Part 8: What are the direct threats to tropical rainforests?

Question 1

1. What is a direct threat?

Answer 1

a. When the rainforest is damaged deliberately e.g. logging

Question 2

2. What are the direct threats to rainforests?

Answer 2

a. Poverty
b. Debt
c. Economic development
d. Demand for resources

Question 3

3. How does poverty threaten the rainforest?

Answer 3

a. Poor people cut down trees to farm

Question 4

4. How does debt threaten the rainforest?

Answer 4

a. Countries cut down trees to sell
b. Countries cut down trees to grow crops
c. The money is used to pay debts

Question 5

5. How does economic development threaten the rainforest?

Answer 5

a. Cities growing

b. Dams build for electricity flood the forest

Question 6

6. How does demand for resources threaten the rainforest?

Answer 6

a. Forests are destroyed to get natural resources from them

b. E.g. oil, timber, iron ore

Question 7

7. What is commercial hardwood logging?

Answer 7

a. When companies cut down trees to sell for furniture etc.

Question 8

8. Name an example of a dam in a rainforest

Answer 8

a. Tucuri Dam, Brazil
b. Flooded 1750 km2
c. Made electricity for mines

Question 9

9. What is commercial agriculture?

Answer 9

a. When companies grow crops for money

Question 10

10. What are biofuels?

Answer 10

a. Plants grown for fuel

Question 11

11. Give an example of a biofuel which has been grown in a rainforest

Answer 11

a. Palm oil in Indonesia
b. 6 million hectares of forest destroyed
c. Used for food and cosmetics

Question 12

12. How much deforestation happens in Nigeria each year?

Answer 12

a. 3.1% of the forest is destroyed

Question 13

13. Why is so much of Nigeria’s forest destroyed?

Answer 13

a. People are poor

Question 14

14. How much rainforest is destroyed in Brazil each year?

Answer 14

a. 0.6%

Question 15

15. Why is less rainforest destroyed in Brazil than in Nigeria?

Answer 15

a. Brazil is a middle income country

b. The forest is protected