Destroying the Rain Forests: Human effects on Natures

Destroying the Rain Forests: Human effects on Natures

The rain forests are one of the most unique places on the planet earth. They are home to several thousand species of animals that live no where else in the world1. They are also one of the primary sources of oxygegn of the world. One cannot even begin to describe the sheer beauty of the rain forests. However, the interaction of man with these marvels of nature has had a negative effect. Through agriculture, societal development and the search for raw materials mankind is destroying these marvels of nature. The rain forests are a display of the negative effects of humans on nature.

One of the biggest destroyers of the rainforest is farming. Farmers in areas inhabited by the rainforest are cutting down, burning and taking over the rain forest land to make room for farming. These lands once inhabited by the beautiful forests are being turned into crop fields and cattle pastures. This would have to happen if the farmers used efficient farming methods. Most of the farmers however are chopping and burning the rain forests to make fertile land, and then draining the life out the land by overusing it2. They then move on and take out more land to farm with. These farmers are taking out the rainforests at an enormous rate. They are however not the only source of rain forest destruction.

Another cause of deforestation of the rain forest is the population growth of humans3. The population is growing at an enormous rate. As population grows so does the search for space. In tropical climates rainforests occupy forty-nine percent of the land and twenty-five percent of the land is covered by closed rain forest4. Parts of Asia and Africa are covered by as much as forty-one percent ra...

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...an, 103

8. Bawa, Kamaljit, and McDade, Lucinda, eds. La Selva: Ecology and NaturalHistory of a

Neotropical Rain Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. 109

9. Bawa, 154

10. Jordan 333

11. Barraclough, 184

12. Barraclough, 316

13. Bawa, 201

14. Jordan, 35

15. Barraclough, 21

Bibliography.

- Barraclough, Solon L., and Ghimire, Krishna B. Forests and Livelihoods: The S.ocial

Dynbamics of Deforestation in Developing Countries. New York: St. Martin’s Press,

1995.

- Bawa, Kamaljit, and McDade, Lucinda, eds. La Selva: Ecology and NaturalHistory of a

Neotropical Rain Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

- Jordan, C.F., Ed. An Amazonian Rain Forest: The Structure and Function of a Nutrient

Stressed Ecosystem and the Impact of Slash-and-Burn Agriculture. Athens, GA: UNESCO,

1989.