출처 : http : / / www . bbc . com / news / science - environment - 36656443 Amazon fires : Humans make rainforest more flammable 아마존 산불 은 인간 들 때문 에 더 잘 난다 ( rainforest : 우림 / 雨林 ) By Victoria GillScience reporter , BBC News 29 June 2016 From the sectionScience & EnvironmentJump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player . Press enter to return or tab to continue . Media captionProfessor Jos Barlow explains how human disturbances are making the Amazon rainforest ' more flammable '. Human disturbances are making the Amazon rainforest more flammable , according to researchers . This is one of the conclusions of a two - year study of the Brazilian Amazon , which revealed that even protected forest is degraded by human activity . This activity includes selective logging and forest fragmentation , which increase the likelihood of wildfires . The findings are published in the journal Nature . " Rainforests don ' t normally burn , " said lead researcher Prof Jos Barlow , from the Lancaster Environment Centre . " But human activities are making them much more flammable . " Image copyrightA LEESImage captionHuman disturbance is having more of an impact in the Amazon than had been thoughtWhile the Brazilian Amazon is protected from large - scale deforestation , this new study suggests that more effort is needed to safeguard what the scientists called the " hyper - diversity of tropical forests ". This team set out to measure the effects that humans have on the rainforest - no easy feat in a dense landscape of 5 . 5 million sq km . They selected 400 plots , on a gradient of forest cover - ranging from pristine to deforested areas . It took two years to gather data from these sites across the Eastern Amazon - painstakingly measuring population densities of trees , birds and insects . Crucially , this study examined areas of forest that are protected by the Forest Code - the central policy designed to control deforestation , and requiring landowners in the Amazon to maintain up to 80 % forest cover . " If you can imagine a landscape with 80 % forest cover , I think most environmentalists would say that ' s a very good scenario and you ' ve maintained most of your core habitat there , " Prof Barlow told the BBC . " But what we found was those landscapes only really have 50 % of their potential value , because of disturbance in the remaining forest . " Disturbance , he explained , could include selective logging , hunting - " anything that humans do to the forests ". Selective logging , for example , can leave the forest fragmented or punch holes in the canopy , drying out the vegetation below . This , combined with the effects of climate change , is leaving the Amazon much more likely to catch fire . Another member of the team , Dr Alexander Lees from Cornell University , said that many bird species unique to the Amazon were suffering the most from these effects . These endemic species , he said , " cannot survive in disturbed forests ". Image copyrightA LEESImage captionThe Amazon Rainforest covers 5 . 5 million sq km and stores more than 100 billion tonnes of carbon " We need to keep focusing on reducing deforestation , " said Prof Barlow , " but we need to think about forest disturbance - how we can monitor it , how we can reduce it , and how we can maintain pristine forest in large blocks as well . "" Immediate action is required to combat forest disturbance in tropical nations , " said Silvio Ferraz from the University of Sao Paulo , who was also involved in the study . " This is particularly important in Brazil , which holds up to 40 % of the world ' s remaining tropical forests ". Prof Barlow added : " If we ' re interested in conserving the life that lives with us on this planet today , then we need to conserve these systems . "