On this portion of the website, you can find some of the information I found through my research.  Some of this information I found long before now, but I realized it would be beneficial to show all of what I have done.

Agriculture:  There are some general techniques for best practices in agriculture:

Tropical Rainforest by Arnold Newman,  1990, Facts on File Inc.

  Using the deposits along the river
                    There are areas surrounding some of the rivers that are flooded
annually.  When this happens, there are great deposits of rich silt and debris
from vegetation that makes the land very fertile.  This land can be used to
grow multiple plants, as long as the roots are at least somewhat resistant to rot,
as the soil will be constantly wet.  Also, during this time period, there is much
aquatic fauna such as fish as well as water fowl.
        The only drawback to this use of the rich soils on the rivers edge
is that it is easy to overexploit the land, which will lead to a depletion of
diversity of the fauna.

           Intercropping
        Intercropping, that is, planting multiple plants in a plot of land, can
be useful because many plants can be grown at once.   This technique almost
always requires the use of fertilizer and lime.  The cost of buying and
transporting the fertilizer and lime should not be too expensive.  It was noted
in the book that for every dollar spent, the farmer would earn approximately
$2.91 as a result of the improved crops.

           Legume usage
        Many ideas included the use of legumes, which are fantastic
nitrogen fixers.  One such idea was described as follows:  when clearing out an
area, leave the tree roots behind.  As soon as the land has been cleared, plant
the nitrogen fixing legumes.  Then grow your plants as usual.
Certain vine legumes, like the kudzu vine, though usually a destructive plant,
is a fantastic nitrogen fixer, and it acts as a great ground cover to eliminate
erosion.  These legumes are also good for feeding the farm animals.

           Agrofarming/Agroforestry
        The basic idea of agrofarming or agroforestry is to not clear out
plots of land, but to use what currently exists there.  The "farmers" could eat
the fruit that grows on the trees, and only cut down trees when necessary.
The farm animals could also roam in the forest, and their droppings would also
act as fertilizer.

As of 1990, area counts:

Also from Tropical Rainforest by Arnold Newman

Brazil:
    National Area:  3,386,727 square miles
    Undisturbed forest:  1,114,488 square miles
    Total forested area:  1,375,705 square miles

Reforestation of Fragments::
Lessons from Amazonia : the ecology and conservation of a fragmented forest / edited by Richard O. Bierregaard, Jr. ... [et al.] ; foreword by Edward O. Wilson ; prologue by Eneas Salati.  Yale University Press, 2001.
Chapter 11, "Regeneration in Tropical Rainforest Fragments" by Julieta Benitez-Malvido.

Fragmentation has a slightly different affect depending on the size of land it leaves.  Plants that are reintroduced due to reforestation attempts in smaller fragments are less harshly attacked by herbivores than in larger fragments and continuous spans of forests because there are fewer resident herbivores (they already left because there was nothing to eat).

What kind of land there is:

According to one source, the land in the rainforest is split up as follows:
Arable land:  5%
Permanent crops:  1%
Permanent pasture:  22%
Forests/wooded areas:  58%
Other:  14%

(I could not find this site again, but another source, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html, the numbers were as follows:)

arable land: 6%
permanent crops: 2%
other: 92%
 

http://books.nap.edu/books/0309047498/html/265.html#pagetop

Specifically:  http://books.nap.edu/books/0309047498/html/268.html#pagetop:
 
 

88% of land is dystrophic, that is, it is acidic with low fertility
12% of land is eutrophic, that means it's not as acidic, it has high fertility soil

       Back to Main