Rainforest management Essay

Rainforest Ecosystem Assessment: ‘What is the best way to manage the rainforest?’

In this assessment, I will be talking about what is the best way to manage the rainforest. I will be taking into account social, environmental and economic factors. The options I will be exploring are Clearcutting, Trees for annual crops or timber, Agroforestry and Biosphere reserve. I will explore the groups of people who would want to destroy the rainforest and how the money could be used to improve the quality of life for people in Brazil, and I will also be exploring groups of people who would want to conserve the rainforest and why and how this could benefit people throughout the world.
It is very important that we manage the rainforest in the right way and develop it sustainably, because while it can be useful for making money and improving the standard of life for those who need it, we also have to make sure that we sustain our resources for future generations, so it is important to look at long and short term impacts for each way of managing the rainforest.
Brazil is a BRIC (Brazil Russia India China) country, which means it is a major developing economy that is growing at a fast pace, as well as having a huge population. The four BRIC countries produce 18% of the world's GDP and are home to more than 40% of the earth's population. Brazil is not quite an MEDC; this is based on development indicators like Health, Economy/Industry and education, and Brazil doesn’t quite meet the requirements to become an MEDC. This is because out of a population of more than 201,000,000 the literacy rate is only 88% compared to 99% in the UK, and 21% of the total population are below the poverty line. Also, the average GDP per person is just $12,000 compared to $37,000 in the UK. The life expectancy is also lower especially for men and this be because Brazil’s man industries are cement, lumber, tin, steel and iron ore, industries that require a lot of dangerous mining and long hours. This means that Brazil finds it necessary to develop so that it can improve the quality of life for its population and become an MEDC, and this is why I am deciding on the best way to manage the rainforest, in a way that will harm the environment as little as possible but also produce money for the country, in forms of jobs or industry.
The first of my four options for managing the rainforest is Clearcutting. In this process, an area of forest is completely cleared, and only valuable species are taken out. The rest is left, or burned, and it is a useful source of income. There are both advantages and disadvantages with this way of managing the rainforest. Deforestation can bring both benefits and disadvantages to certain interest groups, and a group of people I think this would appeal to is possibly the Brazilian government. This is because this way of managing the rainforest produces large profits and is the cheapest method of extracting timber, although I think they would see the problems with this method, such as short term profits and a small amount or jobs provided. I think it is also quite inefficient, because it produces a lot of waste that produces fumes and CO2. A group of people that I think would disagree with this method, want to conserve the rainforest and destroy as little plants and trees as possible is the World Medical Organisation (WMC), because they say there are many more plants that may never be discovered that could help cure and treat diseases and illness, and crops like the periwinkle plant are vital because they can treat Child leukaemia and cancer; In Brazil, 25,000 people die a year due to cancer alone. They also say that Medicinal plants can fetch more profit than logging, as well as having less of an environmental impact.
My second option is Trees for annual crops and timber. In this process, the forest is cleared and replaced by stands of tree crops of quick-maturing timber trees. Once these quick-maturing trees grow, they provide a

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