Efforts to preserve the Amazon rain forest are growing ever more urgent as the ecosystem’s destruction accelerates. A recent study shows that a new program combining on-the-ground monitoring with satellite data and smartphone technology could help put the brakes on Amazon deforestation (毁林) —and potentially that of forests elsewhere.
The scientists cooperated with 76 local communities, 36 of which participated in using satellite-based “early deforestation alerts” —an early-alert system on a smartphone app, to watch over the forest and to inspect forests and document damage. Over the next two years the participants were paid to work as forest monitors and received monthly alerts via the app when satellite data indicated local forest losses. Monitors investigated alerts and inspected for deforestation in the areas. They reported confirmed losses back to their communities which decided whether to deal with the affairs on their own or inform state authorities.
The researchers analyzed the same forest-loss satellite data from the given time period in all 76 communities. They found the program reduced forest loss by 8.4 hectares (公顷) in the first year—a 52 percent reduction compared with the average loss in the control communities, says Tara Slough, an economist at New York University. “This reduction in deforestation was concentrated in communities facing the largest threat of forest loss,” she adds.
Results for the program were less striking in its second year when forest loss was reduced by only 3.3 hectares compared with that in control communities. The researchers explain that a Peruvian government campaign against coca planting that year may have discouraged deforestation in both experimental and control communities narrowing differences between the two groups in the program.
Experts say this approach to dealing with Amazonian deforestation looks promising. Local groups may continue the work they started in the program. “We want to apply this in other communities. In doing so we are making a contribution to the world,” wrote Francisco, a community member involved in the research.
【小题1】Why did the research team conduct the program?| A．To stop carbon being locked away. | B．To tackle Amazon deforestation. |
| C．To monitor satellite movement. | D．To control illegal activities. |
| A．By analyzing the data. | B．By surveying the monitors. |
| C．By observing the area. | D．By investigating the damage. |
| A．It applies to all the forests. | B．It adopts multiple technologies. |
| C．It involves no human participation. | D．It solves the problem beforehand. |
| A．Amazon Protecting the Rainforest | B．Experts Testing Early-alert System |
| C．Communities Dealing With Deforestation | D．Smartphone Watching Over the Forest |
