'The loss of tropical rainforests is the most crucial ecological issue of our time.'

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        ‘The loss of tropical rainforests is the most crucial ecological issue of our time.’

CATHERINE CAUFIELD, AUTHER OF ‘IN THE RAINFORESTS.

The Background.

1a         Large areas of the Amazon Rainforest have already been removed, there is an estimated 20% been cut and burnt down.  This problem can be caused by many different reasons. The Amazon is such a central area for worry because it contains over 50% of the world's natural rainforests and if it is destroyed then the ultimate scenario is world devastation.

Circumstances that make people feel the need to cut down rainforests cause people to go about it in different ways.  The ways in which they go about it can be classified as either sustainable or non-sustainable.  Unfortunately most practices that go on in the rainforest are non-sustainable and can cause long- term damage to them.  The reasons for the deforestation are very complicated.  It is a vicious circle.

Here are some of those reasons:

THE RAINFOREST IS RICH IN RESOURSES.

The rainforest covers a large amount of land and under its surface there are many natural resources such as gold, oil, natural gases, coal and iron, tin and bauxite ores.  As these types of resources are becoming scarce in other parts of the world and the Amazon is rich in them, people are moving to the Amazon to mine them.  Opencast mining is often used; this causes large areas of devastation as the land is stripped of its topsoil and nutrients to get to the minerals underneath.  

Another resource of the rainforest is its large amount of timber.  Legal and illegal logging takes place.  The rainforest has a large variety of trees that attract these people including some that produce high quality, expensive woods such as mahogany.  

THE RAINFOREST LAND IS CHEAP, IDEAL FOR RANCHES OR FARMS.

The rainforest land is relatively cheap and sometimes free as the Government encourages development of the area to boost the economy.  Indigenous tribes, agro- foresters, ranchers and small-scale farmers are attracted to the area.  All these types of farmers farm the land in different ways but all cut down trees to clear the land.

When trees are cut down and land is left exposed it can become leached of nutrients so rendering it useless so more land has to be cleared.  This causes a vicious circle, which causes lots of damage to the rainforests.  

GROWING POPULATION AND TOURISM.

Brazils population is rising quickly, as this is a developing country this is to be expected.  This does cause the problem of insufficient land to accommodate all the people.  The Government is pressing for more of the rainforest be cleared to make room for more settlements.

Tourists coming to the area are encouraging occupants of Brazil to remove rainforests and make room for tourist facilities as they see this as being profitable.  The Government finds it hard to object as tourists provide much needed income for the country and again boost the economy.  

As a result of the economic pressures the Tropical Rainforest of the Amazon is being removed at an increasing rate each year to make way for a developing country.  If it is not stopped soon then it can cause a wide range of problems for the rest of the world.

1b

These two graphs show rates of loss and area of the rainforest. They have been taken from the text book; ‘People, Places and Themes’.  The blue bars show the figures for Latin America (Brazil etc).

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Graph D shows clearly the large amount of rainforest still left in Latin America compared to Asia and Africa (the other large areas containing rainforest).  It tells us that the total area of rainforest in 1975 was approximately 6250 million hectares in Latin America, approximately 2000 million in Africa and approximately 3000 in Asia.  By 2000, when the results are shown again on the graph, the rainforest area had fallen to approximately 5750 million hectares in Latin America, approximately 1750 million in Africa and approximately 2500 million in Asia.  This is a difference of an estimated 500 million hectares in ...

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