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Should people be allowed to destroy the Amazon Rainforest?

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The tropical rainforests are found in the hot, wet climate, which is found throughout much of the land that lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Altogether, tropical rainforests cover about seven per cent of the Earths land, which adds up to the same size land area of the USA. Some parts of the worlds are particularly rich in rainforests. The Amazon basin has the largest block of rainforests in the world, with 6 million square km of them. This is more then all the other rainforests in the world put together. Two thirds of the Amazonian rainforests are found in Brazil in South America. Part of the wonder and beauty of the tropical rainforests are in the rich variety of life they contain. An enormous number of different kinds of different kinds of plant sand animals are linked together in complex and fascinating ways. At least half the world's species of plants and animals live in rainforests. The luscious Amazon is the habitat of over one quarter of the world's species of birds. A single hectare of rainforest may contain over 200 species of trees and several hundred species of insect. 've mentioned this fact before- and I'll mention it again because it never ceases to amaze me but there are more species of orchid in the Amazon rainforest then there are species of tree, plant, grass or herb in the whole of Europe. ...read more.


However the ranches after only a short period of 5 -6 years will be abandoned, as they will have lost their fertility by then. In an average working life of an Amazonian ranch, each square metre of pasture has produced just enough beef for three quarter pound beef burgers- around �3 in our money. * Logging: So far multi-national companies to supply the worlds demand for wood, paper and other 'necessities' have cut down almost a third of the Amazonian rainforests as well as most of the rainforest in South Asia and Africa. It is not possible to log large areas of rainforest without damaging the forest habitat. Each tree removed means a loss of nutrients and the removal of particular species of trees may upset the finely balanced relationships between plants and animals. By destroying the forests you also destroy intertwined eco-systems, biomes, creatures habitats and part of our world. * Mining The Amazon rainforest and others like it are rich in mineral deposits such as gold, iron ore and copper. They attract rich multi-national companies which in turn clear miles of rainforest and etch and dig humungous pits and quarries in the landscape to get at the precious metals. The companies destroy massive areas of rainforest and when they have finished getting all the minerals possible, they leave the site for a new one and the process starts all over again. ...read more.


The crops provide an annual income for the farmers and in the time the trees can be harvested again. It is also possible to plant Teak trees together with crops, and Teak is used for making expensive furniture. Once th trees are cut then the whole process starts again with the planting of new trees. Another useful tree for agroforestry is palm trees. In the natural rainforest palm trees grow under the main canopy. They have large leaves, which help break the fall of heavy raindrops, and this helps prevent soil erosion and the leeching of the soil minerals. Palms like the Amazonian dende palm produce seeds which vegetable oil can be made out of. Agroforestry could prove to be a useful way of using some of the rainforests lands, which have been cleared and afterwards abandoned for cattle ranching. If this is successful then it will help reduce the need to clear more rainforest. At the moment the pattern is that as soon as the lands are abandoned, the settlers move off into new areas and clear lande. If the use of land that has been already been cleared could be improved, that will be good news for the rainforest left. Thank you for reading my work and I am sorry there aren't more :) examples but I thought it was long enough as it was. :) ...read more.

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