Once roads are built to reach the mines, it becomes easier for illegal logging and poaching to take place. Brazil has the world's largest iron ore mine and has rich reserves of other metals such as zinc, nickel, tin and aluminium.
It is possible that some of its forests may be opened up for mineral exploration. The Amazon river is the second longest in the world and with its many tributaries it is a source of energy which could be harnessed. Brazil suffered an energy crisis in and is keen to develop this source of power.
Unfortunately, the building of hydro-electric dams often results in major flooding which harms wildlife and can change the eco-system of the river downstream.
Wood rotting underwater also releases carbon dioxide and methane greenhouse gases. The Xingu river is the site of the world's third largest hydro-electric dam, the Belo Monte project where square miles square km will be flooded. Many indigenous people such as the Kayapo Indians are concerned about the potential loss of land.
The construction was completed in The big companies and governments who propose these developments of the rainforest usually offer incentives for the affected people such as jobs, schools and clinics.
Many feel this is a good exchange and may improve their standard of living, although the reality can be far from that. In many cases, promised compensation is not delivered. The destruction of the rainforest could affect the world's climate. During the day, the rainforests absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the air to make food in a process called photosynthesis. A by-product of photosynthesis is oxygen. On the contrary, burning the rainforest is like creating a huge bonfire, throwing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide or CO2 is a 'greenhouse gas', which helps to retain the heat of the sun within the Earth's atmosphere. By burning the rainforest, we are not only adding huge amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere, but we are also reducing nature's ability to absorb CO2 and to produce oxygen.
The more the rainforests are cut down and burned, the more the 'lungs' of the earth will be damaged. Deforestation is responsibly for more global carbon emissions than all the planes, trains, buses and cars in the world put together! Rainforests also help to transport huge volumes of water vapour through the atmosphere in 'flying rivers'.
Water falls on the rainforests, is absorbed by the trees and then evaporated from their leaves in a process called transpiration. When the trees are removed, the flying rivers stop flowing. Rainforests Why are They Important? According to the report , the latest data shows a turn for the worse. While rates of deforestation declined between and , logging, farming, ranching, mining and infrastructure projects in the past decade have negatively affected the Amazon.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged development in the Amazon rainforest and loosened enforcement of environmental laws. Because forests are massive sponges of carbon dioxide, reversing their loss would play an outsize role in fighting climate change. The RAISG study comes days before the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, in which countries agreed to measures that would limit world production of CO2 emissions. Indigenous people are displaced.
Roads are constructed through previously inaccessible land, opening up the rainforest. Severe water, air and land pollution occurs from mining and industry. Solutions: Local campaigns against mining and industrial development, and the campaigns to reform the large aid agencies which fund such schemes, should be supported.
Governments and international aid agencies for a time believed that by encouraging colonisation and trans-migration schemes into rainforest areas, they could alleviate some of the poverty felt by the people of the financially poorer countries. These schemes involve the relocation of millions of people into sparsely populated and forested areas.
The resettled people suffered the same problems as 'shifted cultivators'. The soil is not fertile enough to be able to sustain them for very long. Even after such projects have officially ended, the flow of 'shifted cultivators' continues as the area remains opened up.
The creation of national parks has undoubtedly helped to protect rainforests. Yet, as national parks are open to the public, tourism is damaging some of these areas. Often, national parks are advertised to tourists before adequate management plans have been developed and implemented.
Inadequate funding is allocated for preservation of forests by government departments. Governments see tourism as an easy way to make money, and therefore tourism is encouraged whilst strict management strategies are given far less government support.
Ecotourism, or environmentally friendly tourism, should educate the tourists to be environmentally aware. It should also be of low impact to its environment. Unfortunately, many companies and resorts who advertise themselves as eco-tourist establishments are in fact exploiting the environment for profit. In Cape Tribulation, Australia, for example, the rainforest is being threatened by excessive tourism. Clearing for roads and pollution of waterways are two of the major problems in this area.
The Wet Tropics Management Authority which oversees the surrounding World Heritage Area is promoting tourism to the area before any management plans have been formulated, before any effective waste management strategy has been devised and before any ecofriendly power alternatives have been fully explored. Solutions: The rights of indigenous forest dwellers and others who depend on intact forests must be upheld.
In instances where there are campaigns opposing specific tourist developments, they should be supported. Genuine ecotourism should be preferred to other tourist enterprises.
More Than Just Poverty and Overpopulation. Poverty and overpopulation are believed to be the main causes of forest loss, according to the international agencies such as the FAO and intergovernmental bodies. They believe they can solve the problem by encouraging development and trying to reduce population growth.
However, the World Rainforest Movement and many other non-governmental organisations hold unrestrained development and the excessive consumption habits of rich industrialised countries directly responsible for most forest loss. The World Rainforest Movement's Emergency Call to Action for the Forests and Their Peoples asserts that "deforestation is the inevitable result of the current social and economic policies being carried out in the name development".
It is the push for development which gives rise to commercial logging, cash crops, cattle ranching, large dams, colonisation schemes, the dispossession of peasants and indigenous people and the promotion of tourism.
Harrison Ngau, an indigenous tribesman from Sarawak, Malaysia and winner of the Goldman Environment Award in , has this to say about why tropical forests are being destroyed:. The roots of the problem of deforestation and waste of resources are located in the industrialised countries, where most of our resources, such as tropical timber end up. The rich nations with one quarter of the world's population consume four fifth of the world's resources. It is the throw away culture of the industrialised countries, now advertised in and forced on to the Third World countries that is leading to the throwing away of the world.
Such so-called progress leads to destruction and despair! Tropical rainforests are found mainly in the Third World countries, Australia and Hawaii being the only exceptions. The colonial powers Britain, France, Spain and Portugal , whilst exploiting the resources of many of these countries, attempted to destroy indigenous peoples' rights to remain on their land. Colonialism turned previously self-sufficient economies into zones of agriculture export production Colchester and Lohmann.
All rights reserved. Threats Logging interests cut down rain forest trees for timber used in flooring, furniture, and other items. Power plants and other industries cut and burn trees to generate electricity.
The paper industry turns huge tracts of rain forest trees into pulp. The cattle industry uses slash-and-burn techniques to clear ranch land.
Agricultural interests, particularly the soy industry, clear forests for cropland. Subsistence farmers slash-and-burn rain forest for firewood and to make room for crops and grazing lands. Mining operations clear forest to build roads and dig mines. Governments and industry clear-cut forests to make way for service and transit roads.
Hydroelectric projects flood acres of rain forest. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London.
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