New Community Project - Who are we?

The New Community Project is a faith-based nonprofit organization with the modest goal of changing the world! People are struggling, the earth is a mess, God's not amused, and we all know something's not right here. Our mission is to provide experiences that change us, resources that challenge us, and a community that gives us hope. Learn more about our programs and projects here and read about one specific area of our work below. Glad to have you along!

Every picture tells a story: The Amazon

The beginning of the end...?

“Our lives will be shorter.”

That's how NCP Learning Tour guide Delio (photo at left), leader of the Siona people in the Ecuadorian Amazon, responded when someone asked what he thought about the future. Reasons for his concern? Impacts such as diseases from the outside world, the health effects of herbicides being sprayed on coca leaves in nearby Colombia as part of the US “war on drugs,” and the general deterioration of the ecosystem in this part of Ecuador—mostly from petroleum operations.

Not only are the native people of Amazonia in jeopardy, but so is the forest itself. The Amazon is set to lose another 5000 square miles this year—about the size of your average US state. So far, this expansive forest—the size of the US west of the Mississippi River and located in parts of eight South American countries—has lost 20 percent of its intact forest. And now they say could cease to “operate” by the end of the century. As the hydrological cycle continues to be disrupted by deforestation, this region could flip over to become a grassland savannah. Think Tanzania.

In a very real sense, as the Amazon goes, so go we all. This forest alone is responsible for 20 percent of the world's oxygen, receives 18 percent of the planet's fresh water, is habitat for 30 percent of terrestrial plant and animal species, and absorbs vast amounts of our excess CO2—sequestering 200 tons per acre!

The causes of this destruction are many but the major culprit is cattle ranching—some 57 million head of cattle occupy what was formerly rainforest. Not far behind are soybeans and other crops, oil exploration, illegal logging, and incursions by the poor—as regional governments turn a blind eye or even encourage settlement of the forest. All in all, the rainforests of the world have become the source of one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions as they are burned—releasing their stored carbon—to make way for all-of-the-above.

A new beginning…?

There is a renewed recognition of the importance of the world's rainforests as harbors of biodiversity, sources for medicinal plants, climate stabilizers, and preserving the oxygen and rainfall cycles.

Click here for the rest of the story…