Many Amazon trees endangered
At current deforestation pace, 57 percent of species could be threatened, study suggests
PERIL Trees like these across the Amazon are threatened by deforestation and development.
© Marcelo F. Simon
Between 36 and 57 percent of all tree species in the Amazon probably meet International Union for Conservation of Nature standards for being a threatened species, new findings show.
Under current deforestation trends where 40 percent of the original Amazon forest is lost by 2050, as much as 57 percent of tree species there could be threatened.
But with better governing and conservation, expected forest loss by 2050 drops to 21 percent. Even so, in this scenario, at least 36 percent of Amazon tree species can be considered threatened, an international team of researchers reports November 20 in Science Advances.
A quarter of the 15,200 tree species growing in the Amazon are currently at risk (left), some facing a more than 30 percent population decrease to date and others with fewer than 1,000 trees remaining. A new study looks at projected threat to these trees under two scenarios: current deforestation rates (center) and conservation efforts that would slow the deforestation rate (right).
