4The Significance of the Brilliant Initiative of Sebastião Salgado and Lélia Deluiz Wanick
The world’s forests are really under threat of destruction. Factors like deforestation, commercialism, and mostly mankind’s’ wrath are all contributors to the degradation of the forest. Salgado’s area in Brazil was just one of the many almost dead forests around the world.
“The land was as sick as I was – everything was destroyed,” Salgado said in The Guardian in 2015.
“Only about 0.5% of the land was covered in trees. Then my wife had a fabulous idea to replant this forest. And when we began to do that, then all the insects and birds and fish returned and, thanks to this increase of the trees I, too, was reborn – this was the most important moment,” he explained.
Based on statistics released by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, there are 129 million hectares of forest that have been lost from the Earth forever since 1990 due to deforestation. The said area is actually equivalent to South Africa. Meanwhile, an area that is approximately the same size as the country of Panama is being lost every year.
Furthermore, according to the World Wildlife Organization, “deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rain forests because these forests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity.”
For instance, the Amazon forest has lost over 17% in the last 50 years. The most attributable factor for this significant loss is forest conversion for cattle ranching.
“Deforestation in this region is particularly rampant near more populated areas, roads, and rivers. But even remote areas have been encroached upon when valuable mahogany, gold, and oil are discovered,” quoted the World Wildlife Organization
