Geography (3.5 Tropical Rainforest of Amazon) Flashcards
(3 cards)
What are the reasons for the deforestation of the tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin
The tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin in south america has been cleared extensively. Here are a few reasons:
1) Housing
One of the major reasons for clearing the forest is to build more houses for the people as the population is growing rapidly. In addition, more houses are built in the deforested areas to resettle people from densely populated cities in Brazil such as Rio de Janeiro and Sau Paulo
3) Transport
The building of roads and the east west Trans Amazonia Highway has resulted in the extensive deforestation of the tropical rainforest in Brazil.
4) Natural Resources
The tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin offers many valuable natural resources such as timber, mineral ores and crude oil. Extensive deforestation has resulted when these natural resources are extracted.
a) Timber
The rising demand for hard woods from the tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin has contributed to the extensive deforestation.
b) Mineral ores
There are large deposits of gold, bauxite, iron ore, tin ore and diamonds in the Amazon Basin. Large areas of the forest have been cleared . For instance about one - sixth of Brazil’s tropical rainforest has been cleared to mine the high - quality iron ore found there. Other parts of Brazil’s rainforest have also been cleared to mine tin ore.
c) Crude oil
Crude oil is being extracted. The tropical rainforest have been cleared for this purpose as well to build roads and refineries for processing the crude oil.
2) Agriculture
Extensive areas of the tropical rainforest have been cleared to grow pasture to rear cattle and grow crops for subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture.
The export of beef to developed countries such as the USA, Canada, Japan and France brings in valuable revenue. As a result the Amazonian governments encourage cattle ranching by offering financial help and tax incentives to cattle ranchers. This has resulted in extensive areas of the tropical rainforest being burnt and cleared so that pasture can be grown for cattle.
Shifting cultivators clear the tropical rainforest to grow crops such as maize and potatoes to feed their families.
In Brazil, the peasants have been giving plots of the tropical rainforest to clear the subsistence agriculture. The Brazilian government hopes that these peasants will eventually become self sufficient in food.
The tropical rainforest has also been cleared in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil for plantation agriculture. Crops such as sugar cane, coffee and bananas are grown for sale.
Conclusion:
Deforestation causes global warming. Rare species of plants and animals are lost. The animals suffer and die away when they lose their free homes. The rainforest tribes suffer when they lose the lands they live on. So we must learn to use the rainforest sustainably.
