Sustainable management of the tropical rainforest

Sustainable management of the tropical rainforest

1. Ecotourism

   • Provides a source of income for local people (e.g as tour guides or transport)
   • Doesn't hurt the environment
   • Reduces the reliance on unsustainable methods of making money (e.g logging)
   • Less destructive than normal tourism (e.g less forest cleared for building hotels)
   • Small scale activity (less pollution from tourists)
   • Sustainable as a source of income for locals now and in the future

2. Reducing demand for hardwood

   • As more are chopped down, there are less of the trees. This increases their price as they have desirable qualities (very dense and hard)
   • Their is heavy tax on the imports of hardwood to discourage its use
   • In some cases the sale of hardwood has been banned
   • In some rainforests logging has been banned
   • Examples: Mahogany and Teak

3. Selective logging

   • Only old trees are felled- most are left
   • It's less damaging to the area than felling all the trees in an area
     • It's because the general vegetation structure is kept intact. This means that the soil is still fertile as leaf fall remains
   • Using horses or helicopters to remove trees is less damaging than building roads and using lorries

4. Protection

   • Many countries have set up national parks and nature reserves in rainforests
     • In these areas, some activities e.g logging are restricted
       • However a lack of funds can make it difficult to police
   • Laws can be put in place to protect rain forests. For example
     • Banning the use of wood from forests that are managed non-sustainably
     • Banning illegal logging
     • Laws banning logging for certain species e.g mahogany

5. Education

   • International education
     • It would help people realize the damaging affects high demand for wood can have