A Kansas State University geographer is part of a research team out to prove what environmental scientists have suspected for years: Increasing the production of soybean and biofuel crops in Brazil increases deforestation in the Amazon.

Although this cause-and-effect finding seems fairly straightforward, the issue of deforestation in the Amazon is more complex and more devastating than previously believed, said Marcelus Caldas, an assistant professor of geography at Kansas State University.

All but seven percent of the world's tropical forests are “managed poorly or not at all” despite efforts to boost sustainability, according to a major report released Tuesday.
Forces driving forest destruction across four continents – including rising food and fuel prices, and growing demand for timber – threaten to overwhelm future conservation efforts, warned the 420-page study by the Japan-based International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), an intergovernmental agency group that promotes sustainable use of forests.

Dams, agricultural runoff, pesticides, sewage, mercury pollution from coal plants, invasive species, overconsumption, irrigation, erosion from deforestation, wetland destruction, overfishing, aquaculture: it's clear that the world's rivers are facing a barrage of unprecedented impacts from humans, but just how bad is the situation? 

A new global analysis of the world's rivers is not comforting: the comprehensive report, published in Nature, finds that our waterways are in a deep crisis which bridges the gap between developing nations and the wealthy west. According to the study, while societies spend billions treating the symptoms of widespread river degradation, they are still failing to address the causes, imperiling both human populations and freshwater biodiversity. "Flowing rivers represent the largest single renewable water resource for humans," says Charles J. Vörösmarty of the City University of New York, an expert on global water resources and co-leader of the international team examining the world's rivers. "What we've discovered is that when you map out these many sources of threat, you see a fully global syndrome of river degradation." The study found that 80 percent of the world's population (nearly 5.5 billion people) lives in an area where their rivers are gravely threatened, putting the issue of water security at front and center. In addition, the study found that freshwater organisms, on which people depend, are also in crisis, echoing a study last year that reported that the world's freshwater species are more threatened than both land and marine. But researchers were especially surprised to find that wealthy nations were no better at safeguarding their rivers than developing nations.

Deforestation causes up to 1/5 of current greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.After including their forest emissions, Brazil and Indonesia are, respectively, the world’s 4th and 5th largest greenhouse gas emitters. Reducing rates of deforestation can be one effective way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. And depending how it’s done, it also meets other environmental and development objectives like protecting biodiversity, soils and water supplies.

Currently there are no incentives in climate law for developing countries – where more than 90% of deforestation takes place – to protect their forests.Most forests still being lost are in tropical countries that have no emissions targets.