land clearing in amazon rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. The majority of the rainforest is sited in Brazil with 60% of the rainforest contained there. It is also spread throughout other nations in South America such as Peru, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. (See Figure 1)
Land clearing has become a major contributing factor in the destruction of Amazon Forest and the development of its land. This is predominantly due to human activities which impact the Amazon Rainforest such as logging, agriculture, cattle grazing, urbanisation, and medicine. Factors mentioned above, exceedingly impacts the environment within the Amazon Rainforest, creating issues such as poor farming land, a decline in water quality, habitats being annihilated, and altering the earth’s climate. The impacts of human interactions within the Amazon Rainforest will be further analysed to articulate on your understanding towards this issue and the strategies which are involved.
Why do we need to clear land?
Agriculture such as cattle ranching is the primary cause of land clearing in Amazon Rainforest. It has been recorded that 60% of the land has been deforested for the grazing of cattle (See Figure 2). With an increasing population, our desire for meat seems to be rising. In this case, more of livestock are required to be produced in order to cater for our population’s needs. As a result, there is more land required to be cleared for livestock to feed on vegetation for them to grow and be eligible to be slaughtered. Agriculture seems to be 34% responsible for the deforestation in Amazon. It involves the subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture. Sections of the rainforest are cleared by conducting in a ‘slash and burn’ method, however, in a larger degree; forest clearers burn hundreds to thousands of hectares after felling a tract of forest and leaving it to dry. In addition, the land becomes appropriate for cultivation as nutrients
Land clearing has become a major contributing factor in the destruction of Amazon Forest and the development of its land. This is predominantly due to human activities which impact the Amazon Rainforest such as logging, agriculture, cattle grazing, urbanisation, and medicine. Factors mentioned above, exceedingly impacts the environment within the Amazon Rainforest, creating issues such as poor farming land, a decline in water quality, habitats being annihilated, and altering the earth’s climate. The impacts of human interactions within the Amazon Rainforest will be further analysed to articulate on your understanding towards this issue and the strategies which are involved.
Why do we need to clear land?
Agriculture such as cattle ranching is the primary cause of land clearing in Amazon Rainforest. It has been recorded that 60% of the land has been deforested for the grazing of cattle (See Figure 2). With an increasing population, our desire for meat seems to be rising. In this case, more of livestock are required to be produced in order to cater for our population’s needs. As a result, there is more land required to be cleared for livestock to feed on vegetation for them to grow and be eligible to be slaughtered. Agriculture seems to be 34% responsible for the deforestation in Amazon. It involves the subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture. Sections of the rainforest are cleared by conducting in a ‘slash and burn’ method, however, in a larger degree; forest clearers burn hundreds to thousands of hectares after felling a tract of forest and leaving it to dry. In addition, the land becomes appropriate for cultivation as nutrients