tropical rain forest - man-land relationship

© Oxford University Press 2009

Tropical Rain Forest -Tropical Rain Forest -Man-land relationshipMan-land relationshipTropical Rain Forest -Tropical Rain Forest -Man-land relationshipMan-land relationship


1 What is happening1 What is happening to tropical to tropical rainforests?rainforests?


What are your impressions about a tropical rainforest?

Luxuriant growth of plants?

Rainforest in Temburong, Brunei(Credit: Ng Kim Hung)


Rich diversity of plant and animal

species?


Or the deforested scenes of

rainforests?

Destroyed Amazon rainforest

Where are the tropical rainforests?

(Credit: Reuters/OTHK)


Where are tropical rainforests?

Where can we find tropical

rainforests?


rainforests?

Tropical rainforests can be found between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Where can we find the largest area of tropical

rainforests in the world?



Tropical rainforests are found mainly around the Equator and the area between latitudes 10o N and S.

These regions usually have high temperature, rainfall and humidity.


Where are tropical rainforests?


rainforests?


rainforests?

Tropical rainforests can be found between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.





The largest area of tropical rainforests in the world is in the Amazon Basin in South America.

Congo BasinSouth-east Asia

AmazonBasin


What has happened to tropical rainforests?

The change in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest cover (1990–2006)

The rainforests in the Brazilian Amazon has been losing at a rapid rate.

What has happened to the tropical

rainforests in the Brazilian Amazon?

What has happened to the tropical

rainforests in the Brazilian Amazon?


How can we identify the phenomenon from satellite images?

Satellite image of Brazilian Amazon in 1975

1975197519861986


Deforestation carried out along roads, developing ‘fish-skeleton’ patterns

Undisturbed forest

19921992


(Credit: NASA)


How can we identify the phenomenon from satellite images?

19921992(Credit: NASA)

What changes had been

taken place in the rainforest

cover?

What changes had been

taken place in the rainforest

cover?

The rainforest cover in the Brazilian Amazon had been shrinking between 1975 and 1992.

Roads were built into the rainforest, where forests were cleared along them.


How about the situation in other rainforests in other parts of the world?

Changes in tropical rainforest cover throughout the world

Source: Washington DC: Global Forest Watch

Congo Basin: relatively slower rate, but still significant

South-east Asia: most seriously deforested

Amazon Basin: deforested in an alarming rate



Are tropical rainforests

disappearing rapidly?

Are tropical rainforests

disappearing rapidly?



Do you know?Do you know?

423290 8.14 56.10

69210 4.92 56.98

280720 24.08 46.46

14140 2.02 53.49

7110 1.16 53.32

40550 6.46 53.47

20860 6.62 63.60

8540 6.24 14.98

47780 6.92 32.80

2550 1.12 65.70

The Amazon Basin holds about 1/3 of the worlds’ rainforests.

Another 20% are located in Indonesia and the Congo Basin.



Each second: About 1 hectare of rainforest disappears (= the area of 1 Hong Kong Stadium)

Each minute: About 60 hectares of rainforest disappears (= the area of 60 Hong Kong Stadium)

Each day: About 86 000 hectare of rainforest disappears (about 0.8 times of Hong Kong’s total area)

Each year: About 31 million hectare of rainforest disappears (about 282 times of Hong Kong’s total area)



More than 2/3 of the world’s tropical rainforests are damaged by human activities.

Deforestation refers to human extraction of resources by cutting trees down. The scale?

Tropical rainforests once covered about 12% of the Earth’s land surface but now they are reduced to 5% today.


Why do people remove the rainforests?

Why do people remove the rainforests?

How should rainforest resources

be managed and conserved?

How should rainforest resources

be managed and conserved?

What can we do to help protect and sustain tropical

rainforests?

What can we do to help protect and sustain tropical

rainforests?

tropical rain forest - man-land relationship

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