Unit 4: Forestry - Tropical Rainforests
- Created by: rosieevie
- Created on: 30-05-15 18:31
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- Tropical Rainforests
- Exploitation of natural rainforests
- Early exploitation - high-value products e.g. spice, rubber
- Early exploitation = selective logging - only desired trees cut down
- Increased mechanisation meant clear-felling is more common
- Lower-value trees shredded (chipboard) or sawn (plywood)
- Timber plantations
- Reduces shortages and unsustainable exploitation
- Features
- Habitat loss - clear-felling to provide land
- Monocultures - easy to plan thinning and harvesting
- Produces low biodiversity
- Species selection - high-value or fast-growing, often exotic to reduce pest risks (low wildlife value)
- Selective breeding - uniform trees means similar growth rates and properties so processing is easier
- Sustainable forestry e.g. Belize
- Local people employed in forestry and ecotourism
- Sustainably log selected species while protecting the rest of the forest
- Encourage exploitation of a wide range of species - reduces pressures on single population
- Access paths as small as possible and avoid trees
- Limited heavy machinery use
- Surplus timber offcuts supplied to locals
- A tree nursery used to replant within reserves and provide saplings for locals
- Rangers patrol areas to stop illegal logging
- Forestry Stewardship Council - monitor timber production and credit those who practise sustainable logging
- Exploitation of natural rainforests
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