Amazon Rainforest Research Paper

Asia is a continent that is steeped in many elemental aspects with culture, heritage, ancestry, and environment. One of these elements that in the last decade have went from being highly regarded to almost forgotten are the Rainforests of Southeast Asia. These rainforests located in many different areas along the 20,000 island chains that make up Southeast Asia are the oldest rainforest on the planet. These magnificent wonders are known to date back as far as the Pleistocene epoch and are home to a very complex ecosystem consisting of a variety of plant and animal life as well as many different varieties of people. The different cultures that have used the rainforest for survival can be seen from the countries of Borneo, Sumatra, Indonesia, …show more content…
These people use slash and burn techniques to continue cropping areas which takes a toll on the rainforest, but the main form of deforestation is commercial logging for profit. The rainforest provides a high yield for logging companies and much of the rainforest is logged illegally. With Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Thailand being corrupt in the illegal logging from the rainforest, it seems that no one cares about the ecosystems and animal life being destroyed (Weightman 2002). The rainforest is being destroyed at about 80 acres a minute (Southeast Asia Rainforest). The highest amount of timber for logging has went through Japan which has “owned” logging in this region since the 1960’s. According to the article “Deforestation in Southeast Asia” by Wharton University, 55% of deforestation come from Indonesia and Brazil. Indonesia has the highest economy in Southeast Asia due to the fact that modernization and lumber companies continue to rise which leads to a higher amount of deforestation. With this high amount of deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise which is not good for the environment at all. As stated earlier the rainforest is home to a slew of different plant and animal species. With deforestation occurring, many plants and animals are being found on the endangered species list because of possible extinction. One example is the Sumatran Rhinoceros. This breed of Rhinoceros is the rarest of the rhinoceros species. Due to deforestation, and poaching the population of this wondrous animal has decreased to only about 400 possible animals. Another example is the Bengal tiger which inhabit areas of the rainforest in Indonesia. This animal has only about 4,000 surviving members with declining numbers each day of deforestation (Schaffner

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