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    The Changing Amazon Rainforest

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    The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering approximately 6 million square kilometers in northern South Brazil. It contains the greatest biodiversity on Earth, with over 50,000 plant species, 3,000 fish species, 1,300 bird species, and millions of insect species. In the 20th century, the rainforest declined dramatically as Brazil's population grew and settlers cleared land for agriculture and grazing. Today efforts are underway to protect parts of the rainforest from further human exploitation and destruction.

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    The Changing Amazon Rainforest

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    157 views5 pages
    The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering approximately 6 million square kilometers in northern South Brazil. It contains the greatest biodiversity on Earth, with over 50,000 plant species, 3,000 fish species, 1,300 bird species, and millions of insect species. In the 20th century, the rainforest declined dramatically as Brazil's population grew and settlers cleared land for agriculture and grazing. Today efforts are underway to protect parts of the rainforest from further human exploitation and destruction.

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    The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering approximately 6 million square kilometers in northern South Brazil. It contains the greatest biodiversity on Earth, with over 50,000 plant species, 3,000 fish species, 1,300 bird species, and millions of insect species. In the 20th century, the rainforest declined dramatically as Brazil's population grew and settlers cleared land for agriculture and grazing. Today efforts are underway to protect parts of the rainforest from further human exploitation and destruction.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    157 views5 pages

    The Changing Amazon Rainforest

    Uploaded by

    api-272983607
    The Amazon Rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering approximately 6 million square kilometers in northern South Brazil. It contains the greatest biodiversity on Earth, with over 50,000 plant species, 3,000 fish species, 1,300 bird species, and millions of insect species. In the 20th century, the rainforest declined dramatically as Brazil's population grew and settlers cleared land for agriculture and grazing. Today efforts are underway to protect parts of the rainforest from further human exploitation and destruction.

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    THE CHANGING AMAZON RAINFOREST

    The Amazon has a long history of human settlement, but in recent decades the
    pace of change has accelerated due to an increase in human population, the
    introduction of mechanized agriculture, and integration of the Amazon region into
    the global economy. Vast quantities of commodities produced in the Amazon
    cattle beef and leather, timber, soy, oil and gas, and minerals, to name a few are
    exported today to China, Europe, the U.S., and other countries. This shift has had
    substantial impacts on the Amazon.
    This transition from a remote backwater to a cog in the global economy has resulted
    in large-scale deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon more than 1.4
    million hectares of forest have been cleared since the 1970s. An even larger area
    has been affected by selective logging and forest fires.
    Conversion for cattle grazing is the biggest single direct driver of deforestation. In
    Brazil, more than 60 percent of cleared land ends up as pasture, most of which has
    low productivity, supporting less than one head per hectare. Across much of the
    Amazon, the primary objective for cattle ranching is to establish land claims, rather
    than produce beef or leather. But market-oriented cattle production has nonetheless
    expanded rapidly during the past decade.
    Industrial agricultural production, especially soy farms, has also been an important
    driver of deforestation since the early 1990s. However since 2006 the Brazil soy
    industry has had a moratorium on new forest clearing for soy. The moratorium was
    a direct result of a Greenpeace campaign.
    Mining, subsistence agriculture, dams, urban expansion, agricultural fires, and
    timber plantations also result in significant forest loss in the Amazon. Logging is the
    primary driver of forest disturbance and studies have shown that logged-over
    forests even when selectively harvested have a much higher likelihood of
    eventual deforestation. Logging roads grant access to farmers and ranchers to
    previous inaccessible forest areas.
    Deforestation isn't the only reason the Amazon is changing. Global climate change
    is having major impacts on the Amazon rainforest. Higher temperatures in the
    tropical Atlantic reduce rainfall across large extents of the Amazon, causing drought
    and increasing the susceptibility of the rainforest to fire. Computer models suggest
    that if current rates of warming continue, much of the Amazon could transition from
    rainforest to savanna, especially in the southern parts of the region. Such a shift
    could have dramatic economic and ecological impacts, including affecting rainfall
    that currently feeds regions that generate 70 percent of South America's GDP and
    triggering enormous carbon emissions from forest die-off. These emissions could
    further worsen climate change.
    - See more at: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/#sthash.XGQgyc6O.dpuf

    APA citation:
    Butler, Rhett A (2006). Title of this page (see top of browser window). Retrieved 9
    January 2006, from Mongabay.com / A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and
    the Perils They Face. Web site: http://www.mongabay.com/

    The Amazon Jungle, as it is commonly known in English, is a magnificent broadleafed rainforest in the heart of Brazil, the basin of which covers an impressive area
    of 7 million square kilometres (or 1.7 billion acres). It has an astonishing value in the
    natural world in terms of the Oxygen that it provides, the Carbon Dioxide that it
    consumes and the splendid array of exquisite plant- and animal species to which it
    is home. In fact, it is home to the most diverse and numerous arrays of species in
    the world.
    However, the Amazon is not yet a very popular or frequented tourist destination.
    This is for several reasons:

    Green tones of the Brazilian Amazon,


    the tropical rainforest.
    1. There is a perceived danger of the dangerous human elements (drug lords, and
    so on) in and around the Amazon. This is not quite as risky as some foreigners
    believe, and formal tour groups should provide sufficient protection against any
    potential risk.

    2. There is a lack of trustworthy information available to travellers; even those


    making use of the internet and travel agents.
    3. Some tourists are frightened of the animal species that they will encounter as
    well as the risk of contracting Malaria and / or Yellow Fever. However, vaccines and
    medication are available to protect them from such illnesses and tour guides will not
    endanger their group in the presence of a wild animal.
    The climate of the Amazon Jungle is typically tropical, with hot, humid conditions
    both day and night (evening temperatures are slightly cooler than those of the
    daytime). It is very wet in this area, no matter what time of year (although there is,
    technically, a drier season between April and September). Visitors will need to
    prepare for these conditions, which can become uncomfortable, but are well worth
    it.
    The fauna and flora of the Amazon are, by far, the most endearing traits of this
    beautiful attraction. There are approximately:

    40 000 plant species


    1 300 bird species
    430 amphibian species
    3 000 fish species
    380 reptile species

    www.brazil.org.za/amazon-rainforest.html, no author.

    Amazon Rainforest

    Written by: The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica

    View All (14)

    Amazon Rainforest, large, tropical rainforest occupying the drainage basin of


    theAmazon River and its tributaries in northern South America, and covering an
    area of 2,300,000 square miles (6,000,000 square km). Comprising about 40
    percent of Brazils total area, it is bounded by the Guiana Highlands to the north,
    the Andes Mountain Ranges to the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south,
    and theAtlantic Ocean to the east.
    A brief treatment of the Amazon Rainforest follows. For full treatment, see South
    America: Amazon River basin.
    Amazonia is the largest river basin in the world, and its forest stretches from the
    Atlantic Ocean in the east to the tree line of the Andes in the west. The forest
    widens from a 200-mile (320-km) front along the Atlantic to a belt 1,200 miles
    (1,900 km) wide where the lowlands meet the Andean foothills. The immense extent
    and great continuity of this rainforest is a reflection of the high rainfall, high
    humidity, and monotonously high temperatures that prevail in the region.
    The Amazon Rainforest is the worlds richest and most varied biological reservoir,
    containing several million species of insects, plants, birds, and other forms of life,
    many still unrecorded by science. The luxuriant vegetation encompasses a wide
    variety of trees, including many species of myrtle, laurel, palm, and acacia, as well
    as rosewood, Brazil nut, and rubber tree. Excellent timber is furnished by the
    mahogany and the Amazonian cedar. Major wildlife includes jaguar, manatee, tapir,
    red deer, capybara and many other types of rodents, and several types of monkeys.

    In the 20th century, Brazils rapidly growing population settled major areas of
    theAmazon Rainforest. The Amazon forest shrank dramatically as a result of
    settlers clearance of the land to obtain lumber and to create grazing pastures and
    farmland. In the 1990s the Brazilian government and various international bodies
    began efforts to protect parts of the forest from human encroachment, exploitation,
    and destruction.

    www.britannica.com/.../Amazon-Rainforest, The Editors of Encyclopdia


    Britannica, Amazon Rainforest

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