IMPACT OF THE FOREST CLEARANCE ON PEOPLE AND SOILS IN BRAZIL CHAPTER 20: BRAZIL – A NON-EUROPEAN REGION
Soil is drained of nutrients in a few years after the trees have gone.
The exposed soil is baked into a hard, brick-like surface which cannot support plant growth. (It is now a laterite soil).
This leaves poor people in a desperate situation as the land they had hoped to work is now useless.
Many settlers move back to the cities.
The grass growth on the latosols is so poor that the beef cattle do not thrive and even more land is cleared to feed them.
Natural habitat for wildlife is severely reduced. Many animals in the rainforest have not yet been clearly identified. Many plants possess cures for disease.
The climate becomes hotter and drier in the cleared areas because in the past the forests regulated rainfall and temperatures. Desertification is increased.
Before 1500, there were approximately 6 million native people living in Amazonia. In 2010, there were fewer than 250,000. In the twentieth century, 90 tribes of native peoples have been wiped out in Brazil.