Today’s THREADS - WET Tropical Forests [interconnected
stories of rivers, fish, forests, soils and humans]
1. Past Western European fallacies of
tropical forests & its people
2. What is or is not unique to tropical
human-forest/river landscapes?
3. How do people/animals adapt to dynamic
rhythms of riverine landscapes?
4. How is food linked to the rhythms of
riverine landscapes in the wet tropics?
5. Soils, food toxicity and tough decisions
people need to make to survive
6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or
Industrialized world control of
conservation projects in the tropics
1
1. Past Western European fallacies of tropical forests & its people
Tropical Ecological Fallacies held by Western Europeans Until that
have lasted until the last 30 years – not want to accept that people
had lived for thousands of years in tropics
• Lush, highly productive forests
• Forests, soils ‘virgin’ – not human footprint or impacted
by human activities
• High plant diversity is natural, no management by
indigenous people
• Forests fragile, highly susceptible to degradation with
any human use
• No fires in wet tropical forests
Speculate why they would hold these values??
1. Past Western European fallacies of tropical forests & its people
PAST MYTH - Virgin/non-human impacted forest fallacy
Past, biologists/ecologists viewed Amazon
as fragile so native foragers would
destroy them
Past, biodiversity viewed as entirely
natural
RESPONSE: Remove people, free of
humans best, sustainable development only
possible when remove local people
Malaysian dipterocarp forest
(Photo Dan Vogt)
1
1. Past Western European fallacies of tropical forests & its people
NOW accept humans actively managed these forests for a long time:
D = Deforested
I = Introduced new tree species
C = Created large garbage dumps along rivers in
late pre-history (produced rich soils where poor
normally) – Terra preta
E = Encouraged weeds
Malaysian dipterocarp forest
(Photo Dan Vogt)
2. What is or is not unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Equator
Guess what you think is unique to being located on the
equator?
NOTE: where is the equator & what does this tell you?
2. What is unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
SPECULATE: What type of climatic factor change
will make these ecosystems less resilient? Does it
matter if temperatures increase in the tropics?
2
2. What is or is not unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
A Rainforest! Is this tropical?
QUESTION: Speaking of high rainfall areas, are there any rain
forests in the temperate zone?
QUESTION: SO Why don’t we call this region tropical?
ANSWER: It has a lot of RAIN!! But not the high temperature
NOTE: High amount of forest area in tropics with high biodiversity –
forests are green. Why international communities care what happens
here. COMMENT: Most of world doesn’t care what happens in
Washington state’s rainforest – don’t see it in media much.
2. What is or is not unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Unique in tropical forests
• High hot spots of biodiversity in plants, insects & animals
[but not microbial biodiversity]
• Plants not ‘good eats’: The diversity of defensive chemicals
produced by different plants is extraordinary – they keep
insects, mammals, humans from eating their tissues
• Poor Soils: Practice shifting agriculture in forests since soils
nutrient poor, have toxic chemicals – therefore food quality
low, low diversity food options
NOT Unique in tropical forests
• People - short life span, high incidence of disease (even
though newly emerging diseases frequently originate here)
• Human populations mostly survive by extracting/ collecting
resources from forests (e.g. medicine, building materials,
game animal, etc )
3
2. What is unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Unique - Hotspots of biodiversity for insects, birds, plants, animals
Or organic
materials that
need to be
decomposed
BUT NOT hotspots of biodiversity in MICROBES
Where do you need to go to find hotspots of microbial diversity? Think
about what microbes do in ecosystems? So which biome has microbial
biodiversity hotspots??
Would you believe - Boreal zones (these are cold places)
http://www.agvise.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ompic.jpg
2. What is unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Unique high diversity of chemical warfare by plants – even though
globally many plants produce toxic chemicals, i.e., poison ivy
Plant chemical warfare stimulates increased biodiversity of
organisms due to need to adapt to eat plants high in chemicals.
Chemicals make food unpalatable or give animals indigestion!
Plants are well protected to
keep grazers or herbivores
from eating them:
Thorns or chemical warfare
IF YOU ARE SMART: You do not grab a plant
when you start falling down a slippery hill
2. What is unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Unique: Diversity of chemical warfare by plants
High chemical defensive compounds - Don’t eat just any plant in
forest (defensive compounds linked to high biodiversity - many
grazers eating plant tissues)
BUT 3/4th world population dependent on folk medicine from these
plants - great source of pharmaceuticals
Comocladia – causes rashes on humans
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/
learning/naturescience/?cid=fsbdev3_043023
Sapium laurocerasus - native, Puerto Rico – if human male
[not female] don’t stand under tree during a rainstorm, will
end up in hospital for a week and in great pain!!
4
2. What is unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Unique: Diversity of chemical warfare by plants
Curare = kills you or has
medicinal qualities depending
on how much of it you use
Curare = fast-action poison,
doesn't kill but causes paralysis.
Death due to asphyxia when the
victim's lungs become paralyzed
Blowgun
using
curare
to hunt
After 1935, curare was
introduced to modern medicine
as muscle relaxant during
surgery
Curare Leaf
Amazon Rainforest
http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/curare.html
http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/blowgun-hunting.html
2. What is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Heliconia plant
flowers hold
HOH used by
mosquitoes as
breeding habitat
Tropics:
Conditions ideal
for carriers of
human diseases
but this is not
unique to tropics
[will learn about
later in quarter]
mosquito breeding in flower parts, malaria incidence high
NOT Unique: Disease Outbreaks
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/ampeople/ethnobo
tany/medicinalplants2.shtml
2. What is or is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Unique: Diversity of chemical warfare by plants
Not Unique: Human life span short, many diseases
PARADOX:
Human life span short, many
incurable diseases, few medicinal
cures
BUT
High number of plants with
secondary chemicals with high
medicinal values
The angel's trumpet
(Brugmansia sp.) leaves
are used for skin
problems, to help coughs
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/ampeople/ethnobo
tany/medicinalplants2.shtml
5
2. What is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
NOT Unique: Foods, desserts from forests
Have you noticed how many of our
food/dessert vices come from the
tropics?
You don’t get
excited or feel good
by eating lichen or
reindeer found in
boreal forests!!
ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Organic coffee: Why Latin America's farmers are
abandoning it
http://www.hoganphoto.com/images/Pine%20Barrens%20Lanscapes
/False_Reindeer_Lichens_a.jpg
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amp
eople/ethnobotany/cocoapod.shtml
2. What is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Big tropical tree
picture in Malaysia
Big, Old Trees not
unique to tropics
Big tree in Old Growth Forests
of Washington, Oregon
Danum Valley Conservation
Area in the Malaysian state
of Sabah
Photo: Mattias Klum
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/04/20/travel/0420borneo_2.html
2. What is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Large, old trees
LEFT: Lots vines in canopy that go down to the
ground; NOTE: Rattan furniture is made from vines
RIGHT: Marbled murrelets in canopy of old
growth trees in Alaska Bioegog of Marbled Murreletonline.sfsu.edu
Big trees with multiple
canopies (Tropics & PNW
Old Growth) have lots more
habitats & species diversity)
Douglas-fir PNW; http://www.explorationsinc.com/photogallery/amazon-tours-rainforest-jungle/050-Segundo-tree-roots.html
http://www.explorationsinc.com/photogallery/amazon-tours-rainforest-jungle/153-Monkey-Ladder-Vine.html
https://photokitfrost.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/tree-hugger-4.jpg;
http://online.sfsu.edu/bholzman/courses/Fall02%20projects/Bioegog%20of%20Marbled%20Murrelet
_files/murrelet.jpg
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2. What is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Large, old trees with multiple habitats & Unique animals
Sloth – climbing back up
after weekly bathroom visit
on forest floor
2. What is NOT unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Sloth are gardeners,
cultivating/eating algae on
their fur to supplement their
diets, gives energy when need
to climb down the tree to visit
the bathroom
Sloth also feed its young by
giving it algae from its back
https://lonelyspore.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/three_toed_sloth_11-300x300.jpg?w=687
Attenborough: Saying Boo to a Sloth! - BBC Earth
Utube link: https://youtu.be/ndMKTnSRsKM 2 mins 54 sec long
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2. What is not unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
READING: Sloths' fur provides a feast for
hungry bird who eat moths of its back
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/04/sloths-fur-provides-feast-hungry-birds?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&utm_src=email
Video recordings of this unusual interaction are
available on YouTube
(http://youtu.be/OwvvNKRFvIY).
<iframe width="640" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OwvvNKRFvIY" frameborder="0"
allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="640" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OwvvNKRFvIY" frameborder="0"
allowfullscreen></iframe>
READING: Sloths' fur provides a feast for hungry bird who eat
moths of its back- 55 sec long
2. What is not unique to tropical human-forest landscapes?
Why would a
vegetarian go
into a human
toilet??
Sloths are unique
but unique
animals exist in
all biomes
Fig. 1 A sloth inside the latrine (Photo: M. Stojan-Dolar).
Sloths' bizarre 'toilet habit' recorded in Amazon, Peru
By Matt Walker; Earth News; 4 May 2010 11:53 UK
NOTE: Feeding out of a human toilet. They are mainly eaten by
eagles and jaguars, not humans http://addiesrainforest.weebly.com/herbivores.html
Eckhard W. Heymann , Camilo Flores Amasifuén , Ney Shahuano Tello , Emérita R. Tirado Herrera , Mojca Stojan-Dolar.
Disgusting appetite: Two-toed sloths feeding in human latrines. Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde, Volume 76, Issue 1, 2011, 84 – 86;
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2010.03.003
8
3. How people/animals adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
People Adapted to Dynamic Rhythms of Riverine Landscape
In Amazon, >80% people
live along the river [in the
riparian zones] and grow
their food crops in these
areas
http://away.com/travel_photo_gallery/brazil/gallery06.html?thisS
peed=9000
Acai palms
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amscenery/river/aerialview.shtml
http://www.ddbstock.com/amazon2.html
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
People Adapted to Dynamic Rhythms of Riverine Landscape
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16840
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
RIVERS provide
all human
survival needs:
•Drinking water
•Bathing water
•Wash clothes
•Where get food
•Where go to the
bathroom
•Where live, have
a house
NOTE: White water river which has
mosquitoes; black water rivers don’t
http://www.explorationsinc.com/photogallery/amazon-tours-people/440-woman-doing-laundry.html
9
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Difficult human survival so folklore used to explain unexpected
events such as a woman getting pregnant but not having a
boyfriend or husband
Locals folk tales - Some people think Botos turn into handsome
young men, carry off young women of the tribes or get them
pregnant (the baby being born part dolphin which is when you know
Botos was involved)!
This
guy!!
Inia geoffrensis
(Pink
Dolphin)
http://www.isptr-pard.org/dolphin.html
Pink river dolphins - 1 min 22 sec long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkdCbpZcR9M
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
10
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
“Once a year ..Amazon
.., rivers/streams
overflow their banks,
flooding ..forests ..
creating a new habitat
where fish munch on
tree fruits and birds
dive to escape danger.
Water levels rise ….
triggers migrations of
birds, fish, and other
animals … creates ..
unusual home for pink
river dolphins, giant
otters, uakari monkeys,
...”
5 - 50 feet to get
to the ground
level
[all under water]
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/amazonriver/a
mazonriver.html
http://www.ddbstock.com/amazon2.html
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unique-southamerica-travel-experience.com/images/pink-dolphin-copia.jpg&imgrefurl
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Flooded Forests
NOTE Tree tops
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
In Amazon, humans build
houses on stilts
 Keeps house dry during
flooding
 Keeps you close to your food
production areas
 Also helps to keep alligators
from coming into your house
Acai palms
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/amscenery/river/aerialview.shtml
http://www.ddbstock.com/amazon2.html
11
3. How people adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Became leader for the Rubber Tappers, left
all kids with last boyfriend; 13+ children/family
Family on a tributary of the Amazon – this family was very unusual
because run by mother, 3 daughters & not male family members
3. How animals adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Poison Dart Frogs
Red Uakari Monkey
Jaquar
What happens to all
the animals & FISH
when floods occur??
Pink dolphins
- Swim along
tree tops in
forest
3. How animals adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Flooded Forest
video
comment:
“If you lose
the forest, you
lose the fish”
WHY?
What happens to the
livelihood of the
people who live in
these forests?
12
3. How animals adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Flooding, Tree Regeneration
Piranha eat fruit of
forest trees &
disperse seeds to
other locations –
regeneration of trees
REDBELLIED
PIRANHA
3. How animals adapt to dynamic rhythms of riverine landscapes
Flooding is good for plant - disperses its seeds during floods
Camu-camu (Myrciaria sp.) fruit with 10 times Vitamin C content
of lemon; shrubby tree grows on riversides, lake edges
Good food for piranha's
Flooding =
Tree Regeneration
4. How is food linked to the rhythms of riverine landscapes in tropics?
Another
protein
source!!
http://www.explorationsinc.com/photogallery/amazon-tourswildlife/capybara.html
Few food
options high in
protein
Tefe, Brazil
Photo: D Vogt
13
Capybara
Capybara (a rodent) – Venezuela
classified a fish by church, herded
like cattle in savannas
http://www.arkiv
e.org/capybara/h
ydrochoerushydrochaeris/vid
eo-16.html
Sam Winnick’s mom’s animal farm in WA – May 2015. Capybara named
Dobby Winnick, a five-year-old male [notice how big he is because he is
well fed]; he is not domesticated, he attacked Sam once and bit him
above the knee; has good memory & remembers Sam
Start at 1 min 39 seconds and end at 2 min 20 sec
Ecuador – guinea pigs lived in kitchens and
close to the stove to keep warm, eaten as food
Another
protein
source!!
Ecuador –QUESTION? How many
guinea pigs did you need to eat
during 1 year??
ANSWER: 36 guinea pigs living in
one kitchen/year
QUESTION? How many you could
eat a month?
Guinea
pig
http://www.pariwana-hostel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Guinea_pig_for_dinner_copy.jpg
14
4. How is food linked to the rhythms of riverine landscapes in tropics?
When the Amazon floods forests, big fish carried into what used to
be Lakes and then are left stranded when waters of Amazon recede
Lake
4. How is food linked to the rhythms of riverine landscapes in tropics?
When the Amazon floods forests:
• Local people manage them,
eat fish for several years –
River families feast on
protein-rich food
• During the dry season
fruit-eating fish live on
stored fat; swim away,
spread seeds of flood-plain
trees (allows new trees grow)
4. How is food linked to the rhythms of riverine landscapes in tropics?
Pirarucu, Arapaima gigas,
largest, exclusively fresh
water fish in world
Reach lengths of 15 ft/4m
& weigh up to 40lbs/200kg
How about hanging
this one over your
fireplace as a trophy?
15
4. How is food linked to the rhythms of riverine landscapes in tropics?
A villager from
the Medio Jurua
nature reserve of
Brazil's Amazon
rainforest paddles
in his canoe with
pirarucus, the
largest freshwater
fish in South
America
Villager takes once-a-year catch of pirarucu, a living
fossil; Date: 24-Sep-12
Country: BRAZIL; http://planetark.org/wen/66647
Author: Bruno Kelly
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Soil Link to Low Food Quality & Production
RIPARIAN ZONES – right next to the river
• People live along riparian zones because most productive
soils found here
• Dependent on river flooding to deposit sediments from the
mountains that more nutrient rich to restore soil nutrients on
lands being farmed along the rivers
NON-RIPARIAN ZONES – not receive river flood waters,
sediments from the mountains & not right next to rivers
• Non-riparian areas: Soils low in nutrients (low in P, Ca, N,
K) needed for plant growth, have toxic heavy metals (high
Aluminum or Al which is toxic to most plants)
• Despite these nutrient limitations, non-riparian areas still
used for food crops since need food to eat
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Non-floodplain soils –
not next to rivers:
- high in clay
- high in toxic elements
(aluminum)
- low in nutrients
NEED TO PRACTICE
shifting agriculture
Amazon
16
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Soils may
lose all
fertility
within 4 - 5
yrs
After trees cut, burned
get pulse of nutrients,
people leave after a
few years & find
another area to
cut/burn trees and
repeat the cycle
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BfhctHHeWN4/UgeTLxurE2I/AAAAAAAAAng/x2v6v2pE3Po/s1600/silago.jpg
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
PROBLEM: More than 1,000 years of continuous rain
RESULT: Nutrients
leached from soils so
plants do not provide a
nutritious meal for humans
Nutrients
WHAT ARE THE
IMPLICATIONS
FOR Humans who
eat PLANTS
growing in these
soils??
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Plants that Grow in Poor Soils: Toxic & Not Nutritiously Balanced
What is
the food
mostly
eaten??
Is it good
for you??
No Protein, just
carbohydrates
or sugars
Manioc or cassava most widely eaten staple food in Amazon
plus many places in Africa. It is a starchy root - contains
poisonous cyanide compounds so careful preparation before
eating required. Tapioca is manioc.
http://www.junglephotos.com/amazon/ampeople/ethnobotany/manioc.shtml
17
1
Cassava use
in the
CONGO
3
2
Processing in
river – cleaning
off skin
Harvesting
cassava - field
Retting cassava in the river to
get rid of cyanides
http://museum.agropolis.fr/english/pages/expos/aliments/racines/usage/rouis
sage.htm
To get rid of Cyanide – minimum 4-5 days fermentation
process in river before can eat safely (or not get paralyzed)
http://museum.agropolis.fr/english/pages/expos/aliments/racines/usage/recolte.htm
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Few crops tolerant of high
soil Al & low soil nutrient
levels like Cassava
FOOT NOTE: PostSpanish Conquest:
Cassava or manioc
replaced maize as
important food.
Brazilian Amazon;
Photo: D Vogt
5. Soils, food toxicity and people OR
Why Food Production Difficult & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Plants that Grow in these Soils: Toxic & Not Nutritiously Balanced
Now you know the answer to:
Why eat something high in cyanide
which is toxic to eat?
Why not just eat something else??
Brazilian Amazon;
Photo: D Vogt
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6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized world
control of conservation projects in the tropics
CASE STUDY: 1st World
Debt-for-Nature-Swap
6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized world
control of conservation projects in the tropics
Bolivia: Debt-for-Nature Swap (DNS)
• World’s first DNS
created Beni
Biosphere Reserve in
1987
• Bolivia government
debt bought by
international
conservation groups or
other organizations to
incentivize Bolivian
government to
establish the Reserve
• Reason for DNS is that
Bolivia is a hotspot for
biodiversity
IN Readings
6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized world
control of conservation projects in the tropics
PROBLEMS:
• When establishing reserve,
no consideration of DNS impacts on
local communities ability
to feed themselves (hunting), get
firewood, build houses etc
• Local communities not involved in
setting boundaries or determining what area off limits
19
6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized world
control of conservation projects in the tropics
In 1990, the
Chimane indigenous
group had March for
Dignity and
Territory that
changed the way
indigenous
communities were
viewed in Bolivia
"Somos Bolivia, Somos TIPNIS"
chanted indigenous and
environmental activists in their 62
day march (Photo: Dani
Gu/Flickr)
But not give them
their lands back or
ability to survive on
traditional lands
http://www.indypendent.org/2012/07/02/bolivia-indigenous-vigil-tipnis
6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized world
control of conservation projects in the tropics
Findings
• Economic conditions of communities linked to forest
proximity
• Establishment of parks protected livelihood of the Chimane
Indigenous Communities within the reserve boundary
• Access to forest materials and bushmeat changed– if lived
in reserves still had access, in buffer access to forest
materials is low to none
6. Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized world
control of conservation projects in the tropics
Primary Source of
Protein
Chimane Indigenous
community
Bushmeat
in RESERVE - El Cedral
100%
Mixed
bushmeat
/beef
Mixed
fish /
beef
Changed access to
bushmeat since
establishment of
park
100% forest hunting,
but hunting more
difficult than before
BUFFER zone but isolated
from RESERVE - El Totaizal
(Mestiza-Campesina)
100%
Eat more beef which
have to buy now from
ranchers
in BUFFER Zone - San Antonio
100%
70% eat more beef
because wild animals
are further away
outside RESERVE, close to
BUFFER zone - Puerto Mendez
100%
100% no hunting, too
far away from forest
20
END OF LECTURE - Will not
cover in class but you can look
at if interested.
These are ongoing issues in tropical
forests and they are also all
economic drivers causing
deforestation rates to increase.
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
Continuing conflicts: International communities, Indigenous Peoples
Land tenure rights (ownership of their lands ) is still not given
back to indigenous communities
- lost rights with arrival of European colonialists
QUESTIONS: What valuable products found on these lands by
industrialized countries? What does this imply on whether these
lands will be given back to the indigenous people??
ANSWER: Oil, Natural gas, Gold, etc
http://www.amazon-indians.org/
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
QUESTION: Why does gold mining cause mercury poisoning of
people & ecosystems?
ANSWER: mercury used to separate gold from rock/ores and then
gets into river sediments, plants, fish in Amazon (affects human
central nervous systems)
21
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
“A gold miner uses a
high-pressure hose to
wash away the earth
and get gold particles,
near Delta Uno,
department of Madre
de Dios, southeast Lima
Peru. (Dan Collyns/AFP/Getty Images)
• …small-scale miners ..
less efficient in their
use of mercury than industrial miners
• 2.91 pounds of mercury are released into waterways for every 2.2
pounds of gold produced.
• estimated …more than 40 tons of mercury have been absorbed into
the rivers of Madre de Dios, poisoning the food chain
• 30% of global mercury used in gold mining (if want to see article, contact
me)
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
Why is rate of developing new
gold mines accelerating in
tropical forests?
What is the primary driver for
this?
See Reading: National Geographic on the real
price of gold
Gold price USD/oz for April 20, 2014
22
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
Global Markets drive Forest Conversion: Beef Production
North Brazil –
forests converted
to pastures to
graze cattle,
burning
encourages
grass growth
needed as food
source for cattle
Markets for meat
are international
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
Global Markets drive Forest Conversion: Beef Production
NOTE: 62% of deforested
lands converted to cattle
pastures in the Brazilian
Amazon (2008 data)
http://www.amazonrainforestnews.
com/2011_12_01_archive.html
7. Some current international drivers of tropical forest & its
peoples’ health / sustainability
Global Markets drive Forest Conversion: Biofuel Production
ASIA tropical
forests
converted to
palm oil
plantations to
grow Biofuel
Crops:
Former tropical
forests now
terraced palm
oil plantations
right - palm oil fruit; left - red colored palm oil (used in cooking, biodiesel production)
23
Did you notice how all the economic
development activities occurring in the
tropics (e.g., gold mining, cattle
ranching, oil crops) require you to
remove forest cover and therefore
increase deforestation rates???
Today’s THREADS - WET Tropical
Forests [interconnected stories of
rivers, fish, forests, soils and
humans]
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What is or is not unique to tropical human-forest/river
landscapes?
How do people/animals adapt to dynamic rhythms of
riverine landscapes?
How is food linked to the rhythms of riverine
landscapes in the wet tropics?
Soils, food toxicity and people
Past Western European fallacies of tropical forests & its
people
Case study - ‘Debt-for-Nature-Swap’ or Industrialized
world control of conservation projects in the tropics
Some current international drivers of tropical forest &
its peoples’ health / sustainability
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