The Brazilian Amazon is home to 40% of the world’s tropical rainforest. Incidentally, it also has the world’s fastest rate of deforestation. Tropical Rainforests around the world are lost at the rate of one acre per second with the average rate of Brazilian Amazon being such that 2 million hectares of forest land are cleared every year. There are multiple causes for this extensive rate of deforestation and this paper will address four such causes namely (1) rapid population growth, (2) industrial logging and mining, (3) changing spatial patterns of deforestation, and (4) wildfires. Moreover, there are several Brazilian state policies that encourage deforestation practices of which this paper will look at five key aspects – (1) taxes on agricultural income, (2) rules of land allocation, (3) land taxes, and (4) tax credit schemes and subsidized credits. However, despite rapid deforestation there have been long drawn efforts made by the domestic and global actors for forest conservation and curbing practices of deforestation. This has led to a tussle between pro-development and pro-environment policy networks trying to influence policies which directly affect the Amazon Rainforest and its inhabitants. The paper will also analyze 4 stages in the history of Brazil from 1960s to now in light of such policy networks.
Causes of Deforestation
(1) Rapid Population Growth
Studies show Amazonian populations have high intrinsic growth rates, which has led to an increase in the population
Secondly, a look into how they use the rainforest and it’s resources, and thirdly a final argument on pro’s and con’s of the Amazonians. Lastly, a paragraph in conclusion to this essay. Once, there were as many as 10 million people living in the rainforest (when it still covered 14% of the land’s surface), in this day and age the number is much smaller. The native Amazonians came to the amazon rainforest over 12,000 years ago, longer than any other group in the rainforest. Their families have lived there
The Native Amazonians want the government to make us the legal owners of our homelands so we can live where we belong, on our own land. Our people have lived in these forests for 12,000 years, and our use of the land and its resources is sustainable. Although some Native Amazonian people live much as we do, others still live much as did their ancestors 12 thousand of years before them. These communities organize their daily lives differently than our culture. Their food, medicines and clothing come primarily from the forest.
(Document 3) In Brazil, many people are moving into the Amazon. Brazil does not have the resources to supply the entire population because of urbanization. The people that moved to the Amazon started cutting down trees, which led to the deforestation of the Amazon. Animals are not only the ones living in the forest, but humans live there too.
As an economics major, we are often trained to believe that real, societal change can only be achieved through a top-down approach. The field of economics, particularly macroeconomics, emphasizes the scale and importance of market mechanisms and government fiscal and monetary policies in addressing societal issues, as well as environmental problems. This perspective creates the belief that significant change can only be attained through large-scale, top-down methods. I, myself, was a strong believer of this mindset. From a young age, I have always been interested in environmental science and have written many research papers and projects on issues such as deforestation and habitat destruction, particularly in the Amazon rainforest.
Deforestation is still an unbeleafable issue even to this day. With our trees being cut down to make supplies and furniture, we struggle with keeping our ratio of trees being destroyed and trees being planted equal. It seems like that was also the case in the past. There was a significant amount of trees being cut down in 1920, the land looking much more barren than it did in 1650 (Document A, map). These trees, some of them taking more than three thousand years to rise tall, are being cut down.
For example, roads are one of the chief reasons for the deforestation of the Amazonian rainforest. The propensity to build new access roads cause substantial direct effects — such as fragmentation of habitat — and frequently elicit even larger secondary effects, such as colonization, illegal logging, and unsustainable hunting (Finer 6). With the unrelenting latitude and degree of intended mining action, these extortions will only deepen minus any kind of enhanced international strategies. Any new guidelines embraced would have substantial influences one way or another on the area’s biodiversity and the destiny of its native
How Brazil became the world leader in reducing environmental degradation. In the 1990s, when an area of Brazilian rainforest the size of Belgium has fallen every year in the Amazon, people would think that they could make so much money from clearing the forest that they would go on cutting them down. But I disagree on the statement about cutting down the trees because they mean so much to us and the animals that live in the rainforest. We get some benefits like food, for example bananas, avocados, coffee, spices as in cinnamon and pepper, Brazil nuts, and cashew. You can also get products from the Amazon like shampoo, medicine which the Amazon also provides, we also need moisture so when your skin gets dry, you can use lotion.
Have you ever heard that every year the Amazon Rainforest is losing 78 million acres of land every year? Well it’s sadly true, the reason it’s happening is because of all the jobs in Brazil. That’s what’s hurting it and destroying the Forest, people are trying to do everything to get back the Amazon Rainforest. In 1960 Brazil was the 11th largest economy in the world, everyone in a very populated country can’t be rich.
Kofi Annan, once the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated, “If globalization is to succeed, it must succeed for poor and rich alike. It must deliver rights no less than riches. It must provide social justice and equity no less than economic prosperity and enhanced communication” (Kofi Annan). Persistently, the world is reminded of the advantages of globalization and how history could have been shaped without its existence. In spite of the declarations that defend the international movement enhancing the ideology of an interconnected planet, the downsides of globalization cannot be ignored.
Deforestation happens all over the world and for many reasons. The causes of deforestation are quite simple. Some countries go through it as a way to expand their land, create more roadways for travel and transportation, or even as a necessary way to clear out land to produce crops. However, when it comes to deforestation in less developed countries it is typically not a good thing. Honduras being one of the world’s least developed countries is the highest in deforestation as well.
Deforestation results in the loss of biodiversity Deforestation is having its most devastating effect on biodiversity in tropical rainforests. The destruction of millions of hectares of forests by human activities means: • The removal of the bases of numerous food webs • The loss of habitats for many species of flora and
These studies show that deforestation and climate change could threaten the rainforest through the 21st century. Despite the fact that the generations of today will be dead by the time these catastrophic predictions come to be, preserving the Amazon rain forests still should be a priority to everyone on Earth. Protecting the rain forest that is left, replanting the deforested areas, and introducing new farming methods would be a wonderful start. There are ways to save the rainforest of the Amazon.
1.0 GENERAL INTRODUCTION Deforestation especially in the tropics has been one of the resultant forces of land use change in the world today and its avoidance has not been realized eligible as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the Marrakesh Accords. Avoidance of deforestation is not yet eligible as CDM activity mainly because of leakage related issues (Kanninen, et al., 2007). Deforestation involves a permanent process of land-use change which could be a result of forests conversion into croplands and pastures. However, the process of deforestation could also be a temporary or partial forest trees removal due to shifting cultivation and selective logging (Moutinho & Scwartzman, 2005) i.e. converting forest from its original course to
1.1 Overview of Brazil Brazil is one of the largest countries of South America and Latin American region. The country got freedom and became an independent nation in 1822 from the rule of Portugal. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labour pool, Brazil became Latin America's leading economic power by the 1970s. Being one of the largest and most populous countries in South America, the country has overcome more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of the country to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of the interior geographic of the country. Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country, not only by geographical area and but also by population.
Nowadays, environmental degradation has become an important issue. This is because environmental degradation is one of the largest threats that is being looked at in the world today. This is because of the depletion of important resources such as air, water, and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. To limit the impact of these situations, it is important to know the possible side-effects of environmental degradation. Therefore, there are several causes and negative effects of environmental degradation provided in this essay with some recommendations to prevent it.