This means that a similar area, unrecorded by satellite images, is being degraded through selective logging and ground fires annually. The authors conclude that decline in biomass in forest fragments could be a significant, and uncounted, source of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Much of the forest of the eastern and southern Amazon, which depends on deep-soil water reserves to stay green in the dry season, is becoming flammable because of logging and drought. Hitherto, virgin forest has prevented the spread of fires because it was too moist to burn. The Woods Hole group set an experimental fire in intact closed forest in Para state for the first time this year.
Climate models predict a slightly drier climate in tropical areas under global warming.
While increased burning involves hundreds of thousands of actors spread across a continental region, much can be done to address the problem. One half of the area burned in 1994 and 1995 resulted from accidental fires . These fires have substantial costs for small and large farmers alike and benefit no one. Whether or not deforestation rates have increased in the Amazon will only be known with the release of INPE's analysis of Landsat images. INPE has promised to release data for 1995 and 1996 by end of the year.