eQuizShow

Why is the world watching Amazonia?

Location

Question: Most rainforests lie between ____________________ and _______________________.
Answer: Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn

Question: Which regions of the world are tropical rainforests concentrated in? Name all three.
Answer: Amazonia (a region of South America)
Central Africa (in the Congo River Basin)
Southeast Asia

Question: Amazonia belongs to nine different countries. Name four of them. How much does of the forest does Brazil own?
Answer: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana
Brazil owns two thirds of the forest

Question: Brazil owes its name to which river? This river is the _____________________ longest after the Nile and the Mississippi.
Answer: Amazon River
Third longest

Question: The _______________ River irrigates forms a huge basin and irrigates the region from west to east. Where is the source of the river and where is its mouth?
Answer: Amazon
Its source is the Andes Mountains and its mouth is on the Atlantic Ocean

Natural Resources

Question: What is Amazonia known particularly for (in regard to its natural resources)?
Answer: Its biodiversity

Question: What does the rainforest help protect the world from? How?
Answer: Protects from greenhouse gases
Its countless trees absorb part of the carbon dioxide produced by industries and automobiles all over the world

Question: The commercial timber industry provides Brazil with what percent of its lumber needs?
Answer: 80%

Question: List three of the broad categories of natural resources that Amazonia is known for (excluding commercial timber)?
Answer: Oil and mines
Pastures
Hydroelectric power

Question: Does Amazonia make Brazil rich? Explain where the economic wealth of the country comes from.
Answer: Amazonia lies to the north of Brazil. It is a poor and underpopulated region compared to the south of Brazil.
The economic wealth of the country comes from goods and services produced by industries in the south such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and large plantations of coffee, oranges, sugar cane, and soya.

An Exploited Forest

Question: Why do people care about logging in the tropical rainforests and boreal forests, and not as much on the temperate forests?
Answer: Because of the vast areas of untouched ("primary" or "old-growth") forests that they contain. The trees in this area have never been harvested, so the ecosystems have preserved their rich diversity.

Question: What did satellite images taken of Brazil in 2005 show?
Answer: They show that 17% of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil has been cut down

Question: What problem does Amazonia face in regard to the timber industry?
Answer: Illegal logging - cutting outside authorized cutting zones

Question: Where is timber cut down in the Amazon Rainforest exported to primarily (use specific names)?
Answer: United States, Europe, Canada through the port of Belem

Question: Give three reasons why Amazonian lumber is highly valued by large cooperations.
Answer: It comes in a variety of colours
It comes in a variety of textures
Some species are naturally rotproof

Hodge Podge

Question: Which city is at the heart of Amazonia?
Answer: Manaus

Question: The capital state of Amazonia's development, at the beginning of the 20th century, was due to local harvesting of which tree? What does this tree naturally produce?
Answer: The tropical rubber tree, which produces the latex used to manufacture natural rubber

Question: What is the major highway in Amazonia called and which direction does it run?
Answer: The Trans-Amazonian Highway, which runs from east to west

Question: What does a "free port" mean?
Answer: There are no custom duties on imports and exports

Question: What is the IBAMA?
Answer: It is a Brazilian government agency responsible for managing renewable natural resources

Forest Uses

Question: Which industry is responsible for clearing Brazilian forests even more than industries that want tropic wood?
Answer: Farming - especially the raising of livestock (cattle ranching - beef markets)

Question: Many roads are built by logging and mining companies. Explain the effect they have in relation to the forest.
Answer: They contribute significantly to forest degradation.
They take a heavy toll on the environment, as animals disappear and plant species become threatened.
Under the weight of of heavily laden trucks, the soil loses its fragile layer of humus and deteriorates.
These companies also produce waste that causes mercury pollution in lakes and rivers.
Local residents who drink the water and eat contaminated fish suffer mercury poisoning.

Question: Why does the government hand out "agricultural" land in Amazonia to poor Brazilians? What are those deprived of land called?
Answer: Because elsewhere in the country, all the arable land belongs to large landowners.
"Landless workers"
To silence protesters and reduce unemployment the government granted workers land in the Amazon rainforest.

Question: Some people have been given land that is not suitable for farming. What happens to them, how do they survive?
Answer: Some workers are forced to return to the towns they left, even poorer then they were before.
Others venture further into the forest to become lumberjacks for corporate sawmills.
Others find work in the large cattle ranches.

Question: Various movements with opposing views address the issue of how Amazonia should be developed. Land owners, logging companies, environmental organizations, and the local population all feel differently. Briefly explain how each of these groups feel.
Answer: Landowners - claim the right to continue clearing land for pasture and crop farming
Logging companies - want to continue harvesting
Environmental organizations - want the greater part of the forest to be protected, with only one section undergoing sustainable development
Local population - want to manage their own development projects - developing the forest is their way of fighting poverty