Amazon rainforest

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

INDEX…..• The rainforest: a fantastic structure• The wonders of nature• The climate• People in the forest• The resources of the forest• The importance of the forest for life• The abuse of the forest resources • How are these areas used?• We have to solve this problem• Rescue is arriving!

How they are distributed on the planet

The rainforest is the most extensive coverage of the arboreal. It is located across the equatorial beltof the globe, between the two tropics. We find it in:

AMERICA: Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela,Colombia, Costa Rica,Suriname, Ecuador, Perù and Bolivia.

AFRICA: Nigeria and Congo.

ASIA: India, Indonesia, Birmania, Thailandia, China, New Guinea.

SHOWN IN GREEN

The forest has a complex morphology, and so we distinguish the tropical forest in different layers:

The vegetation in the last layer isn’tdeciduous too. Thanks to the high humidity,trees can reach the height of 70 meters.

In the third layer there are evergreen plants that can measure about 30 - 40meters height.

The second layer is composed of woody plants that grow from 3 to 5 metres.

The lowest layer consists of plantsthat don’t exceed one meter height.

THE WONDERS OF THE FOREST…

In the rainforest there is the biggest varieties of flora of the planet. It is rich in biodiversity compared to any other place. We find many species of plants such as giant plants like choker ficus, red cedar, Kapok and many other species.

WHAT A WONDER THE FOREST

How various is this fauna?

The wonders o f the fauna

In this case too there is a big variety of species. We can find bugs, poisonous amphibians, snakes and crocodiles, colorful birds like parrots. There are also fish like piranhas and finally mammals like monkeys and the frightening jaguar.

THE CLIMATE…

The climate of equatorial zone is really particular…

There aren’t seasons similar to ours: we find only the rainy one sothere isn’t any lack of water.

There are warm temperatures atabout 30 degrees, with a constanthumidity, that arrives at 90%.

Rains take away some ground nutrients, on the contrary the lushvegetation produces abundant humus.

When rains are particular abundant,rivers’ level increases of 10 meters,forests are completely flooded, and so we can find piranhas and very rare animals like the pink dolphin among trees.

The r i ve r s o f the fo rest The most important rivers are:• AmAzon river in Southern America• Congo in Central Africa• mekong in the southeast of Asia

AmAzon riverIt has the biggest catchment areahigher than 1000 km and it’sthe second longest in the world.

Congo It has the second catchmentarea in the world.

mekongWith his tributaries it wetsall southeastern Asia.

They are reallyimportant for the equatorial zones.

They have a Regular and

abundant regimeall year long

becauseof the rains.

PEOPLE IN THE FOREST…The equatorial forest is one of the least populated in the planet, there is a lower density than in the other parts of the world. That is caused by the uncomfortable warmth and by dangerous animals.

The inhabitants are called INDIOS and they are divided according to their ethnicity

Zambos: born from the Africanethnicity and the local one.

Mulattoes: born from the Africanethnicity and the European one.

Mestizos: born from the local ethnicity and the European one.

Visit the forest…The rainforest isn’t a good and easy place to live in; to visit it you have to respect a lot of rules. It’s also true that it represents a great local touristic resource.

You must respect all the rules of the zone and you mustn’t turn on any fire.It may flare up a fire.

It will even be difficult but in the end, the show will make you ecstatic.

To get inside you have to landat Manaus, the most important city built in the heart of the forest.

After that, when you are settled you have to bring some sources of water and food and youhave to be accompanied by an expert guide to go inside.

THE RESOURCES The forest’s ecosystem is really fragile.

The rainforest provides a big quantity of resources.

There is a big deposit of minerals and much water and timber.

In Paraguay and Brazil it was built one of the biggest hydroelectric central of the planet.

These natural resources are really precious because they are fundamental for the life of the forest: in fact this ecosystem is also called the “green gold”.

It’s also important because in the deforested zones the warm climate makes it possible to grow many kinds of vegetables and food.

IMPORTANCE OF …The rainforest has also the nickname of lungs lungs of the Earthof the Earth, because vegetation uses water and in particular carbon gas to produce carbohydrates and oxygen during the photosynthesis.

6CO2 + 6H2O + Solar Energy C6H12O6+6O2

You can observe in the formula that when there is the sun light plants produce additional oxygen which goes into the atmosphere making it breathable by heterotrophic beings.

Finally :Forest = Life

The plants always breath, but it isn’t true that they use only oxygen during the day and carbon gas during the night. This fact happens minute by minute.

THE ABUSE OF THE FORESTSInside the forest, these resources like the other natural resources in the world, aren’t used correctly; in fact we abuse of them.

To do space for the agricultural zones.

Deforested or burnt hettars of wood.

Many local people are banned from their lands

Many protected species are killed.

Use of fossil fuels and toxic substances

Pollution in the forest

Pollution in the rivers

Species endangered

The damages provoked to the forest

Look at that disaster!

HOW ARE THESE AREAS USED???

These deforested areas are used in many ways:

PasturesFactories Agriculture

In particular they are used for growing food, such as soy, sugar cane, pineapples and coffee.

This causes an impoverishment of the land which isn’t grown “at fallow”: they don’t alternate old and new lands.

The intense rains prevent the vegetation from blooming again and so it causes a desertification. Finally the polluting substances from industries go into the ground.

To find solutions it’s absolutely necessary to put heavy taxes to the people who cut the trees and we will have to alternate the growing plants. But it’s only the beginning!.

Man has always needed Nature to feed himself, but there is a limit to everything!The 80% of the forest is still unspoiled but the deforestation is increasing!First it is necessary to do accurate controls, to find all the illegal activities that take place in this zone.

Authorities should help the institutions that keep this fantastic and delicate ecosystem alive.

We must rescue the endangered species

Rescue is aRRiving !!!

Fortunately we aren’t the first peoplewho realize that the rainforest and so theglobal climate is in danger. Many institutionshave taken some measures about this topic.

In the north of the forest in Brazil there is one of the most important and well equipped national parks in the world. We may call it the “Yellowstone Park” of the Amazon: it’s Manu’s Park.

National parksNational parks

They welcome species in They welcome species in danger!danger!

Manu’s park occupies a part of the forest ofapproximately 20000 squared km. it’s really difficult to be classified as it is estimatedthat for every hectare of this region thereare 500 different species of plants and about 400 species of animals live there.