South America's vanishing rain forest: the Amazon rain forest is shrinking--but concerned people are fighting the destruction.

For centuries, the Yanomami people of the Amazon rain forest lived in isolation. They hunted with bows and arrows and preserved their lands with ancient methods of shifting cultivation.

Then came the settlers. Beginning in the 1960s, the Brazilian government encouraged poor people from overcrowded cities to settle in the rainforest. With settlers came roads--then loggers, then sawmills. Large tracts of rain forest began to disappear. When gold was discovered on Yanomami lands, which overlap the border of Venezuela and Brazil, tens of thousands of miners poured into the area. The miners brought with them such diseases as malaria, influenza, and whooping cough. In addition to the ecological destruction, disease wiped out entire villages of Yanomami.

In time, the world became alarmed. Some people set out to help the Yanomami. Finally, in 1991, Brazil set aside 36,000 square miles as a Yanomami homeland. But this has not protected these native people from illegal mining and violent clashes with miners.

A "Vicious Cycle"

The Yanomami have given a human face to the devastation of the world's rain forests. But the problem is much larger. Similar destruction has been happening across the Amazon basin (see map, pp. 10-11). In 2004 alone, roughly 10,000 square miles of rain forest in Brazil were cut down. That is an area slightly smaller than the size of Massachusetts. Some experts estimate that, over the years, about 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been lost.

"A big problem is that there's a tremendous amount of land that's still open," says Matthew Perl of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Because the Amazon basin is so vast, it often can't be protected from outsiders. But farmers who more in and clear land find that the soil can't sustain most crops or pasture for cattle. By the time they realize that, another area of forest is gone.

When roads are built, loggers often are close by, Perl tells JS. They drive into the forest and cut down large sections of valuable trees, such as mahogany. An estimated 80 percent of this logging is illegal, Perl adds. Much of the mahogany ends up in the U.S. and other wealthy nations as expensive furniture, guitars, and even coffins.

The recent boom of soy farming in Brazil has made things worse.

New farms are pushing farther into the forest. "As new roads are opened up to get the soy out into the global market, the land is cleared, the timber is illegally logged, [and] the land is illegally acquired," Perl says. "So there's this kind of vicious cycle."

"A Barrier to Deforestation"

With all this bad news, it must be asked: Can the Amazon rain forest be saved? Perl believes that it can. Over the last several years, the Brazilian government has been getting serious about stopping the destruction, he says.

Among other projects, Brazil is working with the WWF and other organizations to set up the Amazon Region Protected Area (ARPA). Consisting of about 80 reserves and parks, ARPA will protect about 12 percent of the rain forest--an area about the size of California.

Formally declaring land as protected "really does serve as a barrier to deforestation," Perl says. ARPA is also designed to establish methods of sustainable land use and give people living on that land a stake in the process.

"All this fits into a much larger vision ... to keep this amazing and vast Amazon system performing its important environmental functions," Perl says. "It also helps to keep the rain-forest system intact. That was our ultimate vision, and that's what we're working toward."

WORDS TO KNOW

* reserves: areas of land set aside for use by or protection of a species or group of species.

* shifting cultivalion: a system of preserving soil fertility by moving crops from place to place and letting natural vegetation return to unused land.

* sustain: in agriculture, to use land so that it is not permanently damaged.

Your Turn

THINK ABOUT IT

1. What types of human activity are causing rain-forest land to be lost?

2. Do we have a responsibility to avoid buying products made from rain-forest trees? How possible do you think this is?</p> <pre> Causes of Amazon Deforestation Commercial agriculture 1% Logging

3% Fires, mining, roads, others 3% Subsistence cultivation * 33% Cattle ranching 60% * Subsistence cultivators are people who survive on the crops they grow. Source: Rhett A. Butler/mongabay.com Note: Table made from bar graph. </pre> <p>AT THE PRESENT RATE OF DESTRUCTION, THE WORLD'S RAIN FORESTS could disappear in only 100 years, Efforts are being made to save the forests. But if we Iose them, we could also Iose half of the world's plant and animal species.

Rain forests cover only 6 to 7 percent of Earth's surface. But they are home to half of the world's species of plants and animals. When those forests are lost, so are the plants and animals.

Tropical rain forests are found in the tropics--the area near the equator (see inset map). Temperatures in these forests are warm year-round, and rainfall is plentiful. Tropical rain forests are an area of lush vegetation that encircles the globe.

Rain forests used to be called the "lungs of the planet." The dense growth of trees and plants cleansed the air by taking in carbon dioxide, emitted by people, factories, and cars. The forests, in turn, gave off oxygen, which people and animals need to survive.

Today, so much forest is being burned for human development that it is now consuming oxygen. Native peoples are losing their homelands. Every day, more species of rain-forest animals and plants become extinct. Loss of the forests also contributes to global warming.

* OBJECTIVE Students should understand

* why the Amazon rain forest is being destroyed and what is being done to stop the destruction.

* BACKGROUND

Last year, the plight of the rain forest took on a fresh gravity with the murder of Dorothy Mae Stang, a U.S.-born Catholic nun. For decades, Stang worked to protect peasant families in the northern state of Para from the ranchers who push them out and deforest large tracts of land. In February 2005, Stang was shot to death on a forest road. Authorities blamed a gunman said to have been hired by a rancher. This is not an unusual occurrence; according to The New York Times, 772 people have been killed in similar violence in Para during the past 30 years. Last December, two men were convicted of Stang's murder. Prosecutors have pledged to bring charges against the rancher.

* CRITICAL THINKING

CAUSE AND EFFECT: How did the arrival of miners affect the Yanomami? (Miners brought infectious diseases, as well as destruction of Yanomami homelands.)

COMPREHENSION: How does shifting cultivation help keep soil fertile? (Moving crops flora place to place allows natural vegetation to return to unused land.)

* ACTIVITY

PRESERVATION QUEST: Ask: "If you could design project to save the Amazon rain forest, what would it do?" Have students, working in small groups, tackle this project. Examine the projects as a class. (To discuss: Which would be most cost-effective? Which would need government permission or cooperation?)

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* People, places, and environments: How human activity is altering the rain forests, and some consequences of those changes.

* Time, continuity, and change: How the age-old way of life of the Yanomami is threatened by changes in their habitat.

RESOURCES

PRINT * Lasky, Kathryn, The Most Beautiful Roof in the World (Harcourt, 1997). Grades 5-9.

* McLeish, Ewan, Rain Forests: Our Impact on the Planet (Rainlree Publishers, 2002). Grades 5-8.

WEB SITES

* Journey Into Amazonia pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia

* Rainforest/Missouri Botanical Garden mbgnet.mobot.org/sets/rforest

* World Wildlife Fund in the Amazon worldwildlife.org/amazon

QUESTIONS

1. Most South American rain forests are in which country? --

2. Most tropical rain forests are north of which named latitude line? --

3. The Amazon River empties into the Atlantic Ocean at which latitude and Longitude? --

4. Most of the world's tropical rain forests are located on which three continents? --

5. The greatest destruction of Brazil's rainforest occurred in which year? --

6. About how many square kilometers of forest were destroyed that year? --

7. Deforestation in Brazil declined the most between which two consecutive years? --

8. Which cause of deforestation is the largest? --

9. Logging accounts for what percentage of deforestation? --

10. Who or what are subsistence cultivators? --

1. Brazil

2. Tropic of Capricorn 

3. 0[degrees] latitude, 50[degrees]W longitude

4. South America, Africa, (Southeast) Asia

5. 1995

6. 30,000 square kilometers

7. 1995 and 1996

9. cattle ranching (see p. 8 pie chart)

9. 3%

10. people who survive on the crops they grow

* Write the letter of the correct answer on the line before each question.

-- 11. The greatest extent of the Amazon rain forest is in which country?

A. Argentina

B. Brazil

C. Venezuela

-- 12. For centuries, the Yanomami have preserved the soil by doing which of the following?

A. clearing trees for pastureland

B. cutting and selling mahogany

C. shifting cultivation

--13. Tens of thousands of outsiders were attracted to Yanomami lands by what?

A. the discovery of gold

B. the establishment of reserves and parks

C. the opening of sawmills

--14. The mighty Amazon River empties into which body of water?

A. Atlantic Ocean

B. Caribbean Sea

C. Pacific Ocean

15. Which of these continents does not have a large tropical rainforest?

A. Africa

B. Asia

E. Europe

11. B

12. C

13. A

14. A

15. C