Amazon Human uses of the natural vegetation

• Agricultural uses

• Industrial uses

• Social demands

Level of demand changes with

• improved technology

• social fashion

1> Yanomami Indians work at putting out a fire that blazed out of control as they burned land for cultivation. Ancient people of the Amazon used a safer method, garbage, to make soil rich.

Indigenous people – hunting, gathering and ‘slash and burn’ AGRICULTURE

Amazon Basin: shifting cultivation With the help of stone axes and machetes, the Amerindians clear a small area of about 1 ha in the forest. Sometimes, the largest trees are left standing to protect young crops from the sun’s heat and the heavy rain; so also are those which provide food, like the banana and kola nut. After being allowed to dry, the felled trees and undergrowth are burnt, thereby earning this form of agricultural practice another name – slash and burn cultivation.

2> Seringueiros - AGRICULTURE

After most of the Seringalistas (owners of the rubber-extraction areas) had gone bankrupt, the remaining rubber-tappers or "Seringueiros" became owners of their land and entitled to farm (which was prohibited for them before).

During the 70s title deeds were forged and adulterated and land inhabited by families of rubber tappers for decades were ‘stolen’. The fazindeiros (ranchers) burned the forest to "open up pasture” - over hundreds thousands of hectares and claimed state subventions. The fires started from sporadic to massive.

Chico Mendez – a seringueiro who spoke out.

Brazil Nut AGRICULTURE

Brazil nuts, which are opened up by harvesters within the primary forest, represent more than half the yearly income for thousands of families in the region, and so far have politically justified the protection of these natural areas.

In-migrant Subsistence AGRICULTURE

clearance

Burning season in August

Trans-Amazon Road (Transamazonica) cuts through North East drought stricken area in Brazil

Amazonas, BR 364 Road Access provided by road building schemes of 1970s onwards

The greatest cause for concern is not from the small scale ranching by peasants,

but rather from the large scale commercial ranchers who keep larger cattle and larger herds

Cattle Ranching AGRICULTURE – commercial / INDUSTRIAL

It seems to me clear that McDonalds must still today be buying beef from ranches on land until recently occupied by Guarani and Kadiweu Indians and, at least until 1982, to have bought beef from ranches created on recently-cleared tropical forest.

name: Sue Branford

experience: Brazil specialist

Large scale cattle ranching

High inputs – e.g. vets.

To supply beef to meat packing firms.

INDUSTRIAL DEMAND FOR HAMBURGERS

Logging threatens the rain forests.  Thousands of acres of rain forest are lost to logging every year.

INDUSTRIAL DEMAND for timber

New evidence of large-scale illegal mahogany logging deep in the Amazon rainforest was released by Greenpeace today. The U.S. is the world's largest importer of Brazilian mahogany.

Images obtained through recent aerial reconnaissance by Greenpeace expose logging operations in lands belonging to the Kayapó Indians, which is strictly prohibited by Brazilian law.

For boat-based expeditions, we utilize our two larger vessels the M/N Tucunare and the B/F Esperanza. These hardwood vessels are equipped with 12 and 8 bunks, respectively, have a full complement of safety gear, and licensed and experienced crews.

SOCIAL DEMANDS – exotic holidays

A banner in an Amazonian river town admonishes residents to "Be intelligent—don't destroy the environment."

Sustainable development

Changing Social Fashion

Amazon Eco-Tourism

Yacumama Lodge Eco-

Tour, Amazon River

Headwaters, Peru

Or.... For the truly adventurous, you can glide through the tree tops on our canopy skyway system, similar to one used by Sean Connery in the movie "Medicine Man."

2004 RatesDepartures: All Year 4 days, 3 nights 1 or 2 people $675with private bathroom

DAY 1- River Cruise and Amazon Yarapa River Lodge

DAY 2- Remote lakes of the jungle and Pink Dolphins

DAY 3- Giant water lilies, village, and canoeing

DAY 4- Macaws and trip back to Iquitos

Amazon destruction speeds up - Changing TechnologyThe information shows the speed of deforestation increased by 40% between 2001 and 2002.

Figures from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show more than 25,000 square kilometres of forest were cleared in a year - mainly for farming.

In the last 15 years, 243,000 square kilometres have been deforested, the equivalent of 5% of the Brazilian Amazon.

Soya is Brazil's leading export, worth $5 billion this year, and is key to paying the country's foreign debts. It has already taken over large swathes of the cerrado, the dense and species-rich savannah of central Brazil.

One environment journalist told BBC News Online: "Soya is a real threat to the Amazon. This is a clear example of what the recent protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organisation were all about".

Changing technology

The proposed changes would in effect mean a loss of almost a third of the rainforest to allow more cattle-ranching, with eucalyptus and pine plantations, to replace the existing ecosystem. More exploitation? And Degradation?

Changing Technology and Laws – the FUTURE

An experimental farm into replanting forest on damaged soil

More Conservation? and regeneration?