Essay on The Amazon

Submitted By richo999
Words: 1988
Pages: 8

It’s complicated to define the ownership of the Amazon rainforest. The majestic landscape, also known as Amazonia, has been home to thousands of indigenous tribes millions of plant and animal species for countless years. The ancient forest caters as the primary resource of food and life for all inhabitants and contributes largely to the world’s ecosystem and homeostasis. However, in recent times the Brazilian government has expressed their desire to evolve the forest. This can be attributed to Brazil’s growing interest of rapidly becoming industrialized. Economics is plaguing the Government’s priorities and pushing them into speculative interests and commercial exploitation of their forests resources. If the Brazilian government is successful in their operation thousands of locals will be chased out of their home and millions of creatures will be slaughtered in the process, not to mention the devastating consequences for the rest of the world.

Nonetheless, Brazils desire to become industrialized has been fueled by observing countries including the United States, Britain and Australia exploit their natural recourses and participate in extreme measures on their path to becoming a developed nation [1]. The Brazilian Government remains engaging in irreversible activities as part of a strategy to excel in the economic market and reach development. These activities include logging, clearing forest for cattle pasture and commercial agriculture [2]. However, as previously mentioned numerous other countries have participated in these treacherous behaviors without the conflict that Brazil has faced from other concerned nations and non-government agencies including Greenpeace and WWF (World Wildlife Fund) who are all trying to partake in the decisions regarding the potential outcomes of the Amazon forest [2].

Despite other parties voicing their concerns, Brazil is still focused on their plan of rapid destruction and deforestation of the Amazon, overlooking the dire consequences that will arise from these actions. The Brazilian Government is seeking to do this behind the public eye and it has recently been brought to the rest of the world’s attention that the Brazilian government has often been misleading their public’s knowledge concerning the deforestation projects and the hazardous consequences arising [3]. The government has been employing powerful propaganda advertisements to encourage Brazil’s public opinions to sway in favor of various projects such as cattle pasture and the Belo Monte dam. Excluded from the public discussion however is the physical and social destruction deforestation will cause [3]. It can be assumed that if all citizens of Brazil’s public had full comprehension of the consequences and damage that demolishing their forest would cause, they would not be so alongside with the project.

Furthermore the Brazilian public is blind sighted by the impression that logging timber and clearing forest to create space for cattle pastures and soybean farms will provide economic income. However many Brazilian farmers are not being properly informed or educated about the shortage of sustainability in ‘slash and burn’ agriculture techniques [4]. The inefficiency of their current agricultural methods is poor and within years the soil of the cleared land will be depleted and farmers are left having to clear more land and repeating the process. However fortunately there are more beneficial alternatives to all stakeholders viable. Various sustainable crops for Brazil exist; these include fruits, chocolate, nuts and oils. Once harvested these crops will generate a larger economic return in present time as well as possessing more continuous long-term revenue to owners [4]. However, unlike these sustainable crops, when timber is harvested for short-term gain and profits, it is not sustainable and it also creates a double burden of destroying the medicinal plants, nuts, oils, and other important supportable crops that thrive