Advanced Level Geography @ SJP
GG5: Sustainable Natural
Environments – Key Terms and
Concepts
Sustainable Natural Environments - Word Bank
Key Term/Concept
Amazon Basin
Amerindians
Definition
Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained
by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The basin is
located mainly (40%) in Brazil, but also stretches into
Peru and several other countries. The South
American rain forest of the Amazon is the largest in
the world, covering about 8,235,430 km2 with dense
tropical forest. For centuries, this has protected the
area and the animals residing in it but now it is
coming under increasing threat from development.
The native or indigenous people of the Amazon Basin
estimated to be about 520,000 today. They are made
up of a number of distinct ethnic and tribal groups.
Avanca Brazil
Avança Brasil or Advance Brazil is a large
infrastructure program planned in Brazil. The project
will cost about $43 billion and be implemented from
2000-2020. The project would involve the paving of
the BR163 thus creating the infrastructure to transport
soybeans. All year round from the state of Matto
Grosso.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a
given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth.
Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health
of biological systems. The TRF is the world’s most
diverse ecosystem but that richness is under threat
from development.
THE drive for "green energy" in the developed
Biofuels in Amazon
world is having the perverse effect of encouraging
the destruction of tropical rainforests. From the
orang-utan reserves of Borneo to the Brazilian
Amazon, virgin forest is being razed to grow palm
oil and soybeans to fuel cars and power stations in
Europe and North America. And surging prices are
likely to accelerate the destruction.
Biome
Biosphere reserve
Global ecosystems. A major regional or global biotic
community, such as a tropical rainforest, grassland or
desert, characterized chiefly by the dominant forms of
plant life and the prevailing climate. In the case of the
Amazon TRF there is an equatorial climate.
A biosphere reserve is an international conservation
designation given by UNESCO under its Programme
on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). The World
Network of Biosphere Reserves is the collection of all
533 biosphere reserves in 107 countries (as of May,
2009). Biosphere reserves are created “to promote
and demonstrate a balanced relationship between
humans and the biosphere.” Through appropriate
zoning and management, the conservation of these
ecosystems and their biodiversity is sought to be
maintained.
The design of the reserve must include a legally
protected core area, a buffer area where nonconservation activities are prohibited, and a transition
zone where approved practices are permitted. This is
done with regard for the sustainable use of natural
resources for the benefit of local communities. This
effort requires relevant research, monitoring,
education and training. There are 9 biosphere
reserves located fully or partially in Brazil and these
include the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve..
Blairo Maggi
BR163
Carajas
Cargill
Chemical prospecting
Convectional Rainfall
The Governor of the state of Matto Grosso and the
chairman of the Maggi Corp – Brazil’s largest Soya
Company.
The road that links Cuiaba in Matto Grosso to the port
of Santarem on the Amazon where the Cargill grain
terminal is located. Under the Avanca Brazil
Programme this route will be fully paved providing
opportunity for all year round export of soya to EU
and China etc. It is nicknamed the ‘Soya Corridor’
The great Carajas iron ore project is situated in the
heart of the rainforest and is powered by the
hydroelectric dam in Tucururi. The Tucururi dam was
built between the years of 1976 and 1984 intending to
power the project. The dam's construction caused the
reservoir to cover over 2000km square of rainforest
and had many problems.
Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held, multinational
corporation, and is based in the state of Minnesota in
the United States. It was founded in 1865, and has
grown into the country's largest privately held
corporation. Cargill's business activities include
purchasing, processing, and distributing grain and
other agricultural commodities, and the manufacture
and sale of livestock feed and ingredients for
processed foods and pharmaceuticals. It is a major
investor in Brazil and funded the grain terminal at
Santarem and the planting of soya in the state of
Matto Grosso.
Biochemical prospecting involves exploration for new,
hopefully useful, chemicals from organisms. Though
biochemical prospecting could be antagonistic to
conservation through uncontrolled exploitation of a
new resource, it also has the potential to benefit
biodiversity conservation. Sustainable harvesting of a
species from its natural environment requires the
preservation of its habitat. Discovery of a species with
rare and\or important chemicals can helpjustify an
area's preservation. Biotechnology companies like
Pfizer (manufactures ARVs) use the genetic material
from TRF plants to make their pharmaceutical
products. This has the potential to be a sustainable
economic use of the TRF with lucrative financial
rewards.
Convectional rainfall occurs daily in the Amazon when
the energy of the sun (or insolation) heats the earth’s
surface and causes water to evaporate changing to
water vapour. This warm, moist air then rises and as it
rises it cools adiabatically. The air reaches a point
called the condensation level where it has cooled to
such an extent that the water vapour condenses and
turns back to a liquid form. This process of
condensation high in the atmosphere leads to the
development of clouds. As the clouds continue to
grow the weight of the water droplets can eventually
lead to precipitation due to collision and coalescence
of droplets. Rainfall in Manaus is approx 2000mm/yr.
Cuiaba
Cultural Extinction
Deforestation
Cuiaba is the capital of the stat of Matto Grosso and
is linked to the port if Santarem by the BR163 – soya
corridor.
The loss of traditional ways of life and cultures
associated with indigenous people i.e. the
Amerindians, due to exposure to modern influences
and cultural dilution. Survival International is a NGO
that strives to protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
One of the key elements in the Pilot Programme for
Brazil was the ‘Rights if Indigenous Peoples’ who
were consulted in the process.
Deforestation is the logging and/or burning of trees
in the forested area.
Today deforestation in the Amazon is the result of
several activities, the foremost of which include:
1. Clearing for cattle pasture
2. Colonization and subsequent subsistence
agriculture
3. Infrastructure improvements
4. Commercial agriculture e.g. soya and biofuels
5. Logging
Eating up the Amazon
Report issued by Greenpeace in 2006 that exposed
the involvement of foreign fast food companies,big
supermarkets and governments e.g. EU/China in the
trade in Amazonian soya. In this report they illustrated
the soya crisis through the example of two key global
players: Cargill (possibly the largest private company
in the world) in the Amazon and McDonald’s (the
largest fast food company in the world) in Europe. We
document the path taken by soya from illegally
cleared farms, sometimes with the use of slave
labour, to Cargill and its competitors, through the
ports, processors and meat producers of Europe, and
finally into the Chicken McNuggets sold under the
golden arches across the continent.
Ecological corridors
A thin strip of vegetation used by wildlife and
potentially allowing movement of biotic factors
between two areas. Used in the Pilot Programme for
Brazil to promote biodiversity conservation by
preventing the islandisation of species into
fragmented habitat zones. These corridors allow
species migration between forest reserves.
The ecological footprint is a measure of human
demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares
human demand with planet Earth's ecological
capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of
biologically productive land and sea area needed to
regenerate the resources a human population
consumes and to absorb and render harmless the
corresponding waste. The Amerindians way of life has
Ecological footprint
a very low ecological footprint.
Ecotourism
Equatorial climate
Habitat fragmentation
Hadley Cell
Ecotourism is travel to fragile, pristine, and usually
protected areas that strives to be low impact and
(often) small scale. It helps educate the traveler;
provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the
economic development and political empowerment of
local communities; and fosters respect for different
cultures and for human rights.
Responsible ecotourism includes programs that
minimize the negative aspects of conventional tourism
on the environment and enhance the cultural integrity
of local people. Therefore, in addition to evaluating
environmental and cultural factors, an integral part of
ecotourism is the promotion of recycling, energy
efficiency, water conservation and creation of
economic opportunities for the local communities.
This is a sustainable way of using the TRF.
An equatorial climate is a type of tropical climate in
which there is no dry season – all months have mean
precipitation values of at least 60 mm (2.36 inches).
Equatorial climates have no pronounced summer or
winter; it is hot and wet throughout the year and
rainfall is heavy and falls throughout the afternoon on
an almost daily basis. One day in an equatorial
climate is very similar to the next, while the change in
temperature between day and night may be larger
than the average change in temperature between
"summer" and "winter".Equatorial climate is usually
found at latitudes within five degrees North and South
of the equator, which are dominated by the
Intertropical Convergence Zone.The equatorial
climate is denoted Af in the Köppen climate
classification. Tropical rainforest is the natural
vegetation in equatorial regions.
Habitat fragmentation is frequently caused by humans
when native vegetation is cleared for human activities
such as agriculture, rural development or
urbanization. Habitats which were once continuous
become divided into separate fragments. After
intensive clearing of TRF the separate fragments tend
to be very small islands isolated from each other by
crop land or livestock grazing or wasteland etc. This
can result in localised extinction of species or
islandisation. Ecological corridors are a way of
reducing these problems.
The Hadley cell is a circulation pattern that
dominates the tropical atmosphere, with rising motion
near the equator, poleward flow 10-15 kilometers
above the surface, descending motion in the
subtropics (STHP) and equatorward flow of surface
trade winds near the surface. Synoptic link to GG4 so
be able to draw and fully label the Hadley Cell and
link to equatorial climatic data for Manaus.
Ibama
IBAMA, Brazil's environmental law enforcement
agency.
Islandisation of species
The isolation of species into fragmented islands of
habitat as a result of deforestation and environmental
degradation. This increases the risk of localised
extinction as species migration is restricted by
absence of ecological corridors.
The Intertropical Convergence Zone is a term that
is used to describe the North-East and South-East
trade wind convergence. The ITCZ appears as a band
of clouds, usually thunderstorms, that circle the globe
near the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, the
trade winds move in a southwesterly direction, while
in the Southern Hemisphere, they move
northwesterly. The point at which the trade winds
converge forces the air up into the atmosphere,
forming the ITCZ. It marks the thermal equator.
Laterite (from the Latin word "later" meaning brick or
tile) is the formation of iron and aluminium rich
surface soils in hot tropical areas due to continuous
weathering of the parent rock. It is commonly known
as latosol or ferallitic soil. Heavy convectional rainfall
can cause severe leaching of nutrients.
The disappearance from a locality of a particular
species due to habitat fragmentation and
islandisation.
The Brazilian President.
Lula is seen as a popularist left-wing politician, and
his presidency has seem Brazil become wealthier as
part of the BRIC group of emerging economies.
Inter-tropical Convergence
Zone
Lateritic soil (laterite)
Localised extinction
Lula da Silva
Maggi Corporation
Manaus
Matto Grosso
Mato Grosso is Brazil's leading soya-producing state
and the Maggi Group is responsible for 17% of the
soya grown there. This is Brazils biggest soya
producing agribusiness company and is headed by
Blairo Maggi who was elected governor of the state in
2003. This inevitably raised criticism from
environmental groups.
City located in the heart of the Amazon and the
weather station you use to describe the equatorial
climate of the TRF biome.
The ‘Soya State’ located in the southern part of the
Operation Amazonia
Pilot Programme for Brazil
Santarem
Slash & burn cultivation
Soya
Amazon Basin. It has become the agricultural frontier
as massive investment opens up the region for soya
cultivation. The capital is Cuiaba and the governor is
Blairo Maggi.
The large scale development programme launched on
the Amazon in the 1970’s to open it up and exploit the
resources using agro-mineral growth poles like the
Carajas Iron Ore growth point. This was the beginning
of large scale predatory development in the Amazon
orchestrated by a military government that wanted to
attract both Brazilian and foreign private investment to
fund the development of this resource frontier region.
These projects failed to include any EIA or
Environmental Impact Assessment. They had
devastating environmental and social repercussions.
The rights of indigenous peoples were violated and
many groups were forced from their ancestral
homelands by the Brazilian Military – sent in to clear
the way of any ‘obstacles’ to development.
This is the scheme you need to make detailed notes
on as a pilot programme to illustrate the potential for
sustainable utilisation of the Amazon’s resources. It
was a multi-stakeholder project with international
funding that demonstrated sustainability through three
programmes:
 Biosphere Reserves and Ecological corridors
project (environmental sustainability)
 Sustainable logging and extractive reserves
(economic sustainability)
 The Indigenous Land Project (social justice)
You have an evaluation of this sustainable
development programme in your notes, Ensure you
can evaluate it fully and contrast it to the more
predatory style developments associated with
Avanca Brazil, Cargill, the BR163 and Soya
Corridor.
The Amazonian port where Cargill built their grain
terminal for international exportation. This is now
linked to Cuiaba in the State of Matto Grosso by the
BR163.
Slash and burn consists of cutting and burning of
forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or
pasture for livestock, or for a variety of other
purposes. It is also known as shifting cultivation and is
practised by the Amerindians. As the soils quickly
lose their nutrients due to leaching and disruption of
nutrientt cycle so the Indians would abandon the sites
and farm another thus allowing the small clearing to
regenerate by the process of vegetation succession
i.e. secondary succession
The crop that is currently blamed for the escalating
rate of deforestation in the southern Amazon. It is in
demand for human consumption, as am animal feed
and as a biofuel. Matto Grosso has become the soya
capital with the Maggi Corp being Brazils largest
agribusiness co and Cargill = global TNC agri-giant.
Survival International
Sustainable logging
Survival International is the worldwide movement for
tribal peoples. This NGO helps tribal peoples defend
their lives, protect their lands, and determine their
own destiny through a process of consultation and
participation e.g. the Indigenous Lands project in the
Pilot Programme.
Sustainable logging means logging an area in such a
way as there is always trees to be cut. In other words,
logging in a way that leaves young trees, medium age
trees and mature trees behind each time you log, so
that you can always log that area in the future. The
opposite is called "clear cutting" which means you
can't go back in that area to log for over thirty years.
Re-planting the area can be part of your sustainable
logging plan.
Clear cutting, the act of systematically taking every
tree from a landscape for lumber, is probably the
cheapest and quickest form of logging, and has been
used for thousands of years on some level. However,
it carries a heavy ecological cost, as well as a heavy
long-term economical cost. The ecological costs are
enormous. But even economically, clea rcutting isn’t a
very good idea if you look in the long term. In addition
to loss of viable forest, it silts up streams, ruins
harbours, kills fish, and causes landslides.
Sustainable logging was one of the components of
the Pilot Programme.
TMG Transport Model
A model that identifies six
stages in the development
of transport infrastructure
in an LEDC. The building
of the Trans-Amazonian
Highway in the 1970s
represents stage 2 (B)
whilst today it is at stage 4
(D) with the beginnings of
interconnection.
Trans Amazonian Highway
Tucurui Dam
The Trans-Amazonian Highway (BR-230) was
inaugurated on August 30, 1972. It is 5,300 km long,
making it the third longest highway in Brazil. It was
part of the Operation Amazonia Programme in the
70’s and aimed to open up the interior for
development. I represented the penetration phase of
the TMG model.
A mega dam built in the Amazon to provide energy
for the Carajas iron ore mine. It had disastrous
environmental consequences.