The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth. It sits within the Amazon River basin, covers some 40% of the South American continent and includes parts of eight South American countries including Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
Causes of Deforestation
The Amazon rainforest has experienced rapid rates of deforestation. This is due to a number of causes:
1. Subsistence and Commercial Farming
Subsistence farming is where poor farmers occupy plots of the forest to grow food to feed themselves and their families. They grow crops until the soil is exhausted and then move on. This contributes to deforestation, but not as much as commercial farming (farming to sell produce for a profit to retailers or food processing companies). The Brazilian region of Mato Grosso was affected by deforestation in the 1980s and 1990s. 43% of rainforest losses were in this region.
2. Logging
Logging is cutting down trees for sale as timber or pulp. This accounts for around 10% of deforestation in the Amazon.
3. Road Building
Trees are also cleared for roads. Roads are an essential way for the Brazilian government to allow development of the Amazon rainforest. The Trans Amazonian Highway has already opened up large parts of the forest and now a new road is going to be paved, the BR163 is a road that runs 1700km from Cuiaba to Santarem. The government planned to tarmac it, making it a superhighway. This would make the untouched forest along the route more accessible and under threat from development.
4. Mineral Extraction
Forests are also cleared to make way for huge mines. The Brazilian part of the Amazon has mines that extract iron, manganese, nickel, tin, copper, lead, zinc and gold!
This has focussed mainly on using Hydro Electric Power, and there are 150 new dams planned for the Amazon alone. The dams create electricity as water is passed through huge pipes within them, where it turns a turbine which helps to generate the electricity. Dams displace many people and the reservoirs they create flood large area of land, which would previously have been forest. The huge Belo Monte dam started operating in April 2016.
Populations are growing within the Amazon forest and along with them settlements. Many people are migrating to the forest looking for work associated with the natural wealth of this environment. Settlements like Parauapebas, an iron ore mining town, have grown rapidly, destroying forest and replacing it with a swath of shanty towns. The Brazilian Amazon’s population grew by a massive 23% between 2000 and 2010, 11% above the national average.
Impacts of Deforestation
The most significant impacts of this deforestation in the Amazon are:
1. Climate Change
Burning the forest releases greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide. This contributes to the warming of our planet via climate change and global warming. 100 billion tonnes of carbon are stored in the Amazon rainforest. The loss of trees prevents CO2 being absorbed, making the problem worse. The Amazon also helps to drive the global atmospheric system. There is a lot of rainfall there and changes to the Amazon could disrupt the global system
2. Soil Erosion
The soils of the Amazon forest are not fertile and are quickly exhausted once the forest is cleared. The farmers now artificially fertilise the soil when in the past the nutrient cycle would have done this naturally. In addition, the lack of forest cover means that soils are exposed to the rainfall. This washes huge amounts of soil into rivers in the process of soil erosion. In the Amazon, 55 million tons of soil is lost every year because of soil erosion caused by soy farming.
3. Economic Development
Deforestation can also have positive effects. For example, farming makes a lot of money for countries in the rainforest. In 2008 Brazil made 6.9 billion dollars from trading cattle. Brazil has used the forests as a way to develop their country. The forest has many natural riches that can be exploited. In addition, Brazil has huge foreign debt and lots of poor people to feed, so they want to develop the forest. Many Brazilians see deforestation as a way to help develop their country and improve people’s standard of living.