Draft Geo Assignment Part 1.

Rainforest:

There are two types of rainforests:

Tropical rainforests, which are found in areas like Central America and central Africa;
they are found closer to the equator and temperate rainforests are one where ecosystems
have slightly cooler climates, like places in New Zealand and Australia; found a little
farther from the equator.

Rainforests cover approximately 6% of the Earth’s surface. They can cover large areas of
land like in Central America or small areas of land like Australia’s rainforests.

Rainforests have a general pattern. They are generally close to the equator where
rainforests survive best in; however temperate rainforests tend to be a bit further from the
equator.

Draft Geo Assignment Part 2.

a) The indigenous community of people I have chosen are the Yanomami. The location
and spatial dimension in which the Yanomami people are situated in are the north-west
regions of the Amazon Forest, which is Brazil and in the tropical rainforest areas in
southern Venezuela. In other words, they live among the hills that line the border of
Brazil and Venezuela.
b) The Yanomami use their environment in a variety of ways. The Yanomami largely rely
on their crops and large gardens, which are available to them by the massive territory
they have. Hence, they grow around 60 crops, about 20 for food, and the rest for
medicine, everyday objects, or ritual meanings. The Yanomami create medicine from
trees, insects and resources from the Amazon Rainforest as well. They have utilised their
environment, to improve the ways of their hunting and fishing. They have crafted darts,
bows and arrows, spears and blowguns, using the natural resources the Amazon
Rainforests offers, such as the bones of animals, rocks, poison from frogs and even scrap
metal. The environment has a very important role to play in their religious and spiritual
beliefs. Such as using natural roots and vines that are grinded together to create a
hallucinogenic drug which is smoked by the Yanomami for chanting and dancing. Wood
and bamboo is used for clothing, houses and baskets even.

As you can see, the environment plays a big part in their lives, for everyday living,
survival, hunting and spiritual beliefs.

Draft Geo Assignment part 3.

Tropical countries have the second highest rate of deforestation. Of these tropical
countries most affected are Venezuela and Brazil. Various parts of Venezuela and Brazil
are being deforested for cash crops, commercial logging, firewood and building material
and other various reasons. To worsen the problem, the poor soil of the humid climate
causes people to move on and clear more forests.
These countries are where the Yanomami live. Over 0.5% of the forest in Venezuela has
been deforested (which is one of the largest percentages taken in the world) and there is
less land to be destroyed, so Brazil which is just under Venezuela on the Global Map will
likely be the next big victim of deforestation.

The Yanomami parts of Venezuela have already had lots of forest surrounding their area
deforested. Since the Brazil are the likely the next big victim of deforestation, those parts
of Northern Brazil where the Yanomami also dwell are under great threat.

The deforestation of areas of Yanomami territory, results in massive losses. Their

surrounding environment is where all their resources for their daily lives come from.
Their food, medicine, houses, clothes, etc. Because areas around their territory are being
deforested, it limits how well and how much they can use their surrounding resources.
Therefore, it lowers their living standards. The Yanomami tribes mainly use crops for
their food supply. How are they supposed to have their daily intakes of food, when the
areas around them are being used for commercial reasons and commercial crops? They
aren’t able to grow new crops, because the areas around them are being controlled by big
companies growing cash crops and creating building material. They won’t be able to
grow new crops when their older crops are decreasing in quality. Their main food supply
will be stripped of the Yanomami tribe. Not only are they being stripped of their food
supply, they can’t use the resources around them for medicines. If more and more of the
forest is being deforested, then it is likely that special plants used for remedies and
medicines will be destroyed. The Yanomami will not be able to cure themselves of
diseases or sicknesses as well as before

Part 4.

One management strategy that is being used by community organisation to manage

deforestation is ecoforestry brought about by GreenPeace. Ecoforestry is a way for forest
communities to benefit economically from forest use without damaging the forest. This
way, tribes like the Yanomami can still use the rainforest for their food crops and crafting,
etc. Using economically responsible harvesting methods, landowners control their forests.
They gain an income, communal skills, and a return to traditional work practices.
Ecoforestry works by workers harvesting trees using only hand tools to make sure that
when the tree falls it does minimal damage to the rest of the rainforest. Milling of the
trees is done where they fall and are carried out of the forest through bush tracks. Then
the timber is taken along existing roads. Through this planning, control and strict
guidelines, it ensures that the rainforest grows and regenerates to its previous state
quickly. Ecoforestry is also better economically than deforesting. Ecoforestry is generally
better for the rainforest as it does not spoil the land, sea, rivers and watercatchment;
everything is kept the same.