Nowadays, Equatorial Rainforests are cleared for many reasons; especially for purposes where companies or people can make money. Some of these purposes are:
- Ranching
- Tree Felling
- Farming
- Mining
Ranching
In ranching, large areas of rainforests are cleared and cattle ranches built on the land. As cows are constantly grazing on the land, the soil nutrients are lost and soon the land becomes useless to the cows because there is no longer enough grass. When this happens more rainforest has to be cleared.
Tree Felling
The rainforest is home to many hardwood trees. These trees are very popular for their use in furniture making. Large companies go to the rainforest with their heavy machinery, in order to cut down these trees and obtain the lumber. After these trees have been cut down, they have to be dragged the forest floor. On doing this, other plants are destroyed, and animals home are also destroyed.
Farming
Big companies move into rainforest areas are remove the trees by the slash-and-burn method. They then grow crops on the land they have cleared. After growing crops on an area of land for a couple years, the soil becomes infertile and the crop production becomes quite low. These farmers then clear another area of land for the purpose of planting more crops. The barren land that they have left soon becomes eroded, as it has no vegetation covering.
Mining
The lands in rainforests can sometimes be very rich in precious metals such as bauxite, aluminium, gold and diamond etc. Mining companies come in and clear the land so that they may use it for mining purposes. In this habitats of animals are often destroyed. Also, the waste materials from the mining are often dumped in nearby rivers. This waste sometimes contains hazardous chemicals, which can be very harmful to plant and animal life.
Equatorial Rainforests are very important in the world today. They are the largest ecosystems in the world today and play a major role in the biological diversity (biodiversity). Biodiversity can be defined as the variety and variability among living organisms in their ecosystem. Equatorial Rainforests provide home for half of the world’s plant and animal species. Many of these species whether plant or animal cannot live without each other, as they are inter-related. Some species of animal need to feed on a certain species of plant, while some species of plant rely on a certain species of animal to spread their pollen. When the rainforest is cleared, certain species of plant are destroyed. The animals (herbivores) which, use to feed on them, now have problems in finding food. These species begin to die out, and because of this the species that use to rely on them for food, begin to die out also and so on. As a result of the destruction of rainforests many species of plant and animal that have not yet been discovered by scientists have become extinct.
Equatorial Rainforests are also important in that they balance the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. When plants and animals respire, Carbon Dioxide is given out. When the plants in the rainforest photosynthesise they take in some of this Carbon Dioxide and give back out Oxygen. The CO2-O2 cycle is kept going. When rainforests are removed, a considerable amount of trees and plant life are destroyed. This means there are fewer plants in the world to keep the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere balanced. This results in an increase of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which, along with other greenhouse gases, prevents heat rays from leaving the atmosphere. This results in global warming. Scientists have predicted that global warming will cause the average temperature on Earth to increase and so the global climate and rainfall patterns will be changed. It is also believed that when the temperatures on Earth rise, that the ice caps of Polar Regions may melt. Scientists say that this will cause a rising of sea level and that many low lying areas such as some Caribbean islands will be flooded or will become permanently under water.
Equatorial Rainforests also increase the amount of rainfall at or near the equator. Most of the rain in these areas is of the convectional type and comes from the evapo-transpiration of moisture from the trees. When the rainforest is cleared, it means that there will be a significantly lower amount of rainfall. As the land is also bare it receives much more sunlight and with a decrease in rainfall, the surface temperature becomes much hotter. At night on the other hand the temperatures becomes a lot cooler than before, because there is no canopy of trees to keep the heat in. The wide range of temperature now experienced creates an area of wasteland where plants can no longer grow.
Equatorial Rainforests also protect against soil erosion and mudslides and landslides. The roots of the plants and trees hold the soil firmly in their places. Also the vegetation covering prevents the heavy afternoon rainfalls from eroding the soils. When the trees in the rainforest are removed, the soil no longer is bound together and the canopy is no longer there to protect the soil against rain. When it rains soil erosion occurs. Over 150 tonnes of soil can be moved from one hectare. Landslides or mudslides can also occur.
Unbeknownst to most people in the world today, the Equatorial Rainforests is home to a rather large number of people. It is believed that about 200,000 people live in the Amazon Basin in Brazil. These people are primitive and are of different tribes. They rely of mainly hunting, fishing and planting crops to survive. When the rainforest is deforested, the lives of these people is often not taken into consideration by the companies who own or have just bought the land. The move in with their heavy machinery and force the native inhabitants to leave and find a new home. It usually takes some time and it is not easy for these primitive people to resettle. These people’s main source of water is the river. The people bathe in the river water, they use it to cook and to wash. When chemicals from mining contaminate this water and they use it they become very sick. As they are not as sophisticated as people in the modern world, they have no cure or protection against these sicknesses or diseases; as a result they often die.
For all the various reasons stated above it is necessary that Equatorial rainforests be conserved.
In the world today, 15 of the 70 rainforests countries have their rainforests in a conservation scheme. In some of the other countries the rainforests are not in conservation schemes but laws have been passed which prohibit the clearing of rainforest land for any purpose. In England and some other European nations including Germany foundations are encouraging people to boycott goods that have been made using tropical timber from rainforests. As a result of all this, the use of rainforests for timber has somewhat decreased. Some manufacturing companies no longer use mahogany and teak to make furniture. They instead use plastic or aluminium and then cover it with a layer of veneer.
