Geography (3.5 Tropical Rainforest of Amazon) Flashcards
What are the reasons for the deforestation of the tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin
The tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin in south america is the largest area of tropical rainforest in the world. This rainforest has been cleared extensively. Here are a few reasons:
1) Housing
One of the major reasons for clearing the forest is to build more houses for the people as the population is growing rapidly. In addition, more houses are built in the deforested areas to resettle people from densely populated cities in Brazil such as Rio de Janerio and Sau Paulo
2) Agriculture
Extensive areas of the tropical rainforest have been cleared to grow pasture to rear cattle and grow crops for subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture.
3) Transport
The building of roads and the east west Trans Amazonia Highway has resulted in the extensive deforestation of the tropical rainforest in Brazil.
4) Natural Resources
The tropical rainforest of the Amazon Basin offers many valuable natural resources such as timber, mineral ores and crude oil. Extensive deforestation has resulted when these natural resources are extracted.
