Deforestation and intensive agriculture in Brazil
Causes of Deforestation in Brazil. 1. Intensive agriculture, e.g. Soya plantations and cattle ranching. 2. Logging 3. Demand for wood as fuel. 4. Construction of large dams and reservoirs drown forest. 5. Mining and industry clear forest to reach minerals. 6. Government-organised forest colonisation schemes clear forest for farming.
AVANCA BRASIL Government Policy to use the resources of the Rainforest to develop Brazil's economy
These activities are occurring because of the following 4 underlying social and economic conditions in Brazil:
1. Overpopulation and poverty in Brazilian cities creates political difficulties. 2. The government wants to open up the Brazilian rainforest to take advantage of its timber and mineral wealth. 3. Beef producers require more land to herd massive numbers of cattle for the beef trade. 4. Brazilian industry requires more power if it is to develop and maintain its industrial strength.
The above 4 factors led to a situation in Brazil where the government began to encourage poor people from the cities to settle in the forest and clear it for farming. In some cases, land was given away. This actively promoted the destruction of the forest!
Timber companies were given rights to remove forest and sell timber abroad. The Brazilian government receives a portion of the timber companies’ profits and uses it to pay off international debts.
Illegal growing and felling of timber is also leading to rapid deforestation, fuelled by demand for cheap supplies of plywood and tropical timber locally and abroad. Illegal timber is estimated to account for 80% of all timber produced in the Brazilian Amazon. As the area is rich in resources, licenses were given to mining companies to clear forests and mine for metals such as iron ore and copper.
Roads are being built across the Amazon rainforest to allow access to logging companies, mineral exploration companies, soya plantations, cattle ranches and hydroelectric power (HEP) stations. To construct these roads, large tracts of forest were cleared. The longest road is the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a 5,300km road, built across Brazil from east to west. The highway was designed to facilitate settlement and exploration of resources in this vast under-populated river basin. It has allowed the movement of people and goods to previously inaccessible areas. Settlement soon followed upon completion of the highway’s construction.
A new capital city, Brasilia, was built from scratch during the 1950’s and 1960’s in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. This was to encourage settlement of the region. Today it has a population of 2.3 million. To construct this city, large areas of forests were cleared. More deforestation occurred on the outskirts of the city where small, temporary housing settlements were built for migrant workers who moved to this area in order to construct the new capital city. Instead of returning to their original homes upon completion of the city, these workers chose to stay and avail of the greater opportunities in Brasilia.
An unlimited water supply and ideal river conditions led to the development of many HEP stations. Over 125 new HEP stations have been built in the Brazilian rainforest area. One example is the Tucurui Dam which caused over 2,500km² of rainforest to be flooded. More than 8,000 people lost their homes and thousands of animals died.
In January 2000, the Brazilian government announced its plans for Avanca Brasil (Advance Brazil). This was a €30 billion plan to cover much of the Amazon rainforest with 10,000km of highways, hydroelectric dams, power lines, mines, gas and oilfields, canals, ports, logging concessions and other industrial developments.
Scientists predict that these planned developments will lead to the damage of or loss of roughly 40% of Brazil’s remaining Amazon rainforest. However, the government is finding it difficult to raise the money for these projects.
There are vast areas of the Amazon rainforest still intact. However, there are now 7,595 companies registered in the Brazilian Amazon and deforestation rates are growing at an alarming rate. This region now produces some 30 million cubic metres of logs a year or 90% of Brazil’s total tropical timber production.
The impact of intensive agriculture on the TRF biome. Intensive agriculture, especially the intensive production of soya beans, is also having a major impact on the TRF biome. Intensive agriculture completely disrupts the natural ecological balance of a biome. The primary effects of intensive agriculture on the TRF biome are: 1 - Deforestation, 2 - destruction of natural habitat and 3 - introduction of exotic species.
The expansion of intensive agriculture (soya plantations) in Brazil is contributing to the loss of 40 hectares of rainforest every minute, day and night. The rate of forest clearance is driven by the increasing worldwide demand for soya and its products.
Destruction occurs in 3 ways: 1 – Soils are damaged. Intensive agriculture has a huge impact on tropical soils because of the increased use of agrochemicals and mechanisation which can lead to soil compaction and also soil erosion.
2 – Animals and plants cannot survive in the plantations and so the natural ecological balance that existed is disrupted or completely destroyed.
3 – Plants grown in plantations are not native to the rainforest biome. These huge monoculture soya plantations bring a further threat to the natural habitat with the introduction of genetically modified organisms that have the potential to escape and invade natural communities.
All of the above contribute to a loss of biodiversity. Agricultural intensification has also led to the construction of waterways, roads and railroads which have contributed to the destruction of the biome.
Impact of clearance on people and wildlife Rainforests are disappearing at about 40 hectares per minute, day and night. This clearance is having a significant effect on the biome and its people.
1. The area that was home to many native Amazonian Indians is greatly reduced. Their rights have been neglected. It has been suggested that some have been murdered for trying to resist the clearance of the rainforest by ranchers and forest companies. Workers for the mining and forest companies spread diseases such as the common cold and measles. These diseases have killed thousands of native Indians as they have never been exposed to these germs before and therefore have no immunity to them
2 – Before 1500, there were approximately 6 million native people living in Amazonia. By 2000, there were less than 250,000. By the 21 st century, 90 tribes of native peoples have been wiped out in Brazil alone.
3 – The area of natural habitat for wildlife is severely reduced. Many animals in the rainforest have not been clearly identified yet and as more of the rainforest is destroyed, the opportunity to study and identify these animals is lost.
The loss of many species of plants is a serious cause for concern as some contain chemicals that could one day lead to cures for serious illnesses such as cancer and AIDS. We already get many common drugs from different species of tree e.g. Aspirin. About one quarter of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants. Curare comes from a tropical vine and is used as an anaesthetic and to relax muscles during surgery. Quinine, from the cinchona tree, is used to treat malaria. More than 1400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to contain potential cures for cancer. These are being lost, cut and burnt at an increasing rate.
The loss of vast amounts of trees in the tropical rainforest will contribute to global warming. This will happen in 2 ways. First, the burning of the forest adds C02 to the atmosphere.. Second, by removing the forest we are destroying an important ‘carbon sink’. A carbon sink is a thing or place where carbon dioxide is taken from the air and stored for a period of time. Plants act as carbon sinks as they use C02 in the cells of their bodies.
Results of the forest clearance on Brazilian soils When a forest is cleared, the nutrient cycle is destroyed. The remaining soil can be easily washed away by heavy rain. In addition, as a result of the high temperatures in this region, the exposed soil is baked into a hard, brick-lick surface which cannot support plant growth. This is known as laterite soil, which is useless for farming.
Settlers who have been persuaded by the government to leave the cities and settle in these areas find that the land they had hoped to work is useless. Many move back to the cities as a result. The grass growth on the latosols is so poor that the beef cattle do not thrive and even more land is cleared to feed them.