Deforestation of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil

When the Portuguese landed in Brazil 500 years ago the sight that greeted them was of a huge rain forest, which then ran along much of Brazil’s Atlantic coast. In more recent times, there has been an outcry over the destruction of the much larger Amazon forest. But its devastation is nothing compared to Brazil’s Atlantic forest. About 86% of Brazil’s Amazon forest is still intact but only about 7% of the Atlantic forest remains. In this paper, I will explain why the Atlantic forest was destroyed, why deforestation happens, and the effects of rain forest destruction and the effect it is having on the Earth.

Much of the Atlantic forest was destroyed to make way for farmers to plant sugar, coffee, and other crops, and later for growing cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Between 1990 and 1995, 1.2 million acres were destroyed (Reid, 2000).

Clearance for living space, commercial logging, for farming, roads and railways, forest fires, and mining and drilling are all connected with deforestation. People have been living in and around tropical rain forests for tens of thousands of years, taking what they needed from the wealth of natural resources available without compromising their environment. However, in the last 200 years populations have expanded, requiring more and more space for housing and farming. For example, Costa Rica has a population of over 3 million people, heavily concentrated in the Central Valley. Well over one-half of the national population lives in this area, which represents only 5% of the country’s land area, and almost one-half of the population is considered to live in urban areas. The population growth rate is relatively high and if it continues at the present rate, the population will double in only 28 years (Hecht, 1989). Commercial logging can occur selectively, where only the economically valuable species are cut or by clear cutting, where all the trees are cut. Commercial logging uses heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, road graders, and log skidders, to remove cut trees and build roads.

Another cause of deforestation is known as shifting cultivating. Indigenous people have farmed the rain forest, cutting down trees to allow cultivation of crops and grazing space for animals, and moving on when the soil becomes less fertile. This is no threat to the forests; provided that used areas are left to regenerate for long periods before repeating the process.