Deforestation in the Amazon

• 1/3 of the world's trees are in Amazon
• Estimates that 15-40% of the Amazon has been cleared
• Clearing of Amazon


  1. 15 football pitches per minute

  2. Slash and burn farming by Amerindian tribes like the Yanomami

  3. Subsistence farming by 25 million landless peasants

  4. Commercial cattle ranching for fast food chains

  5. 5300km Amazonian highway

  6. 900km railwayline from Carajas to the coast

  7. Timber/ logging companies

  8. Mineral mining eg diamonds, gold

  9. HEP

  10. Settlements eg Carajas
• Effects of Amazon deforestation

  • 30000 known species could be threatened
  • May lose species that are as yet undiscovered
  • Could lose the cure for diseases like Aids and cancer eg periwinkle found to cure Leukaemia
  • Loss of Amerindians due to European diseases
  • Loss of Amerindian traditions
  • Soil erosion as lack of interception as canopy removed
  • Loss of nutrients in soil
  • Climate change and global warming
  • Global balance of carbon and oxygen affected
• Ways to protect Amazonia


  • Zones for different activities
  • Loggers use selective logging practices
  • Laws
  • Limit licences to be given out
  • Restricting use of heavy destructive machinery
  • Encourage helilogging-uses helicopter
  • Community forestry development scheme to educate local people
  • Avoid construction where local tribes exist
  • Fines and prosecution for lawbreaking
  • Increased patrols