–59, collecting thousands of species of animals. His book The Naturalist on the River Amazons, originally published in two volumes in 1863, is still regarded as one of the great classics on the Amazon River. An official expedition was sent from the United States to Amazonia in the mid-19th century; in 1854 in Washington, D.C., William Lewis Herndon published the report that he and Lardner Gibbon—both lieutenants in the U.S. Navy—had made to Congress under the title of Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.

Exploration since 1900

The period since 1900 has been one of numerous exploratory and scientific expeditions. In 1913–14 U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt and Brazilian Col. Cândido Rondon headed an expedition that explored a tributary of the Madeira and made natural history collections and observations. A party sponsored by Harvard University’s Institute of Geographical Exploration did important scientific work in the years 1910–24. The American Geographical Society compiled data and published detailed maps of this vast region.

Since World War II the international scientific community has been increasingly attracted to Amazonia. British, French, German, Japanese, and North American groups have carried out detailed biophysical and cultural surveys; a large number of international workshops, conferences, and symposia on Amazonian problems have been held. The Amazon Cooperation Treaty, signed in Brasília in 1978 by representatives of all the basin’s countries, pledged the signatories to a coordinated development of the region on sound ecological principles. (In 1995 those countries created the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization to strengthen and better implement the treaty goals.) Brazilian scientists have also contributed significant research on issues concerning the area. Particularly important has been the work of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) at Manaus, the Goeldi Museum in Belém, and the National Institute for Space Research in São José dos Campos.