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Importance of Rainforests

Importance of Rainforests. Biodversity – Between 50% and 90% of world’s species live in rainforests. Home to indigenous people Medicines – more than 60% of modern medicines originated from Rainforests! Food Regulate Climate. Video on medicinal uses.

francesca-roberts
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Importance of Rainforests

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  1. Importance of Rainforests • Biodversity – Between 50% and 90% of world’s species live in rainforests. • Home to indigenous people • Medicines – more than 60% of modern medicines originated from Rainforests! • Food • Regulate Climate.

  2. Video on medicinal uses • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-GUv4zRHRc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egeographyalltheway%2Ecom%2Fib%5Fgeography%2Fib%5Fecosystems%2Ftropical%5Frainforest%2Frainforest%5Fvisuals%2Ehtml 1 min

  3. Greenpeace TV Ad • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERx5j6h43tk&session=hR3CDsyIqJBYWBLYeZrEdOC_YNE3yszZQlIHOfNUXOTK-bC0cHlV0oazuE9wKy-ql8885J4YBDoJyzRm5XdYEM1GNEJEZFA31JBbU3Py8yDDABIUM-hpnHyTm_pSqT6O5PWzPgRE3y82imXh9DtpmBRv1YN61CWaRIsy8Hn0yT11oId9Z-dOGJu_LeKcDP9oVUd3JsityIp4FoSyKNVKRQ31DYByRIGIwvim3tPm34aIHI2LSL2me2X77z7ehtIiGOgNPN0gE_XhF29OaiQihGJneko9az29 Greenpeace Ad 2 mins

  4. Earth Clock for rates of deforestation http://www.poodwaddle.com/earthclock.swf

  5. What is the rate of deforestation in tropical rainforests? • Global Rates of Deforestation: • 2.47 acres (1 hectare/10,000m squared) per second: equivalent to two football fields • 150 acres (60 hectares) per minute • 214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) per day: an area larger than New York City • 78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year: an area larger than Poland

  6. The top 20 countries that cleared the most forest between 1990 and 2005. Brazil, the leader, cleared over 42 million hectares, an area the size of California.

  7. Reasons for deforestation: • Slash and burnfor growing cropsMost clearances are still by the local people and tribes needing land on which to grow crops. They clear the forest by ‘slash and burn’. Vegetation is cut down and then burned. The ash acts like a fertiliser adding nutrients to the soil. When the soil begins to turn infertile (usually after 3-5 years) the people move on. This is called shifting cultivation. It is a sustainable method of farming in the rainforest. It ensures the forest will recover.

  8. Road Building • There are more than 105,000 miles (170,000 kilometres) of roads, most made illegally by loggers to reach mahogany and other hardwoods for the lucrative export market.

  9. What impact does road building have on the Amazon’s ecosystem? trees are cut down road is built TASK - Organise these statements into the flow chart below. There is more than one correct order. Click here it is difficult to grow crops more trees are cut down the area become more accessible the area become more accessible the nutrient cycle is broken and so the soil becomes infertile there is no vegetation to intercept the rain people migrate to the area other large scale developments such as mining come to the area the soil is washed away

  10. Logging • Commercial (selling) logging is the major cause of primary rainforest destruction in South East Asia and Africa.

  11. Cattle Ranching • http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/human-impact.html National geographic Interactive • Brazil has the biggest commercial cattle herd in the world, and is the world largest exporter of beef, selling more than $4 billion dollars worth last year. • However commercial cattle farms are pushing up against and into the Amazon rainforest, and beef farming is seen as one of the biggest causes of deforestation. • http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/05/080515_amazon_packages.shtml Podcast from cattle farmer 6mins • And then Podcast on Ethical logging 5 mins

  12. Farming • There are nearly 3 million landless people in Brazil alone. The government has cleared large areas of the Amazon Rainforest and encouraged people to move there. The scheme has not been successful. Farmers stay on the same land and attempt to farm the land year after year. Nutrients in the soil are quickly exhausted as there is no longer a humus layer to provide nutrients. The soil becomes infertile and nothing will grow.

  13. Mining • The mining of iron ore, bauxite, gold, oil and other minerals have benefited many developing countries. However, it has also devastated large areas of rainforest e.g. The Amazon

  14. Ecotourism in the Amazon • http://www.perunature.com/pages/home_posada.htm

  15. Interactive Game • http://cgz.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cgz/accounts/staff/rchambers/GeoBytes/Content%20Generator%20Quizzes/Penalty%20Shoot%20Out/Year%209%20Rainforest%20Revision/Rainforest%20Revision.html 2 Players Penalty shootout

  16. Deforestation is causing many problems at a range of scales: • Local: When a rainforest is clear-cut, conditions change very quickly. The soil dries up from the sun. When it rains, it washes the soil away. The rainforest never fully recovers. Wildlife and plant life is reduced.

  17. Decline in indigenous populations • There has been a huge reduction in the number of people in local tribes.

  18. Amazonian Indians ‘They have stolen my land; The birds have flown, my people gone. My rainbow rises over sand, My river falls on stone.’ Song of a Xingu Indian

  19. The Yanomani The Yanomani are a group of Amazonian Indians who live in the rainforest. The Yanomani have tried to maintain a traditional, nomadic way of life. Their population currently stands at 9,000. Nomadic means ‘moves from place to place’.

  20. Soil Erosion • Clearing trees means that there is no canopy to protect the soil from heavy rain, or plant roots to bind it together. The result is that a lot of the soil gets washed away.

  21. Soil fertility • Once an area has been cleared, lots of rainfall reaches the ground. This washes the nutrients out of the soil and makes it less fertile.

  22. Loss of bio-diversity • Large numbers of plants and animals have been destroyed. It is possible that medicines are being lost.

  23. National: • Deforestation can consume a country's only natural resource. If deforestation is not managed in a sustainable manner a country's only natural resource could be lost forever.

  24. Traditional culture • Many Amerindians have been forced off their land and ways of life have been destroyed.

  25. Global: • World climate change:The burning of the forest releases carbon dioxide into the air. This may be linked to an increase in world temperatures. The carbon cycle and water cycle are severely affected.

  26. Decrease in hardwoods • Trees such as mahogany and rosewood are becoming endangered species.

  27. Videos on Intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPHtnMDU2EM 1 min and Soy farming 14 mins http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?q=In+the+name+of+progress&hl=en&sitesearch=#

  28. Amazon • The Amazon rainforest is the largest in the world, covering approximately seven million km² (40% of South America). • More than 40,000 plant species, including 1,000 different trees, have been identified in the rainforest. According to figures from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), it is also home to 427 different mammals, 1,294 birds, as well as 30 million people, including more than 220 indigenous groups in nine nations. • Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

  29. Amazon • During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down—more than in all the previous 450 years since European colonization began. • The percentage could well be far higher; the figure fails to account for selective logging, which causes significant damage but is less easily observable than clear-cuts. • http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7406033.stm Video of the effects of deforestation on locals in Brazil 2mins

  30. Timber mill in the Amazon

  31. Amazon • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7385906.stm BBC article on the rate of deforestation in the second half of 2007 May 2008 • Scientists fear that an additional 20 percent of the trees will be lost over the next two decades. • If that happens, the forest's ecology will begin to unravel. Intact, the Amazon produces half its own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere. Eliminate enough of that rain through clearing, and the remaining trees dry out and die.

  32. Questions • Read pages 157-159 and answer UTT Q1-3 p 159

  33. Amazon paradox • As concerns grow about global warming and the future of the planet, much more international attention is being paid to the Amazon region. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/05/080514_amazon_highlights.shtml Podcast from i) Prince Charles 3 mins ii) on rates of deforestation from Dr Carlos Nobre 4 mins • http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/080515_one_planet_extra.shtml Podcast 2008 27 mins

  34. There are three fundamental reasons why the region is important to the rest of the world. • The Amazon and the world's climate • Rapid rates of deforestation cause more carbon to be converted into carbon dioxide, either when the trees are burnt down or more slowly by the decomposition of unburned wood. • And once the forests are gone, they cannot soak up the carbon from cars, power plants and factories. At the moment the Amazon is thought to absorb about 10 per cent of global fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions. • The build-up of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere is one of the key causes of global warming.

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