Deforestation In South Ecuador

Deforestation poses an alarming threat to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and it has been a serious concern for over 40 years. For thousands of years, the abundant, valuable resources in the Amazon were familiar only to the indigenous people of the region. In the 1500’s, before European colonization of Brazil, there were an estimated six to nine million individuals part of different cultures that made up a rich Amazonian society (“History”). Surrounded by the luxuriant rainforest and its natural resources, these indigenous tribes were able to thrive by utilizing the resources without destroying their habitat. After European emigration, the government of Brazil exploited the value of the Amazon’s resources in the twentieth century. In the 1970’s, the Brazilian government discovered the “untapped source of boundless potential” hiding in the Amazon and began using incentives to persuade settlers to develop its resources (Casey). Once economists realized the importance of the resources found within the rainforest, European pioneers set out to transform the Amazon into their home. By endorsing colonization, the government could not only boost the country’s economy, but also gain control over Brazil’s vast territory. The government supported migration to the rainforest and campaigned for the construction of infrastructure (“History”). In concurrence, the development of roads such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a 2,000 mile road built in 1972, granted people and machinery entrance to

Deforestation is defined as: “the clearing of virgin forests, or intentional destruction or removal of trees and other vegetation for agricultural, commercial, housing, or firewood use without replanting and without allowing time for the forest to regenerate itself” (SCRIBD). Deforestation has been a problem in Latin America since the early 1900s and the severity of the dilemma is increasing rapidly. Deforestation not only has consequences for the environment, but also, the indigenous people and the national economy. The logging industry in Latin America is often exploited by multinational companies that are not properly regulated. The land that has provided a home and cultivated indigenous development for centuries is being dissipated rapidly. Due to an exponentially growing global population, there is an increased demand for low priced goods--like timber, crops, and meat. Many Latin American countries value revenue from selling these goods over the health of their local ecosystems. The crisis of deforestation and habitat loss is shifting from a local to global problem. As deforestation continues, global warming escalates worldwide, impacting every country and person. About 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation, which is more than from all the world’s cars, trucks and buses combined (Schwartzman). Puerto Rico and Brazil provide contrasting examples of the impact of deforestation. Puerto Rico had an economic and environmental shift

Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious

Tropical rainforests are the Earth?s oldest, richest, most productive, and most complex living ecosystems. They are located throughout many of the world?s continents including South America, Africa, and Asia and are defined by a few specific factors. Their location must be within the regions of the tropics and they must receive between 4-8 meters of rain per year (compared to about 1-2 meters in the United States). These forests also have no ?seasonality?, which means that they lack a definite dry or cold season of slowed growth.

In Middle and South America, it is evident that human interactions affect the physical features. The human interaction that affects Middle and South America is deforestation. In 1970’s a period of deforestation began in Brazil with the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway; the road allowed migrant farmers to grow crops (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2012). Deforestation continued throughout Middle and South America. The use lodging of hardwoods, extracting minerals, oil, gas, stones and clearing off land for raising cattle, and growing crops has impacted most of the land in Middle and South America (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2012). The human interaction of deforestation has led to many environmental issues, changes in physical features. There are loss

"An estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest are lost each year." (LiveScience).

From 1990 to 2005, deforestation, or the removal of trees, was happening at an average rate of 13 million hectares (32.11 million acres) per year (Hope 247). In many ways, deforestation has been the reason for great economic success which turns people on to the idea even more. Deforestation is an essential element in promoting and encouraging developmental growth. Some places around the world may feel obligated to resort to deforestation due to population increases around the world. The concept of deforestation may seem to have a positive impact on society, but many people fail to consider the importance of replanting the trees that were harvested and removed. Deforestation mainly affects North and South America, but because of the Transamazon

Individuals have been deforesting the Earth for a large number of years, fundamentally to clear land for yields or domesticated animals. "Deforestation" is the lasting devastation of timberlands with a specific end goal to make the area accessible for different uses; what's more, as indicated by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization an expected 18 million sections of land of backwoods, which is generally the nation's extent of Panama, are lost every year; Although tropical woods are to a great extent bound to creating nations, they aren't simply meeting nearby or national needs; monetary globalization implies that the needs and needs of the worldwide populace are hunkering down on them also.

During the past 30 years, deforestation in the Amazon has been a huge problem. The Amazon Rainforest is home to an estimated one-third of all known animal species and makes up about half of the world’s rainforests. The reasons for the deforestation is to expand pastures for cattle production, and fields to grow soybeans. ("Brazil Geography-Introduction." N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2016.)

Ecuador loses almost 200,000 hectares of forest each year and has the distinction of having the second highest rate of deforestation in South America. Historically, this can be traced alongside the scale of the oil boom during the past decades and has roots as far back as the rubber boom in 1894.

Brazil has been said to be one the of the most beautiful and pleasant places on Earth, but with the secrets hiding behind their closed doors, will they even last long enough in their dying nation to see the success that tourists do? Brazil is on the path to collapse because they are unable to survive as a nation on their own. According to CNN, “⅓ of Brazilian Southerners vaguely favor some form of secession.” Brazil has a weak central government, they don’t pay much regard to the tremendous financial crisis and debt, and one of their most beautiful locations is on the verge of moribund. Citizens of Brazil have paradoxically been reported to feel “alienated” because their own government seems disinterested in public affairs and do not directly address them.

Deforestation is an environmental problem everybody gets affected by; but not equally. Cutting down trees and degrading the soil of an eco-system can change it for the worse and leave it unrecoverable. The Amazon Rainforest is a large and very biodiverse ecosystem that stretches across 5,500,000 kilometers. The Amazon Rainforest is not a stranger to deforestation since the late 1960’s. Deforestation in the amazon forest will cripple all organisms that rely heavily on the forest to provide for a sustainable life, while others not directly impacted may benefit from it. Other people may benefit from the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest from the profit that comes with the use of land for agriculture/livestock. However, the tribes, plants, and animals, that live in the Amazon Rainforest suffer from the loss of Biodiversity, the habitat and resources that are being taken away from clearing forests, and the reduced air quality along with the increased carbon emissions. Deforestation is a process of demolition towards the ecosystem.

Our world has had deforestation for a while and worldwide, 32 million acres of forests are cleared each year (“Docksai, 45-51”). While we have trees being cut down, especially in the Amazon in Brazil is also a home to tropical rainforests plants with cancer-fighting compounds (“Balaguer, 14-21”). During the time of October and November of 2013 scientists have found that there has been a 136% increase in deforestation (“Balaguer, 14-21”). The reason why I care so much about deforestation is that trees on earth carry oxygen for us and if there are no more trees and we have an overpopulated world we probably won’t be alive. Another reason why is that the Amazon forests are homes to beautiful animals such as the birds there.

Settlers should control the land because it was hard for them to find food or places to farm, the government encouraged them to move there, and agriculture makes up a quarter of the country’s economic output. Although many people state that the settlers are the reason deforestation and other things are happening in Brazil, they haven’t realized that many of these things are affecting them also.

Deforestation has been plainly defined as a “large clearing of trees”, but it is much more than that. With mass amounts of tree removal there is also loss of habitat which destroys homes and causes many resources to go to waste. Logging, mining, cattle ranching, and oil/gas extraction are just a few causes of deforestation. The Amazon Rainforest being the largest rainforest in the world puts it at the highest risk to be destroyed. There are consequences that come along with deforestation being extinction, habitat loss, climate change and pollution. Those are just environmental effects; there can be culture loss, forceful relocation of tribes, political conflict involving deforestation, and loss of resources for the surrounding people. To