How can we sustainably develop an area of tropical rainforest?
Introduction to the Rainforest:
Rainforests can be found near the earth’s Equator where temperatures are high. Since the Equator is mostly tilted towards the sun, their biomes have high temperatures and humidity which allows for a large diversity of animals and plants to live there. This is unlike forests which consists of mainly one type of tree and doesn’t have much diversity in its plants and animals.
Figure 1- Distribution of tropical rainforests
“Earths lungs”
Clearly, the largest is the Amazon Rainforest.
Figure 2- Amazon in Brazil
The Amazon spreads on many countries in South America.
The Amazon rainforest is disappearing fast from the earth’s surface because of deforestation which is putting a risk on the forest.
Falls onto eight nations. 60 % of it is inside Brazil therefore they have large control on it. .
4,100,000 square kilometres
Figure 3- Layers of the Amazon
Emergent Layer - These are the tallest trees which get plenty of light. Monkeys, bats and butterflies can be found here.
Canopy – Maze of leaves and branches that have many animals living in it due to so much food. Animals include snakes, toucan and tree frogs.
Under Story – little sunlight gets here and so leaves grow out to be able to catch it
Forest floor – almost no plants grow here since it is dark and so it decays really fast.
Giant ant eaters live here.
- Source of information.
This is relevant to our research as it shows how unique the rainforest is. Unlike forests the Amazon has many layers to it and different types of trees that can only be found in the Amazon to show how important it is to protect it from any dangers. Not only that, but the Amazon took many generations to build up to this sort of environment and is really important for the development of the world and habitats.
Causes of Deforestation:
Figure 3 – Causes of Deforestation
Logging, though it doesn’t contribute heavily, is still done so that the timber could be used for things such as chairs, home objects and other things that are made of wood inside the home.
Large scale agriculture for example Soya bean plantations.
Human exploitation is taking its toll on the Amazon Rainforest. When infrastructure is built it is easier for businesses in the Amazon to be able to transport and build up their companies which wouldn’t have been possible without infrastructure. For example, cattle ranching are the biggest cause of deforestation taking up to 65-70% of deforested land which can be seen on the Mongabay website who have done a study into the Amazon rainforest and its exploitation.
Trees are cut down for the sake of breeding cattle whose beef and leather is exported to MNC’s and this land is cleared to make space for the cattle to graze and to move freely. The second biggest cause is small time agriculture (20 – 25 % as seen in Figure 3 taken from Mongabay). Since Brazil still has many poor people, they encourage poor farmers to move to the Amazon. Since there’s infrastructure farmers are further encouraged to move there since they can easily get around. When they settle down there they chop down trees to start farming, but due to lack of care the soil erodes quickly and becomes infertile so they cut down more trees to be able to farm.
