“Farmers cut down trees at the end of the dry season and then burn them right before the rains start,” said Dr. Erin Sills, a North Carolina State professor, according to Phys.org. “This leaves a nutrient-rich layer of ash on the ground that provides fertilizer for crops.”
Some have suggested that the decrease may be attributable to rainfall as well the Brazilian government’s use of soldiers to combat the blaze, the Post reported.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office in January of this year after a year of campaigning on promises of opening the rainforest for development, has consistently downplayed the severity of the fires and declined major assistance from foreign countries in controlling them.
But some scientists have expressed fears that continued rapid deforestation would devastate the rainforest’s ecosystem and turn large portions of into “arid savanna,” according to the Post. This would change which species are able to prosper in the area, perhaps irrevocably, and render the resources in the forest unusable.
As of now, researchers estimate that they have only studied one-half of one percent of the medicinal potential of all of the rainforest’s flowering plants, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. As the biome slowly shrinks due to deforestation, so does the diversity of its wildlife — along with the potential use of plants and animals that are yet undiscovered.
