6.8 Flashcards
How does Slash and Burn farming (or Shifting Cultivation) work
Farmers clear small areas by cutting and burning trees
Ash from burning adds nutrients to soil
Land farmed for food for 5yrs but after that soil becomes infertile and farmers move to a new area
What type of farming is slash and burn
Sustainable if done by a small number of farmers
Population rise and poverty rising meaning farmers are using more than ever
Main causes for forest loss
Fires
Commercial Exploitation
Main causes for forest loss: Fire
Especially along drier forest edges.
As drier forest decays and is destroyed by fire, emissions of solid particles (aerosols) and wind-blown soil result in impaired air quality and human respiratory problems increase.
Drier soils and lack of protection from vegetation cover increase soil erosion, which again may affect food supplies in longer term
Main causes for forest loss: Fire example
During 2005 Amazonia drought, Capixaba in Acre State, Brazil, experienced 181% increase in hospitalisations and in 2010 Fatima in Tocantins State had 267% increase
Main causes for forest loss: Commercial Exploitation
Palm oil industry meets growing demands for a much-desired raw material, but local can come off badly as a result.
Many depend on rainforests for everything they need to survive. Smallholders and indigenous people who have inhabited forest for generations are often driven away by actions of palm oil producers.
Main causes for forest loss: Commercial Exploitation example
Efe tribe of Intuir rainforest in Congo Basin of Africa exist of 30,000 who rely solely of rainforest for their livelihoods
Forest is their source of food, housing, trade, medicine and cultural
Kuznets Curve principles
Based on economic principles
Suggests as country develops, damage to natural environment first increase.
As resources are exploited and tech cause pollution and degradation, but that over time, as tech becomes more efficient, fewer resources are used, new resources are created an pollution leves fall.
Example of country trying to protect its forests
Indonesia
Indonesia scheme to protect forest and significance
Forest Moratorium
Reduced clearance by 15%
Reduced CO2 emissions by 26% 2020
How climate change could affect coastal communities who
depend on fishing
Climate change altering destruction and productivity of species, food webs and biological processes
Coral reefs shelter 25% marine species. But ocean acidification and warming oceans leading to coral bleaching, affecting food sources and incomes for people living in coastal communities
