Disappearing Rain forest Ecology and the preservation & conservation of a natural area (focus on one specific area (Tropical Rain forest)

Basic outline

This paper discusses the environmental problem of the disappearing rain forest in the Amazon region of Brazil, noting that the disappearing rain forest is not just an environmental issue but an economic one. The paper suggests that with certain agricultural methods used in Brazil (the slash-and-burn method) by people who have no other way to make a living, and with the country too poor to institute many of the protections needed, this issue has become a significant problem.

Introduction

One of the leading ecological problems facing the world for the last two decades or more is the disappearance of the tropical rainforest in Brazil, with scientists noting the many benefits the rainforest provides to the ecology of the world. The disappearing rainforest is not just an environmental issue but an economic one, with certain agricultural methods used in Brazil (the slash-and-burn method) by people who have no other way to make a living, and with the country too poor to institute many of the protections needed. As the Western nations complains about what is happening in Brazil, the leadership in Brazil points out that the country is too poor to do much about the problem." (Woodard, et. al. 229)

Summary of Research

This is a qualitative research based on secondary data Historically rain forests have been cut down because the simplest and quickest way to convert them into cash is to harvest the timber, burn down all that remains, and plant and annual crop for a few seasons, until much of the soil's nutrients are leached out. Since most of the nutrients in the tropical rain forest are found in plant material rather than in the soil, large-scale removal of that living material (called biomass) prevents rain forests from growing back. By using the tools of economists to analyse the value of land under various uses, ethnobotanists have found that in some areas there are viable alternatives to clear-cutting.

Analysis

Researchers studying the use of non-timber resources from forests in Brazil and Peru have concluded that non-wood forest products "yield higher net revenues per hectare than timber, but they can also be harvested with considerably less damage to the ecosystem. Without question, the sustainable exploitation of non-wood forest resources represent the most immediate and profitable method for integrating the use and conservation of Amazonian forests." (Woodard, Paul M. 229-234)

Observation

Although small by Amazonian standards (approximately 5000 hectares), the Tafua forest on the island of Savaii, Western Samoa, is precious because of the unique diversity of its life forms. Over 25 percent of the forest plants are found nowhere else on earth.

For hundreds of years Savaii Island, like the rest of Samoa, was, in Somerset Maugham's words, "lovely, lost and half a world away." Increasing prices of rain forest timber in the early 1970s ended that isolation. An American timber firm built a large sawmill in Asau, Savaii. Lack of experience with both the forest and ...