Disappearing Diversity

Disappearing Diversity
Politics, Population, & Practices The Tropical Andes hotspot is located on the western coast of South America, from western Venezuela to Northern Chile and Argentina, and includes portions of Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The focus country will here will be Peru, a developing country in Latin America. This country is special because it became the latest developing country to enact a domestic climate change initiative with a goal of lowering carbon emissions in its fast growing economy (Stauffer). Peru has had a tumultuous history in the past 50 years, with anything from treason to reforms to coups to wars to civilian rule to drug trafficking occurring inside their borders. Guerillas are a big issue, as large groups of them are committing crimes like killing eight police officers in December of 2005 (Mosey). As before stated, Peru has had multiple shifts in regime/political structure. After successfully moving away from various forms of authoritarian rule and shifting instead to a democratic style of government in 2001, even the sphere of democracy has become complicated for the country as its constituents are often divided between choosing moderates and radicals for the leadership position (Diehl). The Peruvian economy and general infrastructure is in a considerably better position than is its government. With a population of 30 million people, its economy is the 44th freest in the world (Holmes). But unfortunately, while Peru is enjoying an economic boom, it has one of Latin Americas worst education systems (Reid).
Biome/Ecosystem Information “The tropical rainforest receives an average of 50 to 260 inches of rainfall yearly. The temperature rarely gets higher than 93 degrees Fahrenheit and or lower than 68 degrees Fahrenheit” (G). The Tropical Andes hotspot in particular being on the western coast of Latin America is closest to the Pacific Ocean. Since tropical rainforests receive so much rain per year, there are also various other large lakes and rivers interspaced throughout the continent. As for diversity, the tropical rainforest is debatably the most diverse of all of the biomes. It contains over four fifths of all of the plant species in the world and nearly half of all animal species (Abramov). This is likely caused by the ideal environmental conditions like constant heat and humidity. Many of the world’s tropical rainforests also provide necessary services to humans. Things like nutrient cycling and regulating climate are two of the most important. In these processes the rainforest recycles its own nutrients (keeping the biome alive for the use of humans) and help maintain the balance by regulating numerous natural processes (like rainfall) (Fenton). One of the factors that make the rainforest so fragile to human interference is its species being particularly vulnerable to extinction. Another is the topsoil being so thin and nutrient poor (Caruso). Because of such weaknesses, it is easy for humans to wipe out a significant amount of species to in turn wipe out the entire ecosystem, or for humans to cut down too may trees and interrupt the nutrient cycling process that is so vital to the rainforests. Clear cutting can hurt both processes by removing possible homes for animal species and again, interrupting the nutrient cycling process.
Sustainability
There are numerous other catalysts to the loss of biodiversity in the rainforest biomes. The largest and most serious are forest disruption, and over exploitation of wildlife and forest resources. It was also observes that air and water pollution, increasing population densities and climate change had a less direct, but still negative impact (Kinver). Some of the steps being taken to preserve Peru’s rainforest, one of the richest and largest tracts in the world, are taken by activist groups like the Conservation Action Network. People from around the world sent over 5,000 emails to the president of Peru to object a bill that would have gutted a vital nationwide forest management law. By keeping this law in place, it is ensured that the forests will be managed in a way that preserves biodiversity (WWF). In order to change the decline in biodiversity of the Amazon and Andean rainforest, the Peruvian government should strengthen the laws in already in place to prevent deforestation, pollution, overuse of resources, hunting and killing of endangered species and general depletion of resources in the hotspot. Countries such as Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Spain, Nigeria and Indonesia have influenced Peru in that they were proponents of something called the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force, (which promotes sustainable development in the five Amazonian regions in Peru through public policies, projects and programs), that Peru is now a part of (Arca).