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... way. This leaves a bare plot thats not very useful for anything anymore. Slash and burn agriculture in essence ruins the very delicate ecosystem that promoted growth in that area. Something as simple as opening up an area to direct sunlight throws the balance out of whack. Because the soils are left less fertile, the farmers must slash and burn new lands to raise more crops.
This is a continuing process thats repeated over and over again, leaving behind it a deadly trail of unprotected land causing more problems that its worth. For example, soil erosion into the rivers. This makes once clear waters muddy and murky from added silt deposits. Figures range on the extent of the damage of slash and burn techniques, but they fall in between 7 million and 20 million hectares each year. Over the course of a decade or more, this results in a major change in landscape and climate for what were once all tropical forests. Another form of agriculture that has an impact on the Amazon rainforest is cattle ranching.
The growth of cattle ranching in the Amazon was a result of the booming population of Brazil. As a way to provide cattle products, such as beef, milk, butter, and cheese, to the growth, more cattle production was needed. Merle Faminow puts it into a little clearer perspective, the urban population growth created large markets in the Amazon for products derived from cattle, markets that could only be served from surplus regions located a long distance away. The cattle production in the Amazon filled this market (117). What Faminow is saying is that the rising population was in need of added cattle production, and this is done at the expense of the rainforest. Cattle production wasnt just for the purpose of providing products to the urban areas, the rural areas were also dependent on it too.
To provide them with products that they couldnt get from the urban areas. Its a symbiotic relationship where one needs the other to survive. As demand goes up, so do the demands for land to raise the livestock. Much of this land is the open land in which slash and burn agriculture failed. The problem here lies in that the cattle eat up what little vegetation remains on the land, what they dont eat, they trample down with their hard hooves. This halts any regrowth thats possible and contributes to the erosion problem by missing the soils with cattle waste.
This creates other diseases indigenous people have no immunity to. Its not just one thing that contributes to the deforestation of the Amazon; its a combination of things. Slash and burn farming begets cattle grazing, logging begets mining, highways beget land development. Its never one thing, but the combination of many events. How does this venture into the heart of the Amazon affect those who are already there? It has serious consequences.
It affects the lives and health of the tribes, which is another great loss due to deforestation. The people of the forest possess amazing knowledge in using the plants, trees, and other resources around them to survive. They use these resources for all aspects of their lives, from healing, clothing, to feeding themselves. For example, Anne Hornaday got to experience some of the first hand methods used by the tribes when she visited the Amazon. By striking a tree with his machete, my guide was able to predict the weather, when many bird answer, that means rain is coming (28). Their methods may seem primitive to western standards, but their ways have become to be respected by scientists and conservationists.
Unfortunately, with each advance by those who bring destruction to the forests and disrupt the peaceful cultures within, these tribes knowledge becomes increasingly threatened. There are several reasons why. Some tribes are forced from their ancestral homes and assimilated to Brazilian society, or they may die from the new diseases and violence carried in from outsiders, or sadly, as Eugene Linden points out in a 1990 Time article, he basically says that the younger tribe members are ashamed of their culture. That theyve seen the new technologies outside the forest and become embarrassed by their simple life. Linden states, students who leave villages for schooling learn that people, not the spirits of their ancestors, created the machines. Once absorbed, this realization undermines the credibility and authority of elders (Linden 50).
This is the same thing done to the American Indians in the old west, where we would take them from their homes, cut their hair, and pound the bible into them (sometimes literally) as an attempt to assimilate them and destroy their heritage. Who knows what knowledge we would have today had we not alleviated the knowledge of the American Indian? Who knows what knowledge we may lose if we lose the indigenous culture in the Amazon? What can be done to ease the problems in the Amazon? There have been numerous proposals made, too many to list them all, but I want to touch up on a few that I found to be interesting. There are many levels to ease the situation.
At a worldwide level, the population explosion must be reduced Affluent nations must abandon their ethos of materialism, consumerism, and growth mania and altering peoples lifestyles to be more environmentally conscious (Sponsel 20). These are a few that Leslie Sponsel points out that are steps that can be taken at a global level to ease the demands of the Amazon. Living in a consumerist society such as North American, where advertising and consumption are at all time highs, we have made this society into a throw-away society. For example, somewhere out there, there are warehouses full of Pokemon toys or Barbie dolls (probably made from rubber from Brazil) that are just waiting to be shipped for the upcoming holiday season.
Millions of kids will get these toys and then guess what? Six months down the road, theyll be thrown aside for the next must have item. Its the nature of our society and it affects the world around us, including the Amazon. Another way to curb this destruction is through education. If a conversationalist group would step in and educate the people of the Amazon about whats going on around them, from a global perspective, they might change. Also, people need to tell them that there is more money to be made by leaving the forest unharmed.
Again I refer to the time article, Paradise Lost? , a study showed that an acre in the Peruvian Amazon would be worth $ 148 is used for cattle pasture, $ 1, 000 if cut for timber, and $ 6, 820 is selectively combed for fruits, rubber, and other resources (Linden 51). People need to see that the land is worth more unmolested than it is when its torn down for quick money. Finally, the government of the countries where rainforests are located and threatened can also play a big part through legislation and programs. The government needs to regulate the influx of developers, miners, and loggers, and so on, into their forests. They can do this in a way similar to the way the NCAA regulates the recruiting of athletes, by closely restricting recruiting guidelines for any incoming developers. Certainly, any change will not repair the damage that has already been done, only time can do that, and lots of it too.
Bit if we go about tapping the resources of the Amazon in a more efficient way, perhaps we can salvage enough of it to continue serving as the lungs to the world. This paper only touched up on a couple of the many issues concerning the conservation of the Amazon rainforest. The breadth of this subject is quite vast and extremely varied. To put it all into perspective is still a big task.
What I did do is bring up some of the main problems in Brazil. Loggers and miners bleeding dry the natural resources of the Amazon. The governments attempt at expansion and internal colonization of the rainforest via the Trans amazon Highway. I also looked at agriculture's role, from the wasteful effects and consequences of slash and burn techniques, to the futility of raising cattle on un fertile ground. I touched on the affect deforestation has on the indigenous people and why its important to preserve their culture. And I offered a few of the many proposals to ease deforestation.
It used to be that you couldnt read the paper without seeing something about Brazil and the Amazon. Now a person can barely see anything in the papers about it. It doesnt mean that the problem has gone away, its still very much alive. Its just not getting the coverage and attention it has before and thats where the shame lies. People need to know about this, the more the better. Its a valuable resource that mankind cannot afford to lose.
Bibliography: Bibliography Ehrlich, Anne et al. Earth. New York: Watts. 1987. Facklam, Howard. Plants: Extinction or Survival? .
New Jersey: Enslow. 1990. Faminow, Merle D. Cattle, Deforestation, and Development in the Amazon. New York: CAB International. 1998. Gradwohl, Judith & Russel Greenburg. Saving the Tropical Forests.
Washington D. C... Island Press. 1988. Hecht, Susanna. The Fate of the Forest. London. 1989.
Hornaday, Anne. Earths Threatened Resources. Congressional Quarterly. 2 Sept. 1993: 28 - 29. Linden, Eugene. Paradise Lost?
Time. 19 July 1990: 50 - 51. Smith, Duane A. My Trip to the Rain Forest. Mining America: The Industry and The Environment. 3 Sept. 1991: 66. Stewart, Douglas Ian. After the Trees.
Austin: University of Texas Press: 1994. Tropical Deforestation: the human dimension. Ed. Leslie E.
Sponsel. New York: Columbia UP. 1996.
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Research essay sample on Cattle Ranching Tropical Forests
