Deforestation Of The Tropical Rainforest

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.

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

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

Together, coffee and cattle account for most of the deforestation of the Atlantic Forest and Amazon. Deforestation for agriculture and cattle, urbanization, human population growth, have resulted

The Amazon Rainforest is a mighty jungle filled with an array of exotic species of wood, like mahogany, and rich natural resources such as gold, copper, tin, and nickel. Naturally, people want to make a profit, but the rainforest’s trees stand in the way. Logging is the main source of deforestation. Every year, millions of trees are cut down to be made into timber. Many times, these logging operations are illegal. These operations will keep exploiting the Amazon for its exotic timber, not caring that many of these species of plants are either rare, or help support rare species and ecosystems. Mining also creates deforestation, but not as severely as logging. Trees are cut down to make way for mining operations that dig for non renewable resources like copper and gold. Trees are also used as charcoal to help produce pig iron. A third cause of deforestation is agriculture. Cattle ranches and soy plantations are created where the Amazon Rainforest once stood. As people expand their farms, they must cut down the areas they now use for farming. Trees are also cut to make space for animal pens. Governments also contribute to the deforestation problem by building roads and creating infrastructure. Although these roads help with communication and navigation, they cut through the rainforest, and often help illegal loggers create new roads from their operations in the jungle to these roads that connect with civilization. All of these factors have helped cut down the Amazon Rainforest. In the past

The Amazon rainforest was first being cleared for crop and logging production, but after realizing the economic success of cattle ranching, cattle pastures became the leading reason for deforestation. Different sized ranches, mainly large, made up about 70% of the deforestation that was going on in the Amazon. According to the research done by, Philip Fearnside, “all of the profits made from beef cattle have been the only income source that made the deforestation in the Amazon profitable.” Though cattle ranching have made a major impact on the Amazon, the biggest impact of deforestation was caused by the building of the Transamazon Highway in 1970. The goal of this enormous highway was to connect Brazil with its neighboring countries in South America. This highway connects different plantations in Brazil and its neighboring countries by constructing trucking routes that make transporting crops easier. (Fearnside

Agriculture and cattle ranching have been profitable for other parties that do not live off the land. Cattle ranching is the largest force of deforestation in the Amazon, which accounts for 80% of deforestation. Brazil has cleared up to 24 to 25 million hectares for the growth of soybean crops and is the second largest producer of soybeans. Cattle ranching and soy beans are linked together because when farmers expand to develop deeper into the forest, and abandon cattle pastures; they plant soy beans on the pasture to reuse the land. Deforestation started in the early 90’s because of the agriculture of soybeans and cattle ranches. In 1995 11,200 square miles of the Amazon Rainforest was cut down, which set a record for how much forest was cut down in the Amazon in a year. Deforestation went into a decline between the period of 2007 to 2012 because of the decline in prices of soybeans and beef. However, since 2012 soybeans price has increased rapidly by 29 percent by 2016. The market has been a driving force in deforestation because of the profit it holds for the farmers. Since the prices spiked, farmers have been clearing more land. Not only the

There are several world changing events happening right now. However, many of these events are either forgotten or rarely discussed. One of these “forgotten” events is the deforestation of the rainforests. Rainforest deforestation primarily started in the 1970’s, but has since increased. Up until recently, deforestation of rainforests was seldom talked about despite how much it has affected the world. Rainforest deforestation needs more attention because it has occurred for many decades despite the environmental damage, the rainforest is important for the economy, food, and medicinal purposes, it has many adverse effects such as climate change, and there are several projects to reduce deforestation.

The economic benefits of deforesting the Amazon are endless and with the nation of Brazil in control roughly 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest (Oswald 1), one can only imagine the economic prosperity it brings to the country. For instance, 65-75% of the land used after deforestation (Oswald 1) goes towards creating space cattle ranching which is big business in Brazil as Brazil is the largest exporter of cattle in the world. The exported volume of cattle achieved 264 822 tons in 2012, and generated USD 1.220,316 million in exports (Duran 1). This shows how Brazil has supported the world’s economy by being a leader in the exportation of cattle. Additionally, cattle ranching in Brazil has created many jobs within the country and has drastically improved the country 's economic state. The cattle beef industry generates about 360 000 direct jobs as well as thousands of jobs among inputs suppliers, moving almost USD 2 billion in domestic inputs (Duran 1). Clearly, cattle ranching is a vital industry for the well being of the Brazilian economy however, the short-term economic benefits of deforestation are more than offset by long-term impact to both the environment and the population of Brazil.

“The lungs of the Earth,” the Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world and is home to a countless number of species (National Geographic, 2015). In 2013 the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rose by 29 percent and was largely observed in the states of Para and Mato Grosso in Brazil (Teixeira, 2014). The latest images taken by NASA’s satellite, Aqua reveals that multiple fires took place in these mentioned regions and were reported to have been intentional in order to clear land area (NASA, 2014). Earlier this year Sao Paulo faced severe draughts and the “drizzle city” was compared to a desert with 20 million settlers facing water cuts (Lean, 2015). Scientists believe the reason for this is the clearing

This journal explain the ecological changes of the rainforest both in Peru and Brazil while explaining economic effects of the deforestation. Not only does it explain the ecological effects and change of landscape but it explains the damage to farmers today and the loss of economic stability. It is a good source to analyze the changes of more recent times. This journal will help me in the research of more recent numerical data (1999) to relate the effects of deforestation from the past and the effects felt

The largest rainforest in the world is being deforested with little opposition. It is a rainforest that humans have been benefiting from for hundreds of years. Notably, this rainforest is the Amazon, and many people ignore the destruction happening in there and do not realize that thousands of acres of land have been deforested. On the other hand, they are clearing these areas to gain significant resources such as diamonds, gold, lumber and medicinal plants. For these reasons, a controversy over the deforestation in the Amazon has arisen. Although the deforestation has provided valuable natural resources businesses in the forested regions, the removal of the Amazon rainforest is detrimental to its biodiversity because it creates a dysfunctional habitat.

In recent years one of the greatest dangers the world overall countenances is the damage of our surroundings. The demolition of the Brazilian rainforest is presumably the most imperative issue that is to be contemplated on the grounds that it is the reason for other major environmental issues we are confronting, for example, an unnatural weather change, the exhaustion of our ozone layer, and perceptible atmosphere changes all over the world. Brazil's deforestation issue has transformed into earth's deforestation issue.

Deforestation. Deforestation is one of the most critical problems in Brazil. Destroying natural habitat is a direct threat to biodiversity (Wilson et al., 2015). Historically, deforestation rates have been high in Brazil fluctuating between 25,000 to 50,000 kilometers squared per year. If deforestation were to continue at the historical rates, then most of the Amazon would disappear within 50 to 100 years (Shukla, 1990). While contemporary deforestation rates are not so severe, they are still high and have recently begun to increase. In 2009, Brazilian deforestation was estimated at 7,008 kilometers squared (May et al., 2011). After a slight decrease in the deforestation rate, with a valley in 2012 at 4,571 kilometers