Human activities in Tropical Rainforests

Human activities in Tropical Rainforests 5EVILS GEOGRAPHY PRODUCTION

C H AP TE R 1

Shifting Cultivation

Shifting cultivation (slash and burn) is a common farming practice in the hilly region of the tropical rainforests. Mainly the natives and landless people are the shifting cultivators.

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What is shifting cultivation?

• Labour intensive little use of machines (some have chain saws). Crops tend to

Shifting cultivation is an agricultural sys-

be planted using digging sticks.

tem in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and al-

• Crops planting between remaining tree trunks which decompose slowly adding

lowed to revert to its natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another

extra nutrients into the soil.

plot. The period of cultivation is usually

• When the clearing is abandoned it is left for many years, allowing the vegeta-

terminated when the soil shows signs of exhaustion or, more commonly, when

tion to recolonise.

the field is overrun by weeds. The length shorter than the period over which the

• With a low population density this form of agriculture is sustainable.

land is allowed to regenerate by lying fal-

[Reference: wikipedia]

of time that a field is cultivated is usually

low.

How is shifting cultivation prac-

Characteristics of shifting cultiva-

tised?

tion

The followings are the procedure the

• Clearings made in the rainforest by cutting and firing trees (slash and Burn)

shifting cultivators carry out the farming practice.

• Largest trees often left because they are difficult to move and can provide a source of food in the form of fruit.

• Ash is scattered after trees have been burned to fertilise the ground.

• Little fertiliser is added apart from the ash, so the nutrient levels drop quickly leading to the cultivators abandoning

1. Cut and burn a small piece of forest.

the plot and finding a new one after 710 years.

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2. The forest area remains large

(Credit: Mark Edwards/Still Pictures)

3. Sufficient time is given to the abandoned land for fallowing and forest regeneration.

4. Using ash as organic fertilizers which are more eco-friendly Disadvantages of shifting cultiva2. Grow crops on it with ash as organic

tion

fertilizer for one to three years.

In recent decades, shifting cultivation

3. When the soil is exhausted, the land

has become destructive to the rainfor-

will be abandoned.

ests. It’s because less time is given to the

4. Move to a new site of forest and start

eration.

abandoned plot for fallowing and regen-

growing new crops.

Reasons why there is less time 1. Food demand is great due to the rapid growth of tribal or native population.

2. More and more landless farmers practice shifting cultivation.

3. Forest area is getting smaller due to other human activities, e.g. cattle ranching and lumbering.

5. The old piece of forest will be fallowed and waits for forest regeneration.

Advantages of shifting cultivation This farming practice is sustainable and environmental-friendly because 1. The native population is small

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C H AP TE R 2

Plantation Agriculture

A plantation is a long, artificially-established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption.

It is a type of commercial farming where

Production is mainly for the market and

one particular crop is growing on a large

not for the farmers’ self-consumption

scale and sold for cash and export

Involves modern inputs such as chemi-

It is a commercial tropical agriculture

cal fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides

system which is essentially export-

Also known as Cash Crops

oriented 4

Examples: Palm oil plantation, rubber

from the same area of corn, soy, or

plantation,cocoa plantation, coffee plan-

canola.

tation and soybean plantation.

Indonesia is now the leading supplier for

Certain types of palm trees produce large

a global market that demands more of

red fruit which are rich with oil. After re-

the tree's versatile oil for cooking, cos-

fining, this oil, known as palm oil, can be

metics, and biofuel.

used to produce all sorts of products, in-

However, palm oil's appeal comes with

cluding oils used in foods like chocolates

significant costs. Oil palm plantations of-

and cookies, cosmetics like makeup, and

ten replace tropical forests, killing endan-

even biodiesel, a fuel that can be used in

gered species, uprooting local communi-

cars instead of diesel.

ties, and contributing to the release of

Oil palms, as these trees are called, have

climate-warming gases.

very high oil yields -- some of the highest

Due mostly to oil palm production, Indo-

of any crop used for biofuel (plant-based

nesia emits more greenhouse gases than

fuel) production. A single hectare (2.5

any country besides China and the

acres) can produce up to 7 tons of oil,

United States.

many times what would be produced

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Reasons for the growth of oil palm

5. More profitable to grow oil palm than

plantations in Malyasia

other traditional tropical food crops

1. Rising demand for biofuels which are

6. Easy management for growing one

regarded as more eco-friendly.

type of crop (monoculture). Lower production cost due to specialization.

2. Lack of fuel reserves in tropical countries and therefore, there’s a tendency

7. Well-developed transport infrastruc-

for them to develop more biofuels.

ture for the export of palm oil.

3. Growing population and economic activities in some less developed rainforests countries, e.g. Brazil, Malaysia, lead to growing demand for fuel Sandakan, an important port for palm oil trade in Malaysia

4. Government support

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C H AP TE R 3

Cattle Ranching

Cattle ranching is now the biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon, and nearly 80 per cent of deforested areas in Brazil are now used for pasture. The cattle industry has ballooned since the 1970s, giving Brazil the largest commercial cattle herd in the world. Since 2003, the country has also topped the world's beef export charts and the government plans to double its share of the market by 2018.

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INTRODUCTION In 2006, cattle occupied 79.5% of the land already in use in the Brazilian Legal Amazon.

Around 40% of Brazil’s cows are currently located inside the Amazon. From 2002 to 2006, 14.5 million of the total 20.5 million head of cattle added to Brazil herd were located in the Amazon.

Characteristics of cattle ranching

• Less restrictions in land tenure law

in the Amazon

• Rapid development of transportation networks and improved accessibility

• a kind of large-scale commercial farming

• Large demands from the food industries in the More Developed Countries

• Raising and grazing livestock in extensive land

• Beef producers have turned to LDCs for pasture and feed as the MDCs get

• trees are cleared to provide pasture land for ranching

the scarcity of land resources and rising awareness of environmental protec-

• Ranch land are usually native prairie or

tion

forested land

• depreciation of Brazilian dollars further lowers the production cost

• Usually on low land Favourable factors of the Amazon

• government support to develop cattle ranching

for cattle ranching • Ranchers are attracted to the Amazon because of the globalization trend

• free from mad-cow disease and footmouth disease

• Sufficient supply of land in the Amazon • Lands are fertile for cattle ranching by applying chemical fertilizers 8

CATTLE STATION IN MATO GROSSO The building of new roads allows human occupation and further destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Situation in Brazil

The new cattle footprint maps our Brazilian team have produced focus on Mato

Now, with the Brazilian government

Grosso, a state which has the largest cat-

pushing for the industry to expand on

tle herd in Brazil and seen large areas of

such a massive scale, it throws their tar-

forest lost in favour of pasture, and an in-

gets announced last month for reducing

novative process has been used to ana-

deforestation into serious doubt. It also

lyse satellite imagery. The new technique

poses a significant threat to efforts to

uses images from the Moderate Resolu-

combat climate change. Deforestation is

tion Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis)

largely responsible for making Brazil the

satellite to identify whether land is being

fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter,

used for crops or pasture, or if it's still

and the cattle industry also contributes a

covered in trees.

significant quantity of emissions in the form of bovine methane emissions (or

By comparing the spread of cattle ranch-

cow farts if you want to be less tactful).

ing with other data - such as the locations of industrial-sized slaughter9

houses, roads and other infrastructure

• Protect against ‘leakage’ via na-

elements - they've built a picture of how

tional- level accounting and reduction ap-

the livestock industry is affecting the re-

proaches in deforestation;

gion.

• Does not directly include forest off-

They also demonstrate how roads have

set credits in carbon markets;

opened up new areas of the forest to agri-

• Does not support the replacement of

culture, including unofficial roads which

natural forests with plantations and

don't feature on government charts.

must not subsidise the expansion of in-

Cattle and pastures are rapidly replacing

dustrial logging, agri-business and other

the Amazon rainforest. When the forest

destructive practices into forests.

is coverted to pasture, biodiversity goes

• enact and enforce the currently pro-

up in smoke, and masses of carbon diox-

visional act in the Forest Code, which

ide is released into the atmosphere.

stipulates that no more than 20% of any

Therefore, the Brazilian government

private land holding in the Amazon can

must adopt ambitious deforestation re-

be legally cleared. This would avoid addi-

duction targets in order to achieve zero

tional legal deforestation permits.

deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by

• redirect investments that drive de-

2015.

forestation into diversified economies in-

The following are the suggestions:

cluding investing in people that support the sustainable use of forest products.

• Provide sufficient annual funding to tackle tropical deforestation and make it

• Increase investments to strengthen

available immediately;

the monitoring and control systems to fight forest crimes in the Amazon to en-

• Is accessible to all countries with

sure effective governance and law en-

tropical forests, including countries with

forcement in the region.

low deforestation rates; • Protect biodiversity values and the rights and livelihoods of indigenous peoples;

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C H AP TE R 4

Lumbering

Illegal and predatory logging plays a central role in the destruction of the Amazon. It is now generally accepted that illegal logging is the norm, rather than the exception in the Brazilian Amazon. Between 60 and 80 percent of all logging in the Brazilian Amazon is estimated to be illegal.

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AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH View from the space shuttle Atlantis of the Polonoroeste Project, an eort by the Brazilian government to populate and deforest a large area of the Amazon Basin. Farms, ranches, and factories have replaced most of the rainforests in this region

With the depletion of forests in South-

that are able to avoid detection because

east Asia and central Africa, the Amazon

of the remoteness of the logging loca-

is being targeted by domestic and tran-

tions, the weak presence of the federal en-

snational corporations as a key source

vironmental agency IBAMA, and a com-

for tropical timber products. Huge majes-

plex chain-of-custody in the cutting, haul-

tic trees like the Samauma, also known

ing and transporting of the logs.

as the "Queen of the Forest", are being ex-

Legally approved forest operations in the

ploitedto make cheap plywood for con-

Brazilian Amazon commonly provide

struction industries in the US, Japan and

cover for illegal logging. Logs are fre-

Europe.

quently cut illegally up river from ap-

Working in remote forest areas, the log-

proved operations and clandestinely

gers often use false permits, ignore limi-

floated downstream. Once past an ap-

tations of legal permits, cut species pro-

proved operation, they are "legalised"

tected by law and steal from protected ar-

with forged documents claiming that the

eas and indigenous lands. These are of-

logs were cut on the property of the for-

ten small or medium scale operations

estry operation.

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Ways to carry out logging in the

Favourable factors for lumbering

Amazon

in the Amazon

1. Selective logging

1. tropical rainforest provide a large amount of hardwoods

• Trees are first marked to identified the species of timber they want as not

• (including teak, rosewood and mahogany) which are of high value

every species are suitable for sale as well as to leave sufficient tress to re-

• ∴its strength, durability, texture and

gain the volume of harvested

beauty and they are used in construc-

• After that, workers will cut the woods following the marks

tion purposes and furniture making • ∴lower quality wood is made into

2. Clear-cutting

household utensils and chopsticks

• In the South East-Asia

• ∴sometimes cut up into chips used for pulp and paper

• ∵ most of the tress species are valuable

2. renewable (new trees can be grown in

• ∴usually all the tress are removed at

the same place ones trees are cut)

once in very large-scale

• produce more logs

• regardless the sustainability and the ecosystem of the forest

• commercial logging is commonly carried out

• large number of labour and different kinds of machines are involved

3. high demand in more developed countries

• dividing the logs into different sections and required sized

• especially in the late 1990s (after depleting much of their own timber stocks)

• transporting to the local mills or industry.

• aware and concern about forest resources in their own countries • tried to import timbers from less developed countries • Main importers in Asia: 13

Japan (world's largest consumer of tropi-

• combined with decentralized government structures in many tropical coun-

cal timber), South Korea, Taiwan, China

tries

4. For transporting timbers

• existing forestry laws nearly unenforceable

• roads were even exploited by Japanese timber companies in rainforest area

• while lack of transparency in commercial transactions means that corrupt of-

• in the 1980s, Japan received the vast majority of tropical timber from Sara-

ficials can grant concessions to cronies

wak and Sabah in Malaysia

without regard for the environment or

• Nowadays, most of the timber exported to Japan with Malaysian label is actu-

consideration of local people • encouraged illegal logging in tropical rainforest

ally from trees that have been illegally logged in Indonesia

Conclusion

5. Poor forest planning and management

Selective extraction of valuable trees can

• ∴logging is allowed without having to

directly change the forest structure and

observe any conversation regulation

its species composition, as in most cases,

• ∴ the loggers often use false permits

other trees are destroyed in the process.

According to scientists, Amazon logging

• ∴ ignore limitations of legal permits

companies extract or damage 10 to 40

• ∴ cut species protected by law

percent of the live biomass of a forest area, and open up the canopy by 14 to 50

• ∴ steal from protected areas and in-

percent.The reduced canopy cover can

digenous lands

also make the forests more vulnerable to-

• restrictions are unenforceable due to corruption and limited resources

forest fires. The indirect consequences of offsetting the cost of roadbuilding and forest clearance opens up the forest to

• increasing rate of illegal logging

further destructive activities including

6. serious corruption

large-scale hunting, fuel woodgathering

• Widespread collusive corruption from local officials to the judiciary

and clearing for agriculture.

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C H AP TE R 5

Hydro-electric Power

The Brazilian Government is building the world's third largest hydroelectric dam on one of the Amazon's major tributaries, the Xingu River. The Belo Monte Dam complex is designed to divert 80% of the Xingu River's flow, devastating an area of over 1,500 square kilometers of Brazilian rainforest while resulting in the forced displacement of between 20,000 - 40,000 people.

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The Xingu River basin is home to 25,000 indigenous people from 40 ethnic groups; it is a living symbol of Brazil's cultural and biological diversity. The Xingu flows north 2,271 kilometers from the central savanna region of Mato Grosso to the Amazon River and, although nominally "protected" throughout most of its course by indigenous reserves and conservation units, the Xingu is severely impacted by soy monocultures and cattle ranching throughout the basin, and now by the threat of a series of large dams.

Belo Monte is highly complex: the project includes two dams, one massive canal spanning 500 meters, two reservoirs (one flooding dry land), and an extensive system of dikes, some big enough to qualify themselves as large dams. In addition to the 1,500 km2 of area directly impacted by the dam, including the permanent flooding of 400 km2 of forest, the construction of Belo Monte threatens to result in explosive deforestation in the Xingu basin.

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Reasons for the development of HEP in the Amazon • growing demand for electricity due to large population • growth of commercial sector • preparing for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro • increasing industrial operations and mining activities in the Amazon, e.g. bauxite, nickel and gold mine requires large amount of electricity in the process of refinery • to provide cheaper electricity for ordinary citizens

Possible impacts of the construction of the dam on the tropical rainforest ecosystem • The National Amazon Research Institute (INPA) calculated that during its first 10 years, the Belo Monte-Babaquara dam complex would emit 11.2 million metric tons of Carbon dioxide equivalent, and an additional 0.783 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent would be generated during construction and connection to the national energy grid.

• Dams in Brazil emit high amounts of methane, due to the lush jungle covered by waters each year as the basin fills.

• Belo Monte's 668 square kilometres (258 sq mi) of reservoir will flood 400 square kilometres (150 sq mi) of forest, about 0.01% of the Amazon forest.

• The loss of vegetation and natural spaces, with changes in fauna and flora; • Changes in the quality and path of the water supply, and fish migration routes; • Temporary disruption of the water supply in the Xingu riverbed for 7 months;

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C H AP TE R 6

Mining

The Amazon is considered to have great potential for mineral assets, namely copper, tin, nickel, bauxite, manganese, iron ore and gold. As a result, governments are providing tax incentives for large-scale projects, in order to boost development. As extractive technologies improve, it is likely that the scale of Amazon mining will increase.

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What are the impacts of mining?

Encroachment on indigenous lands: When mining takes place in areas that

Mining can impact the area’s water drain-

are settled by indigenous people, clashes

age, pollute water with run-off from the

may occur. It has been reported that

mine, and threaten local communities,

there are half a million gold prospectors

including indigenous people, by affecting

(garimpeiros in Portuguese) working

the quality of the food supply. Other ef-

throughout the Amazon Basin in small

fects include:

operations. In Brazil’s state of Roraima,

Speeding up of deforestation: In the

conflicts have flared up between the in-

Carajas Mineral Province, Brazil, maybe

digenous Yanomamo Indians and gold

the world’s largest copper reserve (iron

prospectors, and the government had to

ore, manganese and gold are already

step in with military intervention to evict

found there), wood from surrounding for-

miners from Indian lands.

est is cut for charcoal to fuel pig iron

Spread of tropical diseases: Mining re-

plants, resulting in annual deforestation

quires blasting which may cause enor-

of 6,100 km2. Mining companies create

mous gaps in the landscape turn into

extensive networks of roads throughout

stagnant water pools. Later, they be-

the Amazon Basin, deforesting land and

come breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

disrupting nature.

These mosquitoes are notably feared be-

Pollution: A notorious pollutant used in

cause they cause malaria, a widespread

gold extraction is mercury. In the vicin-

epidemic in Brazil, in the local popula-

ity of gold extraction sites, it may be

tions. After blasting, massive trucks (i.e.

found in high concentrations in fish, af-

taller than jumbo jets) are then brought

fecting local populations. Mercury also

into the area to extract the rock from the

ends up in the atmosphere, from where

pit and bring it to a processing facility.

it returns to forests. For example, 90% of

Increasing toxicity: once at the refinery,

fish caught by rural villagers south of

the rock is sprayed with cyanide or mer-

gold mining areas of the Tapajós River in

cury to separate the gold particles from

Brazil were found to be contaminated

the rock. However, careless contain-

with methyl mercury. This chemical is

ment procedures and improper disposal

dangerous for the nervous system as well

lead to the release of these chemicals

as foetuses.

into the natural surroundings. Even 19

IRON ORE MINE Open-cast mining methods may expose more tropical soil for erosion due to heavy rainfall.

though mercury stored in the soil is in an

nates from the mines. It is carried off in

organic form, which is rather harmless,

rain or surface water and is deposited in

when released in large concentrations

nearby water sources including the

through mining it inhibits plant growth

groundwater.

and animal immunity, resulting in the death of flora and fauna. According to estimates, amount of mercury effectively dumped into the rivers has been 2000 tons in the last century alone. Contamination of groundwater: The mining processes and their side effects also constitute a major source of threats to groundwater. Acid mine drainage (or AMD) is a solution of sulfuric acid along with toxic metals and other contami20