LAND RESOURCES
Tirath, Mathew, Umal,
Akshay, Sunjeet
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Land - The Basic Resource
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Provides basic resources, arable (crop) and pastoral (animal) farming
11 % of land is used to grow crops, Large parts like tundra, deserts are unsuitable,
Pasture lands occupy more space than crop lands
31% forested timber, the land provides mineral resources, fossil fuels, living space;
Forestry, Mining, Urban Land use affect the land
Need of Space
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Use land in many ways, farming, manufacture, business
¼ of North America used for transportation
- Modern City for Residential Use e.g. gardens
Canadian wildlife like bears moose, beaver
Pressure
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Issues like Soil Fertility and threatened Wild Life caused by demand of population.
Tons of pressure on countries like Netherlands 15 million people in 37 000 km^2 of
land
75% [ ] of Population in cities like Montreal and Toronto - need more resources to
sustain
Need good wastes facilities to get rid of enormous wastes
Pressure on farmers to produce higher yield of crops
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SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE –
C
HEMICAL USE
Increasing population = Decreasing resources
Western Countries using chemicals since WW2 (herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers)
Profit, use weed killers to kill weed, keeping grass allowing grain growth, in
prairies change way of grain farming
Consumer demand has caused farmers to use insecticides in larger quantities and
make the product cosmetically attractive
Environmental Problems, seepage of nitrates, phosphates enter ground water
reaching rivers, oceans, O2 depleting , up to 17 residues found in ½ of U.S. states
Diseases like cancer, lymphoid glands (DDT)  slow break down, remain in
environment
1million cases of WHO pesticide poisoning, developing countries can’t afford to
wear protective clothing
Farming ecosystems from tractors and plants chemical sprays
Affect species, insects, kill pests (remove natural check to the growth of pesticide
pop.)
New, powerful chemicals to overcome pesticides known as “pesticide treadmill”
Damage plant metabolism more vulnerable to diseases
Fertilizers  fossil fuels & mineral in manufacture
Maintain fertility farms use (nonrenewable (fossil fuels)) and renewable (crops,
and animal products)  insufficient way of farming (energy  food). Farming is
NOT SUSTAINALE DEPENDS TOO HEAVILY ON FOSSIL FUELS AND
CONRIBUTES TO AIR POLLUTION
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE –
IPM & ORGANIC FARMING
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Integrated Pest Management (IPM)  integrate eliminate use of
pests, no biological control avoid use altogether
Control  Intro natural enemies (stink bugs), synthetic sex
attractants (male gypsy moths)
Irradiation infertility as means of controlling pest management
Pathogens disease causing spray on moths and butterflies, plant
breeding, build in resistance to pests
Organic Farming
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Silent Spring (book) 1962  public interest in organic methods
Farming use crop rotation, legume crops (alfalfa) to put Nitrogen back
into the soil
Biotechnology used to fix Nitrogen capacity from the atmosphere
Organic Farmers use animal manure, leach ground, organic residues
as mulch
Cultivation intercropping (grow alternate rows) to increase nutrients
2-7 years to clean chemicals, no business during that time
Organic Farming lower cultivation costs but higher prices
SOIL EROSION AND CONSERVATION
Soil Erosion occurs when soil is weakened by the
loss of humus nutrients and is removed by the
action of wind or water.
 Maintain Soil as a renewable source conditions:
 First- most soils should NOT be exposed to
heavy rainfall
 The hummus in the layer should be gradually
renewed by decaying vegetation otherwise
rich fertile soil may take several hundreds of
years to develop it can also be destroyed in a
couple years or even days if not taken care of.
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SOIL EROSION AND CONSERVATION
NUTRIENT DEPLETION
Soil ecosystem heavily depends on decomposition
of organic material.
 Nutrients can be used again by plants (recycled)
 As successive crops are removed by farmers even
rich soils like in the prairies decline in fertility.
 Countries cannot afford to restore fertility =
Nutrient depletion
 In many parts of Asia and Africa the crops have
been exhausted due to continuous cropping
 Main fertilizer is cattle manure but often dried
and burned for fuel rather than fertilizer
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SOIL EROSION AND CONSERVATION
Wind Erosion
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Occurs in semi arid or arid
areas where the vegetation
cover is removed or reduced
Farmers use dry farming
techniques to converse
moisture
Trash farming or stubble
mulching and they would
leave stubble on the harvest
for protection
Strip farming where crops
are grown in strips across
the line of prevailing winds
Shelter belts or windbreaks
are to reduce wind speed
Water Erosion
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Moving water = enormous erosion
power
The worst soil erosion is when
vegetation is removed from sloping
areas with heavy rainfall which
leads to gully erosion (Southern
U.S. & Canada(
Sheet erosion is the gradual
removal of top soil on sloping land
Many soil programs were set up in
the 1930’s such as the PFRA-prairie
farm rehabilitation administration
Solutions
Contour ploughing
Stream control
Gully re-vegetation and
reforestation
SOIL EROSION AND CONSERVATION
REDUCTION WAYS IN DEVELOPING NATIONS
World’s poorest countries are trying to overcome
the problem of soil erosion
 Population pressure and the growth of cash crops
to pay interest on foreign debts have hindered the
process
 CIDA- Canadian international development
agency helps the developing countries with soil
erosion
 NGO’s also provide some practical help
 The best solution must be cheap and require only
low levels of technology
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DESERTIFICATION – SERIOUS PROBLEM
FACING CIVILIZATIONS
WE (human activities) have caused the desert to
expand
 20% of earth’s land surface contains over 80
million people are threatened by desertification
 The united nations conference on desertification
UNCOD was held on 1977 in Kenya, ten years
later resolution to the problem have barely been
solved
 Twenty one million hectares of once
productive land are still being lost each year
throughout the world
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NORTHERN CONIFEROUS RAIN FORESTS
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Out of Canada’s 463 000 000 ha of forest most of it is
Northern Coniferous (boreal) forest.
The warmer and more south of the forest the larger the
trees
Pine = main species in the forest in Ontario and Quebec
On the coast of B.C there is a larger growing season due to
the heavy precipitation causing rapid growth of trees
Canada has 40% of the worlds northern forests
Ontario established the principle of sustained yield in the
1929 Pulpwood Act
The annual allowable cut (AAC) is a method to sustain
trees
Best time for cutting a tree is at the mature stage
Our forests provide us with many resources for ex. Water
management, fishing and recreation co-existing with
forestry
NORTHERN CONIFEROUS RAIN FORESTS
Replaced?
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AAC (Annual Allowable Cut) is most likely to be
reduced when the period of cutting old forests are
over
BC forests have a inventory of 4.5 billion cubic meters
of timber which is over 140 years old
Some reforested land new growth has failed because
of soil erosion of poor planting
Survival rate of seedlings in B.C is 73%
Is the ecosystem being preserved?
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Soil productivity is being reduced
Long term soil can be threatened by soil erosion and
by a loss of fungi
NORTHERN CONIFEROUS RAIN FORESTS
Clear cutting or selective logging?
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Clear Cutting: where all trees in a certain area are
completely wiped out
Selective Logging: where only certain trees are taken out
Selective logging is not a good method for areas with large
trees
There has been complains about clear cutting being taken
place in areas which are too large
A solution is to clear cut in smaller areas even though it is
more expensive
Should old growth forests be preserved?
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The Carmanah Valley in BC: was about to be logged, but
they found a bunch of groves of giant Sitka spruce trees,
which are one of the biggest spruce trees. They eventually
planned to save the grove trees but take out the rest, but
eventually compromised to half of it being logged and other
half being a park.
NORTHERN CONIFEROUS RAIN FORESTS
The role of Silviculture
 is the science of growing trees
 Offers genetically improved trees
 Trees would grow faster and be more resistant
to pests and diseases
The economic importance of forestry in
Canada
 Forestry stands for 15% of Canada’s exports
 Forestry has provides 780 000 Canadians with a
job
TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS
1/3 of the earth’s surface is forested, an
important source for new, raw materials,
recreational areas etc.
 The tropical rain forest ecosystem is the most
productive, varies and fragile on earth
 No trees = Soil Erosion = Soil Infertility
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Why is the rain forest being destroyed?
 Worldwide demand for timber
 South America is the important source of tropical
hardwoods
 In Central America 2/3 of the loss of forest have been
caused by cattle farming
TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS – CONSEQUENCES
OF FURTHER DESTRUCTION
Possible climatic changes
 The burning of tropical rain forests adds 2 or 3 billion
times of carbon per year to the atmosphere
 Deforestation = increase in methane
Loss of plant and animal species
 The rain forest has about 3-4 million species of plants
and animals, clearing could result in extinction.
The loss of winter habitats
 Millions of birds migrate to the rain forest, the loss of
the rain forest habitats will cause an environmental
effect
Natives
 Hunt, fish, building materials, clothes, medicine are
relied on these forests
MINING – EXTRACTION OF
MINERAL ORES/FOSSIL FUELS FROM
UNDERGROUND TO AN EXTENT OF DISTURBING LAND SERVICES; MINING
DISCHARGE TOXIC WASTE INTO RIVERS AND AQUIFERS HARMING THE
SURFACE OF THE LAND.
Underground
(Dangerous)
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Requires of system of
tunnels due to the depth
of the minerals
Collapsing tunnels and
inflammable gases and
dust can cause lung
disease
Collapsing tunnels =
Sinking surface of the
land and buildings
Accumulation of Wastes
Open Pit/Strip (Less
Fatal)
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A large surface pit is dug, can be a
source of dust and noise disturbing
communities
Millions of tonnes of rock is moved
around allowing low grade ores to
be mined, Less than 1 percent of
many based metals contain ore
Produce a lot of waste and H20
reservoirs that allow mining waste
to accumulate (Tailings Ponds),
contains toxic such as cyanide
A huge risk of contaminated water
leaking into rivers and underground
water surface
Mining cannot be avoided, but
returning waste into mines land can
eventually be restored
URBANIZATION
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Towns and cities grow quickly in terms of population
and area
Much farmland is converted into urban areas by
being consumed by houses, roads and factories
More money can be obtained from industries and
residential development
Farmers are offered more money for their land than
what they make
Only hope is careful strategies and good stable laws
Agriculture and land reserves policy was established
by BC government to limit the transformation of
farmland to urban uses
In BC industrial waste sewage results an increase of
pollutants in Fraser river and endangering human
health and aquatic life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9AZfwfyATI
 Alberta
(Bonnyville Area)
 Manitoba (Badger)
 Started
approximately May 12th 2012, last
update was May 15th and the fire did not
seem as if it was going down anytime
soon.
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Due the weather conditions the wildfires have been spreading
very rapidly. 12 families in Alberta Bonnyville had to evacuate as
the fire was approaching them. For the village of Badger in
Manitoba 6 families got some good news and could go home to
gather up some belongings. There are currently 150 firefighters
trying to take town this wild fire. Highway 211 was closed for a
period of time due to poor visibility caused by the smoke of the
wild fire.
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main reason of these fires happening
is the warm temperature, strong winds
and the dry conditions.
 Since
we are so close to Alberta, How do
you think this incident will affect us? and
the industries, families in Alberta?
 As a community, how can we prevent
these kind of disasters from occuring?
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A major land resource we use in Canada is the forestry industry.
This is a main export for Canada and provides many Canadians
with jobs. When there is a forest fire it burns down many of the
timber trees which could’ve been logged and put to proper use
rather then being burned to the ground and taking away a major
resource of ours.