The amazon rainforest

The amazon rainforest

1. about

   • covers an area of 8 billion km2- it is the largest rainforest in the world
     • since the 1970s 600,000km2 has been destroyed due to deforestation
       • logging, cattle ranching , mining
   • South America- covers parts of Brazil, columbia, bolivia

2. Negative impacts

   • environmental
     • habitat destructioin and loss of biodiversity-number of endagered species in brazil has risen by 410 in about 20 years
     • The Amazon stores around 100 billion tonnes of carbon - deforestation will release this as co2 and it willl contribute to global warming
   • social impacts
     • local ways of life have been effected-Brazilian rubber tappers have lost their livlihoods ass rubber trees have been cut down
     • native tribes have been forced to move off their land
     • There hass been conflict between large landowners and local farmers and native people- in 2009 there were riots in peru over rainforest destruction
   • economical
     • Farming makes alot of money for countries in the rainforest- in 2008 brazil made $7 billion from trading cattle
     • The mining industry creates alot of jobs for people

3. sustainable managment strategies

   • some defested areas are being replantesd with trees- Peru plans to replant 100,000 km2 of forest before 2018
   • some countries are ttrying to reduce the amount of hardwood trees felled- Brazil banned mahogony logging in 2001
   • ecotourism is becoming popular - pperu has around 70 lodges which atrracted 600,000 in 2007
   • environmental laws- the brazilian forest code says that landowners have to keep 50-80% of their land as forest
   • national parks- The central amazon conservation complex in brazil is the largest protected area of the rainforest
   • reducing debt- in 2008 USA reduced Perus debt by $25million in axchange for conservation of the rainforest