Tropical Rainforests (subject vocabulary)

• Biodiversity

  The variety of life in the world or a particular habitat.
• Commercial farming


  Farming to sell produce for a profit to retailers/food processing companies.
• Debt reduction

  Countries are relieved of some of their debt in return for protecting their rainforests.
• Deforestation

  The chopping down and removal of trees to clear an area of forest to make space for farming, industry, settlements, roads and use of wood as fuel.
• Ecotourism


  Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the wellbeing of the local people and may involve education. It is usually carried out in small groups and has minimal impact on the local ecosystem.
• Logging

  The business of cutting down trees and transporting the logs to sawmills.
• Selective logging

  The cutting out of trees which are mature/inferior to encourage the growth of the remaining trees in a forest/wood.
• Mineral extraction.

  The removal of solid mineral resources from the earth. These resources include ores, which contain commercially valuable amounts of metals e.g. aluminium/iron; precious stones e.g. diamonds; building stones e.g. granite; and solid fuels e.g. coal/oil shale.
• Soil erosion

  Removal of topsoil faster than it can be replaced. this is due to natural (water and wind action), animal and human activity.
• Topsoil

  The top layer of soil - it is the most fertile layer because it contains the most organic, nutrient-rich materials.
• Subsistence farming

  A type of agriculture producing food and materials for the benefit only of the farmer and his family.
• Sustainability

  Actions and forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without reducing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
• Transmigration

  City dwellers have been encouraged/paid to move to rural areas to develop the interior of Brazil.
• Adaptation

  The evolutionary process where an organism becomes better able to live in its habitat(s). Species adapt to their ecosystem's conditions.