Forest Management
Both the local people of Amazonian and the government of that area play a part in managing the forest. In the late 1970's, IBAMA- Brazil's Environment Agency was set up to try and prevent the burning of the rainforest. Millions of acres were being burnt; in 1987 alone 20 million acres. Local farmers were paid to start fires, to provide new land for expansion. This may have seemed a good approach at first, as more capital may be brought in from the land regained through cattle ranches etc. Although 'Our Nature' programme intervened, it is an organisation through which the government tried to prevent the fires, as the consequences of these slash and burn techniques used, are devastating! The land burnt cannot be regained, and methane is released when the trees are burnt which contributes to Global Warming. The local people though don't have many alternatives they burn the forests to feed themselves and expand their cattle ranches. In the short term the landowners made money, but the f
In the rainforest these areas are replaced with grassland or cropland, which exposes the soil to the tropical, hot, humid and extremely wet climate, thus the litter rapidly decomposes, due to the high amounts of bacterial activity. Therefore without the protection of the forest canopy, the land is susceptible to surface run off, and in time severe soil erosion, and increased leaching. Also the higher amounts of precipitation and decreased levels of evapotranspiration, cause downwards movement of water through the soil. This leaching leads to the elimination of silica, and causes the soil to collect iron at the surface, so eventually a hard crust will form called a laterite, this prevents any re-afforestation or cultivation, due to its hardness. On the other hand, sustainable farming, was a solution taken to overcome the problem of ineffective Forest Management. 15 years ago, northern Amazonia was a devastated area, but now 500 000 acres effectively supports 120 families, through s
Some common words found in the essay are:
World Debt, Forest Management, Timber Organisation, Environment Agency, Electric Dams, Global Warming, , Tin Ore, cattle ranches, management decisions, sustainable farming, forest management, local people,
Approximate Word count = 665
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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