Logging Characterization
Deforestation Rates
Main page: http://www.brazil.org.uk/index.php
The Brazilian Embasy in London
*specific useful page: http://www.brazil.org.uk/page.php?cid=465
This page specifically looked at the
future of the rainforest, and made references to the article listed after
this.
In the past few years, the deforestation rates have varied
between 1.3 million ha and 1.8 million ha. It has been listed by
the Brazilian Embassy in London:
1995-96: 1.8 million ha
1996-97: 1.3 million ha
1997-98: 1.7 million ha
1998-99: 1.7 million ha
This information was found by the Brazilian Embassy through
the INPE’s site: www.grid.inpe.br
Causes of Deforestation
Main page: http://www.sciencemag.org/
-specific useful page: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5503/438
This was where the specific article
from Science Magazine was found.
The article was "The Future of the Brazilian Amazon"
by William F. Laurance, Mark A. Cochrane, Scott Bergen, Philip M. Fearnside,Patricia
Delamônica, Christopher Barber, Sammya D'Angelo, and Tito Fernandes.
-another useful sub page: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5503/438/DC1
This was an a supplementary part to
the article.
The main causes of deforestation are loosely put as follows:
-
Rapid Population Growth, i.e. Increased non-indigenous population
(immigration). The population of non-indigenous people has increased
from approximately 2 million to 20 million since the 60’s. Because the
cities are overly crowded, many of the lower income families move out into
the Amazon forests.
-
Mining and logging activities performed by large companies
are causing much of the trees to be cut down, either to get at the resource
(in the case of mining) or as the resource themselves.
* These activities require roads built to access these areas, which will
in turn increase access to more areas that will then be destroyed as well,
and the cycle continues of increasing roads, removing the resources, and
then increasing the roads even more.
* Not only are these roads spreading at a quick rate, they are located
in a completely different place as the usual deforestation was occurring.
Usually, most of the deforestation would be in the highly populated southern
and eastern areas. Now, because of the increased logging, colonization,
and number of roads, most of the deforestation is occurring in the heart
of the Amazon, which accounts for more fragmentation.
* The logging and mining industries must create roads to gain access to
their desired resources. These roads allow easier access to ranchers,
“slash and burn” farmers, and hunters, who destroy the land further.
The basic reason that the loggers use the Amazon is to obtain the vast
amounts of tropical timber. The miners are after minerals such as
gold, copper, bauxite, and iron ore, as well as petroleum, and natural
gas.
-
The final problem is the wildfires started by humans.
The forest fires are very destructive. The more logging and fragmentation
that occurs in the forests, the more susceptible the forests are to fire.
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