What are peoples views about destruction of the rainforest?

Answer 1

most people think that the destruction of the rainforest is a bad thing because the rainforests are known as the 'LUNGS OF THE EARTH' becasue they produce more than 20% of all of the earths oxygen.

Destroying the rainforests also causes animal habitats to dissapear and therefore the animals can no longer survive. this is bad because the rainforest is home to some very rare and endangered species of bird, plant and animal. by destroying one habitat, this may cause others to die out because they can no longer feed on that plant or animal who lived there.

there are indiginous people who live in the rainforests. they have lived there for thousands of years and live 'at one' with the forest. they move every ten to fifteen years so that the forest can regrow where their settlement had been. for exnmple in the Bornean Rainforest there is a tribe called the Penan.

The Bornean Government have tried to make the indigenous people move out of the forest so that it can be deforested but they will not go because it is the land of their ancestors. some tribal people have left the forests and begun living in the modern world, although the majority refuse.

People in favour of the rainforest destruction include Logging companies who deforest the land and collect the trees to sell for building etc.

Palm Oil companies such as Cargill which provide Palm oil for food and cosmetics build their plantations in vast areas of cleeared rainforest. this causes many problems for animals and plants in the area which can no longer live or grow there.

Farmers also clear the land to allow their cattle to graze on the fertile soil but the soil is only fertile because of the plants which die and return nutrients to the soil. Because of the land only being fertile for a few years maximum, the farmers deforest more land which is fertile and keep deforesting every few years when the soil becomes useless and infertile.

Borneo and Brazil are LEDC's and therefore the people need work. the work provided by the companies that deforest the land allows the people to become more developed and strengthens the national ecomony.

Overall, the rainforests are an important part of the Earth and it is very beautiful. it takes more than 5 million years to build a biodiversity as large as one of the rainforests so if they dissapear it will create a huge problem for the Human race and other species.

but, we need the products produced by the rainforests to progress. we need to let animals graze so that we can consume them ourselves and we need the logging to take place so that we have materials to build homes etc.

We need to prioritise. what is more important? An incredible biodiverse ecosystem home to thousands of rare species of animals and plants and a huge contribution to our oxygen levels or food and sufficient materials to allow us to progress and become a more economically developed world?