Environmental Science Question
The Amazon rainforest is being destroyed at an alarming rate. I thought you might want to learn more about how the value of the rainforest, and how conservationists attempt to convey that value to others.
For this assignment, first read this 8 page Case study on Understanding ecosystems and their value: Week 3 Reading.pdf
Then answer the following questions (also found as a .doc file here: Week 3 Homework Assignment B.docx
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Week 3 Homework Assignment: Amazon Deforestation
At the frontier of the primary Amazonian rainforest, a five-hectare plot is under consideration for deforestation by a local peasant farmer who wants to practice slash–and–burn agriculture and by a logger who wants to remove valuable timber species.
Based on the reading, the 5-hectare plot has intrinsic value because of the ecosystem services it provides. A conservation organization wants to protect the land from being farmed or logged. Based on the chart of ecosystem services in the reading, write a paragraph arguing why preserving the land might be more valuable than using it for other purposes.
Given that the population along the Amazon is growing, do you think there is room for the peaceful coexistence of farming, logging, and conservation? Why/why not?
Do you feel that species have intrinsic rights to exist? Can such existence values be incorporated into environmental policy?
Do you believe that citizens of tropical countries have the right to deforest the most biologically diverse communities on Earth? (Keeping in mind that the European settlers deforested a large chunk of North America for agriculture)
John Terborgh, the tropical ecologist at Duke University, asserts that in order to save tropical forests, citizens of industrial nations are going to have to pay developing countries. Do you agree? What are some ways that this might be done?
Right now, rapid rainforest deforestation is happening in Brazil due to political factors. What is being lost in this deforestation?
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