Image: Map of the Amazon Rainforest.
Unique characteristics:
The Amazon is the world's biggest rainforest, larger than the next two largest rainforests, in the Congo Basin and Indonesia, combined. The Amazon River is by far, the world's largest river by volume.
The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s richest and most-varied biological reservoir, containing several million species of insects, plants, birds, and other forms of life, many still unrecorded by science. The luxuriant vegetation encompasses a wide …show more content…
Indigenous people cultivated and refined many items and materials such as manioc, tubers, fruit and palm trees in plot, along with increasing their farming plots with resources including rubber, nuts, fruits, fibres, and medicines.
Image: Map showing the land use in Brazil where the Amazon rainforest is located.
The Amazon rainforest has lost about a fifth of its forests in the past 3 decades. One of the main causes is cattle ranching, especially in Brazil.
For cattle ranching, trees are cut and the land is converted into a pasture for cattle grazing.
Graph: demonstrates the amount of deforestation for herds in the Amazon
Brazil also being the world’s largest exporter of beef, partly by selling to the US, the world’s biggest consumer of beef, and China, causes increasing population and increased per capita meat consumption.
Every day, the rate of deforestation increases. By 2020, it is expected that the exporting of beef will increase by 93%. This would increase Brazil's beef market share of the worlds export to …show more content…
The carbon dioxide (CO2) that is stored and absorbed by forests, is released where the trees are cut and burned.
The continuation of deforestation can lead to disasters. If the Amazon region becomes drier and drier, it wouldn’t be able to support nourishing croplands or habitat.
The Amazon Rainforest’s CO2 emissions have dropped more than any other country. Brazil continues trying to reduce its impact on climate change.
Image: the effect of human alterations
Sustainability strategies:
There are many things we can do to sustain and save the Amazon rainforest.
One way can be agroforestry which is when trees are left in the area or are replanted afterwards, this is done to maintain a constant amount of trees.
The strip felling technique is a sustainable alternative to felling trees on a mass scale. It is when trees are harvested in an area 50 metres wide, which allows natural regeneration. Moving animals into the area that carry seeds or by the wind blowing