PMT tropical rainforests

• Amazon


  Largest tropical rainforest on Earth, sits within the Amazon River basin, covers some 40% of the South American continent, includes parts of 8 South American countries
• The actual word "Amazon" comes from the river
• Amazon facts


  • Home to 1000 species of bird
  • Home to 60,000 species of plants
  • Home to 10 million species of insects
  • Home to 20 million people
  • Covers 2.1 million square miles of land
  • Home to almost 20% of species on Earth
  • UK and Ireland would fit into the Amazon 17 times
• The Amazon caught the public's attention in the 1980s when a series of shocking news reports said that an area of rainforest the size of Belgium was being cut down and subsequently burnt every year
• Deforestation has continued to the present day according to the Sao Paulo Space Research Centre
• In 2005 they had lost 17% of Amazon rainforest or 650000 square kilometres
• Satellite data is also showing increased deforestation in parts of the Amazon
• The process of deforestation

  1. Build roads into the forest

  2. Logging firms take out valuable hardwoods

  3. Farmers, often cattle ranchers, burn the rest to make way for cattle pasture
• 75% of cleared areas are used for cattle pasture
• Deforestation is worse in the South and South East of the Amazon basin, closer to major centres of population in Brazil
• Subsistence farming


  Poor farmers occupy plots of the forest to grow food to feed themselves and their families, clear forest and then burn it
• Commercial farming


  Farming to sell produce for a profit to retailers or food processing companies
• 43% of rainforest losses were in the Brazilian region of Mato Grosso, an area almost ½ the size of France
• Mato Grosso has been replaced by fields for grain and cattle, allowing Brazil to overtake Australia as the largest exporter of beef in the world
• Mato Grosso has flat land that is easy to farm, high temperatures and lots of rainfall
• Belo Monte dam


  • Under construction
  • Generates over 11,000 MW of power
• São Luiz do Tapajós dam

  • 8,000-megawatt
  • Held up due to concerns over impacts on local Munduruku people
• Hydroelectric power generation


  1. Water passed through pipes

  2. Turns turbine

  3. Generates electricity
• Dams in the Amazon

  • Displace many people
  • Flood large areas of land
  • Alter hydrological cycle
  • Trap sediment
• Chief Raoni in Paris with his petition against Belo Monte Dam
• Settlement and population growth in the Amazon

  • Populations growing within the Amazon forest
  • Many people migrating to the forest for work
  • Settlements like Parauapebas growing rapidly, destroying forest and replacing with shanty towns
  • Brazilian Amazon's population grew by 23% between 2000-2010, 11% above national average
• Every time forest is cleared, species are lost, resulting in loss of BIODIVERSITY
• Burning the forest


  • Releases greenhouse gases like CO2
  • Contributes to climate change and global warming
  • Loss of trees prevents CO2 absorption, making the problem worse
• Changes to the Amazon

  Could disrupt the global atmospheric system
• Economic development


  • Brazil has used the forests as a way to develop their country
  • The forest has many natural riches that can be exploited
  • Brazil has huge foreign debt and lots of poor people to feed, so they want to develop the forest
  • Many Brazilians see deforestation as a way to help develop their country and improve people's standard of living
• Clearing the Amazon forest

  • Soils are not fertile and are quickly exhausted
  • Farmers now artificially fertilise the soil
  • Lack of forest cover means soils are exposed to rainfall, resulting in soil erosion