importance of rainforests biodversity – between 50% and 90% of world’s species live in...
TRANSCRIPT
Importance of Rainforests
• Biodversity – Between 50% and 90% of world’s species live in rainforests.
• Home to indigenous people• Medicines – more than 60% of
modern medicines originated from Rainforests!
• Food• Regulate Climate.
Video on medicinal uses
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-GUv4zRHRc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egeographyalltheway%2Ecom%2Fib%5Fgeography%2Fib%5Fecosystems%2Ftropical%5Frainforest%2Frainforest%5Fvisuals%2Ehtml 1 min
Greenpeace TV Ad• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ERx5j6h43tk&session=hR3CDsyIqJBYWBLYeZrEdOC_YNE3yszZQlIHOfNUXOTK-bC0cHlV0oazuE9wKy-ql8885J4YBDoJyzRm5XdYEM1GNEJEZFA31JBbU3Py8yDDABIUM-hpnHyTm_pSqT6O5PWzPgRE3y82imXh9DtpmBRv1YN61CWaRIsy8Hn0yT11oId9Z-dOGJu_LeKcDP9oVUd3JsityIp4FoSyKNVKRQ31DYByRIGIwvim3tPm34aIHI2LSL2me2X77z7ehtIiGOgNPN0gE_XhF29OaiQihGJneko9az29 Greenpeace Ad 2 mins
Earth Clock for rates of deforestation http://www.poodwaddle.com/earthclock.swf
What is the rate of deforestation in tropical rainforests?
• Global Rates of Deforestation: • 2.47 acres (1 hectare/10,000m
squared) per second: equivalent to two football fields
• 150 acres (60 hectares) per minute • 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) per
day: an area larger than New York City
• 78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year: an area larger than Poland
The top 20 countries that cleared the most forest between 1990 and 2005. Brazil, the leader, cleared over 42 million
hectares, an area the size of California.
Reasons for deforestation:• Slash and burn for growing crops
Most clearances are still by the local people and tribes needing land on which to grow crops. They clear the forest by ‘slash and burn’. Vegetation is cut down and then burned. The ash acts like a fertiliser adding nutrients to the soil. When the soil begins to turn infertile (usually after 3-5 years) the people move on. This is called shifting cultivation. It is a sustainable method of farming in the rainforest. It ensures the forest will recover.
Road Building
• There are more than 105,000 miles (170,000 kilometres) of roads, most made illegally by loggers to reach mahogany and other hardwoods for the lucrative export market.
What impact does road building have on the Amazon’s ecosystem?TASK - Organise these statements into the flow chart below. There is more than one correct order. Click here
there is no vegetation to intercept the rain
the soil is washed away
trees are cut down
road is builtthe nutrient cycle is broken and so the soil becomes infertile
it is difficult to grow crops
the area become more accessible
other large scale developments such as mining come to the area
more trees are cut down
people migrate to the area
the area become more accessible
Logging • Commercial (selling) logging is the
major cause of primary rainforest destruction in South East Asia and Africa.
Cattle Ranching• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/
human-impact.html National geographic Interactive
• Brazil has the biggest commercial cattle herd in the world, and is the world largest exporter of beef, selling more than $4 billion dollars worth last year.
• However commercial cattle farms are pushing up against and into the Amazon rainforest, and beef farming is seen as one of the biggest causes of deforestation.
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/05/080515_amazon_packages.shtml Podcast from cattle farmer 6mins
• And then Podcast on Ethical logging 5 mins
Farming
• There are nearly 3 million landless people in Brazil alone. The government has cleared large areas of the Amazon Rainforest and encouraged people to move there. The scheme has not been successful. Farmers stay on the same land and attempt to farm the land year after year. Nutrients in the soil are quickly exhausted as there is no longer a humus layer to provide nutrients. The soil becomes infertile and nothing will grow.
Mining
• The mining of iron ore, bauxite, gold, oil and other minerals have benefited many developing countries. However, it has also devastated large areas of rainforest e.g. The Amazon
Ecotourism in the Amazon
• http://www.perunature.com/pages/home_posada.htm
Interactive Game• http://cgz.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cgz/accounts/staff/rchambers/Ge
oBytes/Content%20Generator%20Quizzes/Penalty%20Shoot%20Out/Year%209%20Rainforest%20Revision/Rainforest%20Revision.html 2 Players Penalty shootout
Deforestation is causing many problems at a range
of scales: • Local: When a rainforest is clear-cut,
conditions change very quickly. The soil dries up from the sun. When it rains, it washes the soil away. The rainforest never fully recovers. Wildlife and plant life is reduced.
Decline in indigenous populations
There has been a huge reduction in the number of people in local tribes.
Amazonian Indians
‘They have stolen my land;The birds have flown,
my people gone.My rainbow rises over
sand,My river falls on stone.’
Song of a Xingu Indian
The Yanomani are a group of Amazonian Indians who live in the rainforest. The Yanomani have tried to maintain a traditional, nomadic way of life. Their population currently stands at 9,000.
The Yanomani
Nomadic means ‘moves from place to place’.
Soil Erosion
Clearing trees means that there is no canopy to protect the soil from heavy rain, or plant roots to bind it together. The result is that a lot of the soil gets washed away.
Soil fertility
• Once an area has been cleared, lots of rainfall reaches the ground. This washes the nutrients out of the soil and makes it less fertile.
Loss of bio-diversity
• Large numbers of plants and animals have been destroyed. It is possible that medicines are being lost.
National:
• Deforestation can consume a country's only natural resource. If deforestation is not managed in a sustainable manner a country's only natural resource could be lost forever.
Traditional culture
• Many Amerindians have been forced off their land and ways of life have been destroyed.
Global: • World climate change:The burning
of the forest releases carbon dioxide into the air. This may be linked to an increase in world temperatures. The carbon cycle and water cycle are severely affected.
Decrease in hardwoods
• Trees such as mahogany and rosewood are becoming endangered species.
Videos on Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPHtnMDU2EM1 min and Soy farming 14 mins
http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?q=In+the+name+of+progress&hl=en&sitesearch=#
Amazon• The Amazon rainforest is the largest in the
world, covering approximately seven million km² (40% of South America).
• More than 40,000 plant species, including 1,000 different trees, have been identified in the rainforest. According to figures from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), it is also home to 427 different mammals, 1,294 birds, as well as 30 million people, including more than 220 indigenous groups in nine nations.
• Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
Amazon
• During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down—more than in all the previous 450 years since European colonization began.
• The percentage could well be far higher; the figure fails to account for selective logging, which causes significant damage but is less easily observable than clear-cuts.
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7406033.stm Video of the effects of deforestation on locals in Brazil 2mins
Timber mill in the Amazon
Amazon• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/73859
06.stm BBC article on the rate of deforestation in the second half of 2007 May 2008
• Scientists fear that an additional 20 percent of the trees will be lost over the next two decades.
• If that happens, the forest's ecology will begin to unravel. Intact, the Amazon produces half its own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere. Eliminate enough of that rain through clearing, and the remaining trees dry out and die.
Questions
• Read pages 157-159 and answer UTT Q1-3 p 159
Amazon paradox
• As concerns grow about global warming and the future of the planet, much more international attention is being paid to the Amazon region.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/05/080514_amazon_highlights.shtml Podcast from i) Prince Charles 3 mins ii) on rates of deforestation from Dr Carlos Nobre 4 mins
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/080515_one_planet_extra.shtml Podcast 2008 27 mins
There are three fundamental reasons why the region is important to the rest of the world.
• The Amazon and the world's climate• Rapid rates of deforestation cause more carbon
to be converted into carbon dioxide, either when the trees are burnt down or more slowly by the decomposition of unburned wood.
• And once the forests are gone, they cannot soak up the carbon from cars, power plants and factories. At the moment the Amazon is thought to absorb about 10 per cent of global fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions.
• The build-up of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere is one of the key causes of global warming.
Questions
• Read pages 160-161 and answer UTT Q1-4 p 161
Conserving the rainforest
More than £200 million is being invested in Brazil in a scheme led by the World Bank. The money is divided between:
policing the rain forest to try to clamp down on illegal damage to the forest
incentives to encourage landowners not to chop down forest, and
educating and training people to work in more sustainable ways.
Management strategies• Environmental groups also argue that local people could
take part in industries that are more sustainable, for example:
• working in the medical drug industry. (About 25% of the world's medicines contain ingredients from the rainforest.) Orworking in eco-tourism - a type of tourism that minimises the impact of tourism on an area. The rainforest is an attractive holiday destination for some tourists.
• http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0918/p01s05-woam.html article on responsible Soy project
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/10/forests.brazil?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews article on Loans scheme
• http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10688618&fsrc=RSSarticle on Cameroon idea of renting the forest
• http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/world/americas/19brazil.html?pagewanted=2&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/B/Barrionuevo,%20Alexei&_r=3 Video on Brazils efforts 3mins
McDonalds Game
• http://www.mcvideogame.com/index-eng.html Video game on deforestation and farming
Questions
• Attempt Activity 3 Qu 1-7 p163
Role play
You will be allocated a role from the following –
•Brazilian government
•Hydroelet (large HEP Hydro Electric Power company)
•FUNAI (government organisation for the protection of Amazonian Indians)
•World Medical (concerned with the protection Organisation of plants for medical research)
•Greentours (a holiday company concerned with providing holidays that nether harm the environment nor the local people)
Should large scale development be allowed in the Amazon?
Role play
•Brazilian government•Hydroelet
•FUNAI •World Medical Organisation
•Greentours
Read the next 6 slides.Which of the above groups will be against large scale development?
Should large scale development be allowed in the Amazon?
Research your role carefully and then prepare a presentation to explain why you are for or against large scale development in the Amazon.
Brazilian government
Fact FileCapital – Brazilia
Population – 162 millionGNP per capita – $3,370
Debt – $1,153 millionLiteracy – 80%
Tourism – over 1 million visitors per year
‘The income gap between the richest and the poorest in Brazil is getting wider. The shanty towns in our large cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo are expanding and their residents lack basic facilities such as electricity and clean water. Our interest on the debt is growing each year and we need to invest in our industries if we are to ever pay back this money. Developing the Amazon can generate some of this necessary investment.’
FUNAI (Fundaao Nacional do Indio)
‘FUNAI is the government agency set up to protect the rights of the Amazonian Indians. We believe that most large scale developments have a negative impact on the Amazon’s ecosystem and in turn, on the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Amazonian Indians. For example, approximately 6,000 Indians were left landless by the Grand Carajas Project, especially by the Tucurui dam. We would like to see more sustainable developments such as in the Xingu Indian Park where Kayapo villages have entered into a partnership with the Body Shop. The Kayapo collect Brazil nuts and extract the oil in their villages by using a press. They then sell this oil directly to the Body Shop for use in toiletries. In order to protect the Amazonian Indians’ rights to the land, we want further areas of the rainforest set up as Indian reserves.’
Hydroelet
‘HEP is a renewable form of energy. This means that unlike coal, oil and gas this type of energy does not run out. Brazil gets 92.5% of its energy from HEP and the demand for energy is rising. Hydroelet plans to build more dams, like Tucurui, in the Amazon to harness the fast flowing rivers in this area. Hydroelet believes that this electricity will not only benefit industries all over Brazil but will also provide energy to satisfy the country’s growing population.’
World Medical Organisation
Quinine was discovered in The Amazon.It is an anti- malaria drug from the bark of the cinchona tree (and also an ingredient in tonic water!).
How can the Brazilian Government and the Amazonian Indians benefit from the discoveries?
‘Only 1,100 species have been investigated out of 365,000 possible species in the Amazon. On average, an important new drug has been found for every 125 species investigated. We believe that areas should be set aside for medical research.’
‘Catclaw Acacia’ is a climbing vine, found in the Amazon, and it is being studied for its potential against cancer and AIDs.
Internet Link – biodiversityhttp://library.thinkquest.org/20248/
Greentours – ecotourism in the Amazon
Internet Link – ecotourism www.brazilianadventure.comwww.brazilnature.com/inges/index.html
‘At Greentours, visitors stay in an Amazonian village or in the small lodges which are built from local resources. The visitors can undertake conservation work as part of their holiday. Greentours feel that unlike the large scale developments, their tours will generate money for the Amazonian Indians without destroying the Amazon’s ecosystem.’
Ecotourism is sustainable, low density tourism which safeguards the natural environment and meets the needs of the host population.
simple tourist lodge
boat trip with local guide
Greentours
What are the sustainable alternatives to large scale development?
Internet links –www.ran.org/www.greenforce.org/www.greenpeace.org/
SUSTAINABLE development involves activities that preserve and enhance the beauty and resources of an area for future generations.
Name one activity in the Amazon that is ‘sustainable’.
Investigate – How can the Brazilian government profit from the Amazon without large scale development?