Blog 13
11/29/2012
2:32pm
Tara Rudo
The Amazon is the world’s largest remaining area of tropical forest and it is now at risk of resource depletion due to urbanization in the area. Brazil’s military has built roads to the forest saying that it is safer to occupy this area so it is not taken away from them. The building of these roads are a product of deforestation, which already ranks as a major contributors to greenhouse-gas emissions. There are policies that regularize land claims and so this is one alluring factor to the colonization of the Amazon. Although many parts of the forest are protected and that will decrease deforestation, the increase in migrants to cities within the Amazon will cancel out those gains. There are a total of 19 cities in Brazil, with 10 of those being in the Amazon. That large shift of people moving into the Amazon has made the region’s population climb 23 percent in just ten years. There are other reasons drawing people to the cities in the Amazon. Larger family sizes in Brazil coupled with Brazil’s high levels of poverty have drawn people to seek work in the urban Amazon. There is also a lot of economic allure in the Amazon. For example, logging is still providing the fuel for growing towns along BR-163, an important Amazon highway that is currently being paved. For the fast-growing cities, energy and industrial projects are attracting many people. The construction of new hydroelectric plants along with sprawling dams that have brought much protest, are luring manual laborers from all around the country. Many do believe that by allowing migrants to flock to these cities, this will reduce forest loss by depopulating certain rural areas that are suffering and allow tropical forests to regrow. But others disagree with this idea as well. It is hard to tell what the outcome of the colonization of the Amazon will be, but it is necessary to keep in mind, resources must be protected.
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