Deforestation In The Amazon

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Indigenous tribes all over the world, especially in the Amazon region, deforestation has been a prominent issue. Rapid deforestation started in the Amazon around the 20th century and has increased through the beginning of the current century. Certain regions of forest has been eradicated for farms, dams, natural resources, and for an expansion of the modern world. Consequently, indigenous tribes are being forced from their lands and brutally harmed. Deforestation in the Amazon causes a decrease in the tribal population and a lack of resources which in turn causes rebellions from indigenous people.
Deforestation occurs for many reasons, most pertain to the expansion of the modern world. Cattle ranching is a motive “of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest” because the beef produced is used to feed urban areas, and leather and other products are exported to other markets (Butler, "Amazon Destruction."). Ranching accounts for around 70% to 80% of deforestation in the Amazon region (Butler, "Amazon Destruction."; WWF). Forests are also being cleared for the expansion of subsistence and commercial agriculture. In Bolivia, cleared lands are being used for farming soybeans. There has been a demand for them because it is “the region’s cash crop” (Forero). Logging and mining has also created deforestation, through both legal and illegal companies. Urbanization has caused roads to be built through indigenous territories and cities to be expanded by chopping down the trees. Another cause of forest clearings is the search for oil in hopes of finding the limited natural resource. Natural deforestation occurs from forest fires, which continue to burn because there is no prevention put in place in certain areas. For “the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down” and it has in turn lowered the biodiversity and number of indigenous people in the area (Wallace). Amazonian tribes have lived in isolation for several thousands of years, but deforestation has caused them to have interaction with strangers. There are around 400 indigenous tribes living in the Amazon, encompassing around 20 million people (Butler, “Amazon People”). Each one has a different language, traditions, and cultures (Survival, “Amazon Tribes”). These tribes are comprised of hunters and gatherers, so the land is their means of survival. When humans destroy the land they destroy the tribes’ resources, which causes tribes to die off due to poor health. A few of the tribes are nomadic because after a couple of years the food supply run low and they need to migrate to find more resources (Survival, “Amazon Tribes”). They are called the “Uncontacted
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Many outsiders kill or try to harm the tribe’s members to gain land to ranch, log or mine. For example, in Brazil ranchers were fighting the Guarani tribe and hired gunmen to come and shoot the tribe (Allen). The tribe was trying reoccupying their ancestral lands, when their leader, Semiao Vihalva, was assassinated and others were injured. The violence grew when “30 vehicles carrying ranchers and gunman arrived [at] another Guarani community and opened fire” (Allen). Tribes are becoming more threatened, “assailed by gunmen, loggers and hostile settler farmers” (Chamberlin). They are facing a genocide and are being purposely being hunted for their lands (Survival, "Uncontacted Amazon Indians"; Survival, "Uncontacted Indians”). Often, the invaders bring new diseases to the area, such as smallpox, the common cold, and influenza. Since the Amazonian tribes have remained “uncontacted” with modern civilization they have no immunity to these new diseases and end up …show more content…
Water contamination from the cutting down trees for mining and farming is causing the tribes people to have a health crisis. The soil is no longer being held by the roots of the trees, causing soil erosion to occur and that excess then flows through the drinking rivers of tribes (Pachamama Alliance). A runoff of the chemical mercury released from miners is also contaminating the land, air, and water. About 40 tons of mercury are being released into the water a year and about three out of every four people living in the Amazon basin area have higher mercury levels than what the limit set by the World Health Organization (Davis). This causes tribes to die from being poisoned or having gained bacterial infections from the waters they

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