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Destruction of the Amazon
The largest cause of loss of forest lands in the Amazon Basin is burning, in order to create farmland for soybeans and pasture lands for the raising of cattle. In order to maintain the Amazon for future generations it is important to bring value to the standing forest. The responsible use of select cut techniques in a broad range of species will help preserve the Amazon for future generations by allowing local people to make a living in the forest rather than destroying it for the raising of cattle and soybeans. People do not destroy that which sustains them.
Few people grasp the immense size of the Amazon Rainforest. It is roughly the size of the continental United States. Today about 15% of the total Amazon Forest is deforested. When Europeans arrived in South America, about 15 % of the Forest was deforested.
In 1990, a number of tropical forestry experts met to discuss the causes of tropical deforestation and what could be done to slow deforestation. They arrived at a number of conclusions, some of which are summarized below (Smithsonian Institution/International Hardwood Products Association, 1990):
• Tropical forests will be preserved only if they are accorded economic value.
• Blanket bans and embargoes on tropical hardwood will tend to depress the value of these hardwoods and the forests that contain them. Such constraints generally diminish the economic incentives to conserve and manage these forests in the face of alternative land uses that lead to their destruction.
• In areas where prices received for timber do not fully cover the cost of forest management, there is a lack of incentive and commitment to forest management.
• Funds obtained from products of the tropical forests must be re-channeled into managing and regenerating those forests.
• The international tropical timber industry should encourage the continued establishment of conservation areas solely dedicated to forest preservation
Government policies tend to put low value on the benefits of intact natural forests, and high value on the benefits from forest exploitation and conversion, leading to deforestation without a full understanding of the biological impact. Some countries have exploited their tropical forest resources to solve fiscal, economic, social, and political problems
The destruction of tropical forests is due to growing population, growing infrastructure, and the economic activities associated with certain occupations. Unless people who work in cattle ranching, farming, charcoal production, and gold or oil exploration can find an alternative source of revenue compatible with their skills, their income will drop and their country's subsequent economic development will suffer. |
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Continental United States superimposed over the Amazon Basin.
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