The soil is no longer able to support plant life because it is not fertile. The roots of plants and trees no longer hold the soil together so it is easily eroded. Many different species of plants and animals die because of deforestation. As plants and animals are closely connected through the food web , deforestation this reduces the biodiversity , or variety of species found in the tropical rainforest.
The trees and plants of the Amazon Basin absorb carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis. If there are fewer trees and plants, due to deforestation, then less carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. In this way deforestation contributes to global warming and therefore climate change.
Consider reducing your consumption of beef and think about participating in the local food movement, to reduce pressure on delicate ecosystems overseas. Amazon river fish are the main source of food and income for many Amazonian people.
The amount of fish needed to feed a growing population, however, may lead to over-fishing, especially if large industries are harvesting fish in order to export to foreign markets. In many parts of the Amazon, large, industrial trawlers armed with gill nets scoop up entire schools of fish in an entirely unsustainable attempt to bring food to market. Solution: Introduce commercial fishing regulations and quotas to avoid massive decreases in fish populations.
Set aside reserves, off-limits to large vessels, which will enable traditional fishermen to continue to earn an honest livelihood. People take plants and animals from the Amazon to sell abroad as pets, food, and medicine. Foreigners do not share the enormous profits from these products with the country of origin, and trade in these animals leads to declines in wild populations, normally affecting animals already threatened by habitat destruction and pollution.
This ranks the illegal wildlife trade as among the most lucrative illicit economies in the world, behind illegal drugs and possibly human trafficking and arms trafficking.
Solution: Exporting and importing countries are enforcing strict penalties against smugglers. Many people illegally hunt animals to sell as food and raw materials for finished products. Fact: The wildlife harvest takes a staggering number of animals: every year in the Brazilian Amazon alone, 9.
Solution: Develop new, environmentally-friendly ways for Amazonian people to make a living … although this is admittedly a vague statement.
Large hydroelectric projects, funded by international aid and development organizations like the World Bank, have led to widespread forest loss. Besides inundating large tracts of rainforest dams in the Amazon are generally ecologically inefficient because large tracts of forest are flooded due to the flatness of the basin and killing off local wildlife, the dams have the effect of destroying aquatic habitats and affecting fish populations, displacing indigenous peoples, and adding carbon to the atmosphere as the submerged wood rots.
Fact: Tropical rainforest waters are highly threatened today by hydroelectric damming projects , erosion from deforestation, overfishing, and poisoning from oil and chemical spills. The effects from the degradation of these waters are widespread, inflicting damage on the global economy, the environment, and local peoples. Trees are also cut down for wood pulp, which until recently came only from softwoods like Canadian conifers.
The pulp is used to make paper. Road building through rainforests is another problem, making illegal logging and the poaching of animals much easier. In Africa apes such as gorillas and other animals are hunted for bushmeat to be sold by roadsides and in the markets. Many apes are vulnerable to diseases. To avoid buying this wood in the UK, the most recognised and trustworthy standard is the Forestry Stewardship Council logo on wood and paper products which ensures the source was from sustainably managed forests.
Most of the beef in the UK is not sourced from Brazil. However, livestock can still be indirectly responsible for rainforest destruction since intensively farmed animals in the UK are fed a high protein plant called soya.
China, with its growing demands for beef has in recent years become the largest consumer of soya from Brazil. Most of the world's soya comes from South America where areas of rainforest, as well as other habitats like the savannahs have been planted with this crop. At first the land may be very productive. Eventually the good topsoil will be washed away by the rains within three or four years and the area may become a desert.
Otherwise farmers may resort to using more and more fertilizers and pesticides which bring with them their own problems such as the pollution of rivers. Soy plants may also be genetically modified - still a controversial issue.
Have you heard of palm oil? How about vegetable oil or olive oil? Oils from plants, vegetables, seeds and nuts have been used for centuries all over the world for many different foods and products. It is used in bread, cereals, chocolates, pizzas, cleaning products, chewing gum and even shampoo. Sometimes land is cleared so that it can be replanted with valuable cash crops such as the oil palm plant, which produces palm oil. It can also be used as a biofuel instead of petrol or diesel.
Valuable trees are harvested and the rest are burnt to clear the land for the farming of palm oil. In burning the rainforests Indonesia is also burning the peatlands below which store masses of carbon. Their peatlands cover just 0. This makes Indonesia the country with the 3rd largest carbon footprint in the world, when deforestation is taken into account! Bio-fuel targets in Europe mean that demand for palm oil is set to increase, despite the fact that more pollution is caused producing bio-fuels than is saved by not using petrol and diesel.
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.
Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city Caracals have learned to hunt around the urban edges of Cape Town, though the predator faces many threats, such as getting hit by cars.
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