Rainforest loss in the Amazon tops 200,000 square miles, new figures from Brazilian government.

The Amazon forest plays a key role in the global environment, supplying a portion of the world’s oxygen and locking up massive amounts of carbon. As forest is cut, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere contributing to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Further, scientists have found that the reduction of forest cover has affected local weather patterns. Less rain tends to fall in deforested areas and scientists fear that continued forest clearing could turn much of the region into savanna.
A recent study in Science warned that a prolonged drought in the Amazon could lead to a massive die-off in the world’s largest rainforest. Home to up to 30 percent of the world’s plant and animal species, including a new species of monkey discovered earlier this year, the Amazon holds a great deal of promise in the development of drugs and other useful products derived from its biodiversity. Through bioprospecting this economic potential is increasingly being realized and a number of pharmaceutical products have been derived from plants in the region. Indigenous populations have tradtional uses for thousands more.