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Professors research effects of deforestation

January 29, 2001

A team of MSU researchers has been working on a project that could hold the fate of the Amazon rain forests in the balance.

Mark Cochrane, a research scientist in the Department of Geography, has spent years in Brazil researching an extensive report titled, “The Future of the Brazilian Amazon.”

“The whole point (of our research) is to allow the policy developers and the Brazilian government to make an informed decision,” Cochrane said. “Nobody has summed up the ecological and environmental costs (of deforestation) to them.”

The Brazilian government is financing major infrastructure projects under “Avanca Brasil,” or Advance Brazil. Investments totaling $40 billion during the years 2000-07 will be used to construct new roads, highways, railroads, gas and power lines, and hydroelectric projects intended to accelerate economic development, Cochrane said.

“We can’t expect the Brazilians to forgo development,” he said. “But recently, we looked at the effects of the new infrastructure - it’s coming together pretty fast without anyone knowing what it will mean to the area.”

The Brazilian Amazon contains 40 percent of the world’s remaining tropical rain forests and plays a vital role in maintaining biodiversity and climate, he said.

The Amazon, which at nearly 2 million acres is about the size of Rhode Island, has the world’s highest rate of deforestation.

“They are trying to feed their families and provide better quality of life for everyone in Brazil,” Cochrane said. “And no one can fault them for that.

“But if they are going to change the environment in the process they should understand the consequences of their actions.”

The research paper outlines what could possibly happen to the ecosystem and environment if the development proceeds as planned. Researchers can pinpoint future environmental problems with accurate knowledge of what happened in the past, he said.

“The point we are trying to get across is that the project will cause much less destruction if they use sustainable forest management,” he said. “It’s all about not taking too much and protecting what will grow again.”

Because of Cochrane’s research paper, the Brazilian government has recently put $400,000 toward trying to get a handle on the environmental impact.

“The Brazilian newspapers support our research,” he said. “And the government has finally been coming around.”

Chris Barber, a research assistant in the Department of Geography, has been working with Cochrane for more than two years on the project and helps to provide a different perspective to the research.

“I have a lot of experience in working with maps and geographic data and I bring a new way of looking at that data,” Barber said. “A lot of researchers know what’s going on ecologically, but they don’t know how to explain it factually.

“I bring the field work and the technical data together.”

Barber’s role is summing up the data in a way that benefits the question, and working the data into the context the researcher is looking for, he said.

“It gives us a factual leg to stand on in explaining how these circumstances will affect the environment and ecosystem,” Barber said.

David Skole, MSU professor of geography, said because deforestation is one of the biggest problems of the day, it is important Cochrane’s research was published.

“This area of the world is important in terms of climate and species,” he said. “Its destruction by economic development could have an impact on the global climate and the loss of species.”

Skole said it is also important to recognize the outstanding work Cochrane and his colleagues have done.

“It helps us find Michigan’s place in the world,” he said. “And our contribution to the future of this planet.”

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