Amazon Rainforest

Yazzy Ibrahim

Background on the Amazon

The Amazon Rainforests is one of the largest tropical rainforests, which spans across Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana (Amazon). The whole rainforest is 2/3^rd the size of the United States (Withgot, 2019) and covers 40% of South America (Amazon). The Amazon is the world’s richest and most biodiverse reservoir (Britannica, T) with over 40,000 plant species, 3,000 freshwater fish species, and more than 370 reptiles (Amazon). It plays a vital role in our planets health by capturing water, regulating our climate, and absorbing carbon dioxide (Withgot, 2019). However, habitat destruction caused by deforestation is inflicting massive damage to the biodiversity of species.

History of Deforestation

In the 1900s, rubber accounted for 24% of the country’s exports, with the rainforest supplying the world's rubber for 60 years (Deforestation). In the 1920s deforestation became a problem with almost 8 million hectares of rainforests destroyed due to the growing population's demand for lumber, crops, and cattle (Deforestation). Brazil's population also settled in major areas of the rainforest, and they cleared land for settlement and cattle grazing as well as obtain lumber (Britannica, T). The Brazilian government provided incentives for settlement with the help of foreign investments and built a highway across the forest and promised each settler 250 acres of land (Withgot, 2019). The growing demand for soy, sugar, rice, corn, and palm oil helped increase the destruction of the Amazon for mass-scale industrial farming (Withgot, 2019). Because of this, each year an average of 17,000 km²(4 million) of forests was cleared between 1970- 2008 (Withgot, 2019). In 2020 alone, 5 million acres of primary forest loss were across the 9 countries that encompass the Amazon, with Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela being the top 5 (M, F 2021).

Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon (Para state) of 15,250 hectares between January (left panel) and October (right panel) 2020. Data: Planet. Source: M, F., & N, M. Feb. 2021

Ecosystem Services

Forests provide humans with all sorts of materials, such as food, wood products, rubber, herbs, and fungi (Ehrlich, 1997). It also provides 50-75% of precipitation, stores 86 billion tons of carbon, and provides transportation for locals (Butler, 2019). The rainforest is then, in turn, measured in ways to economic development—it’s value is based on how much forests contribute to individual material wealth (Macqueen, 2004). However, forests are considered “uneconomic” because the natural landscape cannot compete with agricultural or industrial systems of land use (Macqueen, 2004). But the Amazon is more than just a service to humans. It houses more than 3 million species who are breathing and living within the forest, and the forest sustains this life (Thomson, 2020). This biodiversity keeps the ecosystem and its inhabitants healthy by purifying water, making the air breathable, controlling diseases and pest outbreaks, supporting pollination and storing carbon, all services that help humans and non-humans (Thomson, 2020).

But...What if the Amazon Forest Didn't Provide Any Services?

Humans value the Amazon forest because it provides services for us. Trees and species provide us with clean air, water, and climate. However, what if the Amazon, and all it encompasses, didn’t provide these services? What moral standing does the Amazon- the trees, plants, rivers, grasses- have? I argue that the Amazon Rainforest is valuable in itself because it is a living, breathing entity, and has interests within itself. Destructing the rainforest is destroying millions of living individuals who have moral standing, as well as the forests who have moral standing because they exist and have interests.

Unconscious entities such as plants, ecosystems, and trees have interests; an interest to fulfill their nature, meaning they have moral standing (Jaworska, 2013). According to Singer, having interests means that something good or bad can happen to you that can benefit or harm you. He also explains how “the capacity for suffering and enjoying things is a prerequisite for having interests at all” (Schiffman, 2016). Trees and plants suffer from droughts, temperature increases, pollution, and soil erosion, impacting their livelihoods and ability to fulfill their nature. Deforestation, something bad, impacts the ecosystem of the Amazon as a whole, as well as the interests of forests. According to Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees, “forests create their own microclimate. When we thin forests, the temperature rises, the humidity goes down, evaporation increases and all trees begin to suffer. So, trees have a stake in supporting one another to keep all members of the community healthy” (Schiffman, 2016). When deforestation occurs, the habitat of the area is damaged, affecting other living entities who have interests, and trees also suffer. The rainforest has value because it has interests to fulfill its nature, and the ability to suffer.

Because something is living and has its own integrity and welfare on its own, it shouldn’t be harmed and should be given the rights of conscious entities. Something has value in his or her own right independently of the services it brings to its prospects (Breanna, 2020). Trees, plants, and grasses have instrumental value because it provides humans and non-humans with services, however, it also has value in itself simply because it is existing and living. Because of its value, those in contact with it have a direct moral duty to project or refrain from inflicting damage (Breanna, 2020). The Amazon Rainforest has intrinsic value because it is a living, breathing entity meaning that life itself is the value, not services a certain entity brings.

Rainforests Protected By Law

Christopher Stone, a professor of law at the University of Southern California, argues and proposed that trees and other natural objects should be protected under law and have the same standing as corporations (Jaworska, 2013). He explains how it is “unwise” that natural objects should have no redress on their own behalf and that because something cannot speak means it has no standing (Stone, 2013). Infants, universities, states, and other objects cannot speak but they are still protected under law, and lawyers speak on behalf of them. Why not extend this to natural entities?

Another comparison that can be used is animal rights and plant rights. Two centuries ago, it was permissible to beat your horse to death but today horses are legally protected against abuse, as well as other animals enclose in these laws (Ehrlich, 1997). The difference between a horse and a tree and a plant is one is mobile and the other is not. Horses, plants, trees, and grasses all need nutrients, food, water, and other elements to live. All have interests in survival. The Brazilian Constitution recognizes that animals have fundamental interests, and their Supreme Court ruled that animals have the right to legal protection against suffering and mistreatment (Clayton, 2011). Why not extend these laws to the plants and trees in the tropical Amazon? The same should be applied to the Amazon Rainforest because this entity is suffering due to human neglect and exploitation. By protecting the Amazon, the plants, trees, and animal species will be protected from suffering and mistreatment that by law they obtain. The unconscious entities deserve the same treatment and rights as conscious entities due to their moral standing, interests, and existence.

Human Interests and Speciesism

More than 30 million people, including indigenous groups, live in the Amazon and depend on it for food, clothing, and lumber (Amazon). Companies deforest the Amazon because it provides resources for buildings, cities, towns, and villages (Amazon). Deforestation also occurs in order to make room for palm plantations, which provides almost a third of the global production of vegetable oils (Palm, 2015). Palm oil can and has played an important role in reducing poverty in Brazil (Palm, 2015). Another benefit to deforestation is agriculture. Rainforest deforestation allows impoverished farmers to provide for their families to plant crops and raise cattle (Benefits). This also allows farmers to sell products to local markets, helping provide for their families. Cutting down trees also brings employment to people as well as to the people who use lumber and wood to make byproducts such as furniture and energy (Benefits). Without deforestation, millions of people would be impoverished and without employment or pay.

However, arguing this is speciesism. According to Singer, “the speciesist allows the interest of his own species to override the greater interests of members of other species” (Singer, 1974). When we argue that the Amazon should be deforested because humans need the resources to sustain themselves and the economy, we are saying that our interests are greater than the interests of other entities. Exploiting one species or entity to help or benefit another is morally wrong, especially since the rainforest owes nothing to humans.

One could go further and argue that human interests are above natural entities; that the Amazon rainforest’s interests are less than human, and that humans deserve to exploit because humans are above these natural ecosystems. However, Singer also argues that yes, humans and animals are different and that humans have the capacity that other species do not have. However, equality and capacity does not depend on intelligence, moral capacity, or physical strength, and that “there is no logically compelling reason for assuming that a factual difference in ability between two people justifies any difference in the amount of consideration we give to satisfy their needs and interests” (Singer, 1974). If one person’s interests aren’t above other humans’ interests, how can it entitle humans to exploit the interests of nonhumans? The principle of equality of human beings is a prescription of how we should treat humans. The same weight of equality can be taken into account to other beings, including natural beings such as the Amazon. The difference between people and the Amazon does not give reason to ignore the needs and interests of the Amazon.

Citations

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Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2019, December 30). Amazon Rainforest. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Amazon-Rainforest
Butler, R. A. (2019, April 16). The Importance of the Amazon Rainforest. Mongabay. https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_importance.htm.
Clayton, L. A. (2011, January). Full Title Name: Overview of Brazil’s Legal Structure for Animal Issues. Animal Law Legal Center. https://www.animallaw.info/article/overview-brazils-legal-structure-animal-issues.
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Macqueen, D. (2004, April). Forest Ethics: The Role of Rthical Dialogue in the Fate of the Forests. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/22877125.pdf.
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Palm in Brazil and the world. ABRAPALMA. (2015). http://www.abrapalma.org/en/palm-in-brazil-and-the-world/.
Schiffman , R. (2016, November 16). Are Trees Sentient Beings? Certainly, Says German Forester. Yale E360. https://e360.yale.edu/features/are_trees_sentient_peter_wohlleben.
Singer, P. (1974). All Animals Are Equal. Digital Commons @Brockport. https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/phil_ex/vol5/iss1/6/.
Stone, C. (2013, February). Should Trees Have Standing- Toward Legal Rights For Natural Objects. WordPress. https://iseethics.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/stone-christopher-d-should-trees-have-standing.pdf.
Thomson, A. (2020, May 27). Biodiversity and the Amazon Rainforest. Greenpeace USA. https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/biodiversity-and-the-amazon-rainforest/.
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