These forests, particularly the tropical rain forests, support a huge diversity of plant and animal life that is at risk of being lost. Land clearing threatens biodiversity because: The fields and residential areas that replace the cleared forests do not have the same diversity of life. Agricultural land cannot support the same diversity of animals that forests can.
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Conserving biodiversity through wise land management Governments and international agencies pass laws to protect biodiversity. For example, in Ireland people are not allowed to remove or destroy hedgerows or ditches during nesting and breeding seasons. Coillte, the state-sponsored company that manages Ireland’s forests, is involved in a project to replant native woodlands that contain many species of trees and support many species of animals. Creating national parks: Governments have prevented the expansion of agriculture into some natural habitats by creating nature reserves (national parks) to protect areas of significant biodiversity.
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Case Study Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest
These pictures were taken by NASA satellites. They show an area called Rondônia in western Brazil and can be found on earthobservatory.nasa.gov. The dark green areas are forest. These pictures show the overall change in forest cover in this area over six years.
Fig. 9 An aerial view of Rondônia in September 2000.
Fig. 10 An aerial view of Rondônia in September 2006
Questions 1. What do you notice about the pattern of deforestation? 2. ‘There has been extensive deforestation in this area.’ Suggest information to support this statement.
3. Suggest at least three human activities that could have contributed to this deforestation. 187
