Maize being grown in a forest clearing in the Amazon

Why is this happening?

The Trans-Amazonian Highway

New roads and railways – many new roads and railways have been built deep into the rainforest. The trans-Amazonian highway is the longest: 5300 km (3300 miles) across brazil from east to west.

The roads help move timber, cattle and crops to markets.

People from other parts of Brazil have settled along these roads.

In Malaysia, a new international airport has been built near the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Mining – large areas of forest are cleared in order to reach valuable minerals such as tin, iron ore, gold, copper, bauxite, diamonds and other minerals. These are exported and earn money for the countries.

Large areas of forest have also been removed to build massive hydro-electric power schemes. Valleys are flooded by the reservoirs created.

The HEP schemes provide cheap and plentiful energy for industry, transport and domestic use.

Reservoirs and Hydro-Electric Power (HEP)

Ranching – large areas of forest have been bought by multi-national companies for cattle ranching. These companies burn down the forest and replace the forest with grass. The beef from the cattle ranches mostly go to fast-food chains in the USA and Europe to make burgers. Brazil is now the largest exporter of beef in the world.

70% of cleared land

in the Amazon is for

ranching!

Settlement – new settlements are being built in the heart of the rainforest to reduce the number of people going to the cities. Population increase means that some cities are expanding into the forest. In Brazil a new city, Brasilia, has been built in the forest.

Logging – rainforest wood such as teak, ebony, mahogany and cider are cut down and sold to other countries. This provide the rainforest countries with money, some of which is used to pay off debt.

However most of the profit from the hardwood trade goes to the multinational companies of Europe and America.

Agriculture (farming)

• Generations of native people have used the land for subsistence farming, such as ‘slash and burn’. This kind of farming does little damage to the forest.

• Commercial farming in plantations started during the colonial period is also very common. Crops such as rubber, coffee, cocoa, soya and palm trees are grown for sale overseas. 80% of all plantations found in the tropics are in Asia. Soya is mainly used for feeding pigs and chicken in Europe. Malaysia is now the world’s largest exporter of palm oil.

Fuel and building material – wood is an important source for fuel, used in cooking. It is also the main building material.

coffee plantations in brazil

Oil fields in the Amazon

Methods of destruction include:

•Destruction by fire is the easist and quickest way to destroy forests.

•Logging – trees are cut down by loggers as hardwoods such as teak and mahogany can be sold for large sums of money abroad.

•Trees destroyed by valleys being flooded for reservoirs and Hydroelectris Power stations (HEP)

Why cut them down?

People profit from deforestation by:

•Hardwoods being sold for timber (e.g Mahogany and Teak)

•Farming (e.g. soya beans and cattle ranches)

•Mining (e.g. iron ore, copper, bauxite and gold)

•Fuel (e.g. charcoal can be used in local iron smelting)

Why are the rainforests being cut down?• More roads and railways have been built to gain access to the valuable resources of the rainforest.•Land is cleared for cattle ranches to feed a growing population and sell the meat all over the world.•To build new towns to resettle people from over crowded parts of the country.•To mine the minerals(Gold, silver, tin, oil etc) to make money and provide their own industries with raw materials•To put crop farms on the land to feed their own populations and sell the food all over the world•The logging industries as hard woods like teak and mahogany are extremely valuable•Reservoirs and HEP stations are built to harness the energy of the powerful rivers.•Massive soya farms are now there as this soya is used as animal feed to feed the millions of cattle now in the rainforest.•Coffee plantations to export the coffee•Land is cleared by newly arrived farmers from cities who are given land in the rainforest to farm.

What are the impacts of these changes on: 1) The natives and other people who who live in the rainforest2) The environment of the countries like Brazil or Indonesia and the whole planet

The natives and the people/newcomers who live in the rainforest 1. Developments such as cattle ranches and logging have resulted in

many tribes losing their land. Contact with the outside world has resulted in them losing their traditional way of life.

2. Many tribes have been forced to live in reservations for their own protection as many are killed/massacred if they refuse to move off their land by the big companies.

3. Many natives die of diseases brought into the rainforest by outsides like the common cold or flu as their bodies have no immunity to this disease.

4. As their land is being taken off them they have less land area to practice shifting cultivation therefore land being used will become infertile due to overuse, lead to less yields and soil erosion.

5. On the plus side, many of the natives and other new comers to the Amazon get jobs in the mines and their children receive basic education and health care. Although in many cases the profits from the rainforest are sent out of Brazil as foreign companies own the mines/cattle ranches etc

6. Brazil also makes billions of pounds utilising the resources of the rainforest which can then be spent on improving the quality of life of most people living in the country(building new schools/hospitals etc)

The effects on the environment of the rainforest and the whole planet

• Removal of large areas of the rainforest has endangered and made extinct thousands of different types of plants and animals. This means future cures for diseases like cancer will be lost forever.

• Large scale mining has caused pollution of rivers e.g. Mercury which is used to extract gold causes severe poisoning and deaths of the natives.

• New roads artificially divide the rainforest and this affects rainforest life. For example, a road can stop monkeys or other wildlife from travelling to gather food and in turn leads to interbreeding which can cause extinction of animals.

• Large scale deforestation means there are less trees to transpire which means the rainforest will die out as there will be less rainfall to sustain the trees.

• Large scale deforestation also affects the whole planet as the trees absorb carbon dioxide. With less trees there will be more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to increase global warming.

Management strategies to minimise the impacts and extent of deforestation

• Selective logging - trees are only felled when they reach a particular height and only the valuable trees are cut down. This protects young trees and helps the forest grow back quickly therefore reducing damage to the area. By doing this the forest recovers very quickly.

• Afforestation - the opposite of deforestation. If trees are cut down, they are replaced to maintain the canopy and protect the local environment. In reality it is hard to replant rainforests and bring them back to their original state as there can be hundreds of types of trees in one small area.

• Agro-forestry - growing trees and crops at the same time. This lets farmers take advantage of shelter from the canopy of trees. It prevents soil erosion and the crops benefit from the nutrients from the dead organic matter.

• National parks -Vast areas of the Amazon rainforest have been made into national parks that are protected from developments like logging. In reality these areas that so huge and the police lacking in man power means that illegal logging and farming continues. Brazils environment agency(Ibama) are woefully under funded and undermanned.

• Monitoring – Ibama use satellite technology and photography to check that any activities taking place are legal and follow guidelines for sustainability. Using satellites allows the limited police force some way of going in and stopping the illegal activities. Cops and loggers in the Amazon rainforest - YouTube

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• Rich countries could also ban the importing of hard woods from the rainforest which would effectively remove the market for the illegal logging that takes place.•Many tribes were also given ownership of huge parts of the rainforest by the govt although illegal logging still continues as the areas are so big and policing is so ineffective. • The debt for nature scheme has had a few successes in recent years as countries like America have cancelled some of the debt of countries in return for them promising not to touch parts of the rainforest. In 2011 they set aside 13 million of Brazilian debt to set aside some of the Amazon.

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Only chop down the fully grown trees and the types of trees that are valuable

back

Agro forestry in the Amazon

back

National parks in the Amazon back

Land set aside for tribes ownership

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