Brazilian Rainforests

Most people are familiar with the basic details of the situation in the Amazonian rainforests. They are aware that this is perhaps the lushest environment for life on earth, with a plethora of species that scientists indicate have not even yet been fully identified. Marguerite Holloway noted that while rainforests themselves cover only 7 percent of the earth's surface, they include approximately 50 percent of the plants and animals found on the earth. Brazil itself is considered to have the greatest species diversity of all the countries in the world (1993). Yet, this is also a region that is being devastated radically, and rapidly, by slashandburn agriculture, by ongoing industrial development in the region, by attempted exploitation of the region for mineral wealth, by turning rainforest into grazing land, and for various other activities that are fundamentally incompatible with simply allowing the rainforest to be the rich source of life that it is. The current destruction of species resulting from rainforest deforestation may represent up to 27,000 extinctions per year.

The history of the environmental degradation of the region is a fairly short one. In 1978, Brazil signed the Treaty on Amazonian Cooperation

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in the Amazonian Basin is not simply the imposition of the developed countries upon a developing region, although certainly some of the impetus comes from that direction. The focus on programs that reduce debt burdens for countries like Brazil in direct exchange for their agreement to preserve rainforest land represents one of the ways in which the United States, and other developed countries, exercise influence in the region. However, the environmental movement is often led by local people who appreciate the land as their home and depend upon it for their livelihood. for example, the rubber tappers, led by Chico Mendes, made a strong effort to slow the course of deforestation which was depriving them of their means of survival. Mendes was, of course, murdered during his efforts, but the effort itself focused attention on rainforest issues that were not simply "soft" issues, but issues of economic survival for the people themselves. Some of the people of the region are indifferent to the fate of the rainforest, either because of their extreme poverty and need for land in which to extend, or because of their focus on economic exploitation and the attainment of wealth and power. However, many of the truly indigenous people hav
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Approximate Word count = 1499
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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