Brazilian Rainforest Conference Introduction

In this slide, we see a map of the Amazon Rainforest The map shows how the Amazon River and its tributaries make up a large basin spreading across 9 countries in South America. The Amazon Basin is like a funnel, with its wide end at the Andes Mountains. The funnel gradually narrows as the tributaries head into the Amazon River, with the water flowing east toward the Atlantic Ocean. Inside the Amazon Basin is the largest rainforest in the world.

In this slide, we see a drawing of lush vegetation and various animal species inside the Amazon Rainforest canopy Tropical rainforests like the Amazon are distinguished from other forests in that they receive an enormous amount of rain—between 100 and 400 inches a year. These fertile rainforests are valuable resources because they contain the most diverse group of animal and vegetable species on earth. In the Amazon Rainforest, 300 species of trees may be found in 2.5 acres of forest (5-10 species would be found in the same area of a California forest).

In this slide, we see cattle grazing in a recently burned rainforest in Para, Brazil. After centuries of leaving the rainforest alone, the Brazilian government decided in the 1960s that the resources of the Amazon Rainforest could be used to make Brazil a wealthy country. To encourage Brazilians to settle in and develop the “frontier” of the rainforest, the govt. gave away land to wealthy ranchers and to poor, landless Brazilians from the eastern part of the country. Despite efforts to farm deforested land, rainforest soil turned out to be poor for growing crops.

In this slide, we see Zoro Indians in Mato Grosso, Brazil In this slide, we see Zoro Indians in Mato Grosso, Brazil. They are members of one of the many native Amazonian groups who have lived in the rainforest for thousands of years. Many people lived in the so-called frontier of the Amazon long before the govt. began developing the region in the 1960s. Rubber tappers have lived in the rainforest since the 1800s, and native Amazonians have lived in the forest for thousands of years. Many new groups in the Amazon—mostly settlers and ranchers—have disagreed with the older groups and have sometimes fought violently over land claims.

In this slide, we see an aerial view of a development road in Rodonia, Brazil, showing the stark contrast of cleared land and rainforest. After the govt. developed roads into an area of the rainforest, deforestation began to happen rapidly. In 1990, 75,000 acres of rainforest were deforested each day. By 1995, 15 percent of the Amazon Rainforest had been deforested. This slide represents two options for the future of the Rainforest: deforested land or preserved rainforest.