Systems ModuleSystems ModuleGeography Geography

LessonsLessons

Lesson 3 Threats to Lesson 3 Threats to rainforest ecosystems.rainforest ecosystems.

Aim- Why are we chopping Aim- Why are we chopping down the rainforests and is down the rainforests and is

there an alternative?there an alternative?

Amazonian Indians

‘They have stolen my land;The birds have flown,

my people gone.My rainbow rises over

sand,My river falls on stone.’

Song of a Xingu Indian

The Yanomani are a group of Amazonian Indians who live in the rainforest. The Yanomani have tried to maintain a traditional, nomadic way of life. Their population currently stands at 9,000.

The Yanomani

Nomadic means ‘moves from place to place’.

The Yanomani live in ‘yanos’ which are large, communal dwellings made of tree trunks and thatches of palm leaves. Between ten and twenty families live in a yano. Each family has its own section and fire. These dwellings are only temporary and over a period of time they become infested by cockroaches and bats.

Why do the Yanomani move on after five or so years?

The Yanomani are semi nomadic. They build their yanos near suitable land for cultivation. The forest provides firewood, nuts, berries and animals to hunt. The Yanomani hunt, gather, fish and farm the land for five to ten years and then move onto another area. This is called shifting cultivation.

What is meant by ‘semi nomadic’?

The Yanomani

Shifting Cultivation

1

2

Untouched forest

The Yanomani clear a small area of forest. They burn the buttress roots which provides ash to increase the fertility of the soil. They leave a few trees standing to intercept the rain.

3

The ‘garden’…The Yanomani plant crops such as manioc and yams and cultivate the area for five to ten years before the soil becomes infertile.

‘Yanos’ made from wood

Shifting Cultivation

4

5

The Yanomani move onto another plot of land. The soil regenerates and the ‘yano’ decays and is eaten by termites.

The forest regenerates.

The Yanomani have virtually no impact on the rainforest ecosystem. It is a SUSTAINABLE way of life.

Shifting Cultivation

Yanomani wear few clothes but use paint and beads to decorate their bodies.

Yanomani boys are taught to hunt while Yanomani girls are taught to grow crops and cook.

Yanomani facts!

Yanomani children work (hunt, learn about crop rotation) for 4 hours per day. In their spare time they enjoy activities such as swimming and dancing.

The Yanomani use plants with medicinal properties found in the rainforest.

Quinine was discovered in the Amazon.

It is an anti- malaria drug from the bark of the cinchona tree (and also an ingredient in tonic water!).

TASK 1 - Compare your lifestyle with the Yanomani. Think of similarities as well as differences. Click here

My Lifestyle Yanomani lifestyle

Family

School

Clothes

Food

Yanomani Lifestyle

The Yanomani land is rich in minerals. Since 1987 their land has been invaded by garimpeiros (illegal, gold prospectors). Due to this contact with the outside world, 1,500 Yanomani Indians have died from epidemics such as malaria and influenza. They have no immunity to Western disease and no medicines to treat them. However, disease is not the only threat. Newcomers scare the wild animals with noise from vehicles and machinery. They also poison the rivers with mercury, which is used to purify the gold.

Yanomani Indians - threats

What damage do the garimpeiros cause?

In May 1992, the Brazilian Government recognised the Yanomani rights to the land by creating a Yanomani Park. This protects the tribes from further invasions and the 40,000 garimpeiros living in this area have been forced to move. The government sent in the army to destroy the airstrips that were used to supply the gold mines. Less than 2,000 garimpeiros now remain in the Park. Some people are against the Yanomani Park. It is the size of Scotland and many Brazilians live in crowded conditions on the East coast. There have even been some attacks on the Yanomani. In August 1993, 40 Yanomani Indians from the Haximu village, on the border with Venezuela, were viciously murdered.

Who might be against the Yanomani Park?

Yanomani Park

Development in the Amazon

Large scale development in the Amazon

Large scale development projects started in the Amazon after most of the area became part of Brazil’s territory in 1967. The Brazilian Government’s Polamazonia Plan in the 1970s aimed to open up the Amazon to development. This included encouraging and funding the following large scale development projects:

Road and rail developmentLoggingRanchingHydroelectric Power (HEP)MiningSettlement

Developments in the AmazonDevelopments in the Amazon

Carajas Project

iron ore, copper, manganese, nickel, bauxite, gold,

tin, lead, zinc

Carajas

Sao Luis

Belem

Tucurui

TransAmazonian Highway

rail link

0 100km

There are two types of miners in the Amazon –1) miners that work in the official mines which are regulated

by the Brazilian government2) illegal miners such as the gold prospectors (garimpeiros).Both sets of miners have caused damage to the ecosystem by cutting down large areas of forest and by using chemicals to purify their metals. However, the official mines have made some efforts to repair some of the environmental damage they have caused. For example, at a large bauxite mine on the Trombetas River in the state of Para, the mining company has stopped dumping their tailings (sludge from washing the ore) into the river and they have started a reforestation project. The garimpeiros are more difficult to monitor. They use enormous amounts of mercury to purify the gold and this toxic metal is released into the rivers and is absorbed into the food chain.

Why is mercury poisoning becoming a major illness for those who live in the Amazon?

Mining

Slash and burn is used to clear the land for settlement and ranching.

Logging

Tucurui Dam

Tucurui Dam was built between 1976 and 1984, on the Lower Tocantins River in the state of Para, approximately 300km south of Belem. The reservoir created upstream of the dam is over 2000km2. The dam will produce more than 4000 MW of electricity.

TucuruiDam

Amazonian Indian villages

HEP plant

Road

flooded an area 5 times the size

of the Isle of Wight

Before Tucurui Dam After Tucurui Dam

Tucurui Dam – cost $5 billion

Describe the dam’s impact on the landscape.

River Tocantins

The dam has stopped silt travelling downstream. This silt is a natural fertiliser. We will have to buy chemical fertilisers or clear more forest.

The flooding displaced thousands of us living by the river. Moreover, chemicals used to defoliate the vegetation before flooding have contaminated the water and caused illness.

This electricity will be used to power the mines at Carajas and the smelting industries at Belem. These industries will provide jobs.

The dam has stopped the migration of fish up and downstream.

TASK 2 - Who gained and who lost out from its construction? Click here to go to word

TucuruiMatch the statement with the correct person

Carajas

Farmer

Fishermen

Amazonian Indian

Miner

Then the water in the lake and what the lake releases,Is crawling with infected snails and water born diseases. There’s a hideous locust breeding ground when the water level’s low…

by K E Boulding

The cost of building dams…

Why was road building such as the TransAmazonian Highway vital to all these large scale development projects?

Broken Nutrient cycle

Deforestation

Fewer leaves fall

Less decomposition (breaking down) of litter by termites, fungi and bacteria

Less nutrients enter the soil

Soil becomes infertile

Less vegetation

What impact does road building have on the Amazon’s ecosystem?TASK 3 - Organise these statements into the flow chart below. There is more than one correct order. Click here

there is no vegetation to intercept the rain

the soil is washed away

trees are cut down

road is builtthe nutrient cycle is broken and so the soil becomes infertile

it is difficult to grow crops

the area become more accessible

other large scale developments such as mining come to the area

more trees are cut down

people migrate to the area

the area become more accessible

Role play

You will be allocated a role from the following –

•Brazilian government

•Hydroelet (large HEP company)

•FUNAI (government organisation for the protection of Amazonian Indians)

•World Medical (concerned with the protection Organisation of plants for medical research)

•Greentours (a holiday company concerned with providing holidays that nether harm the environment nor the local people)

Should large scale development be allowed in the Amazon?

Role play

•Brazilian government•Hydroelet

•FUNAI •World Medical Organisation

•Greentours

Read the next 6 slides.Which of the above groups will be against large scale development?

Should large scale development be allowed in the Amazon?

Research your role carefully and then prepare a presentation to explain why you are for or against large scale development in the Amazon.

Brazilian government

Fact FileCapital – Brazilia

Population – 162 millionGNP per capita – $3,370

Debt – $1,153 millionLiteracy – 80%

Tourism – over 1 million visitors per year

‘The income gap between the richest and the poorest in Brazil is getting wider. The shanty towns in our large cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo are expanding and their residents lack basic facilities such as electricity and clean water. Our interest on the debt is growing each year and we need to invest in our industries if we are to ever pay back this money. Developing the Amazon can generate some of this necessary investment.’

FUNAI (Fundaao Nacional do Indio)

‘FUNAI is the government agency set up to protect the rights of the Amazonian Indians. We believe that most large scale developments have a negative impact on the Amazon’s ecosystem and in turn, on the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Amazonian Indians. For example, approximately 6,000 Indians were left landless by the Grand Carajas Project, especially by the Tucurui dam. We would like to see more sustainable developments such as in the Xingu Indian Park where Kayapo villages have entered into a partnership with the Body Shop. The Kayapo collect Brazil nuts and extract the oil in their villages by using a press. They then sell this oil directly to the Body Shop for use in toiletries. In order to protect the Amazonian Indians’ rights to the land, we want further areas of the rainforest set up as Indian reserves.’

Hydroelet

‘HEP is a renewable form of energy. This means that unlike coal, oil and gas this type of energy does not run out. Brazil gets 92.5% of its energy from HEP and the demand for energy is rising. Hydroelet plans to build more dams, like Tucurui, in the Amazon to harness the fast flowing rivers in this area. Hydroelet believes that this electricity will not only benefit industries all over Brazil but will also provide energy to satisfy the country’s growing population.’

World Medical Organisation

Quinine was discovered in The Amazon.It is an anti- malaria drug from the bark of the cinchona tree (and also an ingredient in tonic water!).

How can the Brazilian Government and the Amazonian Indians benefit from the discoveries?

‘Only 1,100 species have been investigated out of 365,000 possible species in the Amazon. On average, an important new drug has been found for every 125 species investigated. We believe that areas should be set aside for medical research.’

‘Catclaw Acacia’ is a climbing vine, found in the Amazon, and it is being studied for its potential against cancer and AIDs.

Internet Link – biodiversityhttp://library.thinkquest.org/20248/

Greentours – ecotourism in the Amazon

Internet Link – ecotourism www.brazilianadventure.comwww.brazilnature.com/inges/index.html

‘At Greentours, visitors stay in an Amazonian village or in the small lodges which are built from local resources. The visitors can undertake conservation work as part of their holiday. Greentours feel that unlike the large scale developments, their tours will generate money for the Amazonian Indians without destroying the Amazon’s ecosystem.’

Ecotourism is sustainable, low density tourism which safeguards the natural environment and meets the needs of the host population.

simple tourist lodge

boat trip with local guide

Greentours

What are the sustainable alternatives to large scale development?

Internet links –www.ran.org/www.greenforce.org/www.greenpeace.org/

SUSTAINABLE development involves activities that preserve and enhance the beauty and resources of an area for future generations.

Name one activity in the Amazon that is ‘sustainable’.

Investigate – How can the Brazilian government profit from the Amazon without large scale development?

HOMEWORKHOMEWORK

Write a letter to your local MP explaining Write a letter to your local MP explaining the important information that you have the important information that you have learnt and researched during this lesson.learnt and researched during this lesson.

To help with the structure of this letter, use To help with the structure of this letter, use letter frame in letter frame in wordword..