Deforestation Of The Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation presents in an abundance of ways, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. The foremost reason of deforestation in Latin America is the requirement for food, fuel, shelter, and foreign exchange. Year on year, a space of tropical forest the size of Great Britain is "converted" from an area equal to the size of Europe. Ever since 1950, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), half of the world 's forests have disappeared. “Latin America has lost 37 percent of its tropical forests,” says the FAO. As more and more of Latin American forest are degraded, more and more detrimental effects are being seen. Deforestation is changing a number of resources for tribal groups, altering their way of life, temperatures are increasing at a dangerous rate because of a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, habitats and species such as plants and wildlife are being annexed due to the destructive effects of deforestation. Deforestation is inarguably helpful to supplying money to countries that sell the products from the forest, but huge wealth being generated from the forests comes with large-scale environmental and social costs. The local residences are not benefitting and the funds are being siphoned out of the region.

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

However, due to more people searching for plots there is greater pressure on the amount of available land. The logging industry is responsible for a relatively small level of deforestation, accounting for 3% in Brazil. Consequently, all these activity contribute together to the rapid loss of what is left of the rainforest and a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity. All of the resources that the rainforest provides could be lost in the next 40 years.

Today, the total percentage of forest cover of the earth is approximately thirty percent (“Deforestation”). That is about nine percent of the world’s total surface. The largest rainforest is the Amazon River Basin, located in South America. The Amazon is home to many species of animals, insects, plants and trees. Many of the trees and plants in the Amazon produce about twenty percent of the oxygen on earth, and absorb carbon. However, the Amazon is decreasing in size every day due to the ongoing deforestation of the land. Deforestation is when the forest of the land are cleared or destroyed, in order to be used for other actions (“Deforestation”). The Amazon is twenty percent less than it was about forty years ago (Wallace). In just about

If this rate continues, the amazon will soon be depleted of all its resources, leaving tens of thousands of species homeless and greatly reducing the amount of fresh air available on the planet. As members of this planet, who happen to breathe oxygen, we should be taking appropriate measures to prevent this from occurring. Re-using old pastures is good for all parties. Not only would it reduce the deforestation rates, but it would have the added benefit of providing a use for the land. It may be cheaper to acquire the land as well, due to its dilapidation. Reducing the amount of rainforest clearing for cattle pastures can be achieved if the government puts more funding and research into recycling old pastures.

The question researched was “How does deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil, South America, impact the environment?” The topic of deforestation in the Amazon was chosen as there is much concern about the problem and for the future of the Earth. There were different research processes used to discover new information about the problems in the Amazon rainforest such as, an interview with a person who currently lives in Brazil, annotating books, journals, internet research and surveys. These helped me find reliable, credible information and helped me decide when information found was not true. The research was presented as a scientific report. This allowed the findings to be presented. The outcome helped

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.)

The Atlantic forest is also highly affected with deforestation, as most of the forest is gone. Little deforestation had occurred in Brazil’s Amazon before the 1970s, after 1970 the rate of deforestation increased significantly and about 12.5 million hectares of Amazonian land was deforested by 1980 (Moran, 1). “According to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (BNIS), by August 2007, the deforested area in the Brazilian Legal Amazon reached 700 thousand square km, which represent 14% of its geographic area”(Araujo et al). The geographic distribution of deforestation among the Amazon states has been unequal. Through 1988 to 2007, deforestation was concentrated in the northern areas of the state of Mato Grosso and the southern areas of Para and Rondonia. These three states are respectively responsible for 36%, 32% and 14% of total deforestation in the Legal Amazon. Brazil’s Trans-Amazonian Highway is another huge project that has increased the rate of deforestation throughout the Amazon Forest. Many other highways and projects has destroyed a great deal trees in Brazil. Other factors and projects also caused increased forest loss like the hydroelectric projects have flooded vast areas of Amazon rainforests. Especially, the Balbina dam flooded almost 2,400 square kilometers of rainforests whine was

Furthermore, the flora and fauna are also impacted by the deforestation of the Amazon, the Amazon consist of the most biodiverse habitat. The Amazon consist of about forty thousand flora and more fauna; in fact, there are more than a million known and unknown species in the rainforest. The deforestation of the Amazon destroys the natural environment of these species and has resulted in an estimated fifty thousand species per year lost (“Deforestation in the Amazon”). Moreover, if the habitat of various species continues to be demolished at a rapid rate the species of the Amazon will become endangered and

Most people do not realize that in Brazil there is a lot of deforestation. Brazil’s deforestation started early in their history. People would cut down trees to expand their cattle pastures. This was very common in Brazil. They realized that the amazon forest was dramatically decreasing each year by forty six to fifty eight thousand square miles. They gave people land rights and added protected areas to the forest. As of 2004 forty percent of the amazon has been protected. That gives everyone sixty percent of the amazon forest to cut trees down and

The Amazon Rainforest is a vital and spectacular part of our planet. The forest spreads over nine countries on the South American continent which are Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. It is the world’s largest remaining rainforest covering over 2.5 million square miles, with 63 percent of it resting in Brazil. (Finer 2008). It is considered the lungs of Earth. Giving the entire world population daily oxygen and absorbing our carbon dioxide. Industrialization is the main factor killing our rainforests. Because Brazil is speeding up productions of timber, metals, and beef, to boost their economy, the Amazon Rainforest is declining. The measurements of deforestation in the rainforest

Even today, modern governments seek to make profit off of the Amazon. For instance, Brazil gives incentives to people to migrate to the forest in hopes of building new cities and to develop this last great frontier. The sad thing about this migration of people into the rainforest pertains to the affects they have on the region. Over the last fifty years, nearly 15% of the Amazon has been destroyed, with most of the destruction attributed to burning. With destructive forces pillaging the rain forest, many plants and animals face an uncertain future.

The continued deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, and many others like it around the world has been of major concern on the global stage. Concern has increased as climate change has intensified annually, mostly caused by human affluence and manmade pollution as is known in the twenty-first century. Therefore, as mentioned previously, I will analyze deforestation of the amazon rainforest and why it should be reversed via a global effort through the constructive theory lens. I will give a brief background on this deforestation and how it affects climate change, pollution, weather, indigenous communities and the flora and fauna within it.

Deforestation dates back to the late 1960s when Brazil began to cut down forests at an alarming rate. According to Schwartzman, S. (2013) Brazil has cleared 18 percent of the original Amazon - an area the size of France. In 2005 Brazil’s deforestation rate began to fall, which is good news because it went from 27,000 square kilometers to about 4,500 square kilometers. This is a good thing because if more rainforests are cleared, lower rainfall, combined with climate change-related drought could turn a large amount of the remaining forest in to savanna. The leading cause for the deforestation in the Amazon was to make way for cattle ranching. The figure above shows the sq. km deforested, per year and it shows what years have the highest in deforestation. Between 1995 and 1996 Brazil has deforested around 300002 km.

The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, covering about forty percent of the South American continent, with most of it in Brazil. It is home to more species than any other single ecosystem and has the richest biodiversity than anywhere else on the planet. Sadly, the Amazon has become a victim of deforestation, and has been occurring since European colonists arrived in South America. Deforestation is the cutting down, removal, burning, or clearing of trees in forested lands for urban, industry, logging, wasteland, or agricultural use, and it has devastating effects. The amount of Amazon acres that have already been destroyed is heartbreaking, and it is negatively affecting many different habitats, species, and human population in a multitude of ways.