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Deforestation - Who
is responsible?
One of the largest problems with stopping
this destruction of the rainforest is that it is not being done
by just one group of people. It's not just the loggers trying
to make a buck off lumber. They take wood considered to be good
in other countries and ship them. Replanting is not always an
option they can take, though some have grand dreams about shipping
other woods and replanting better to preserve the stock. Without
the replantation, the trees become rarer and rarer until they
are impossible to find. If that day comes, we will all be in
trouble. The Brazilian government encouraged poor people to go
into the rainforest, settle on new land, and paid them to do
it. They are not any richer as a result, but remain out there.
There isn't always enough land to go around and trouble arises
when they dispute over land with the Amazonians.
Ranchers clear land for cattle, destroying vast areas for their
cattle. The land they build off of is poor without the organic
fertilizer created by the rainforest and the ranchers usually
must move on.
There is a need for better education in the Amazon, as most don't
understand why their crops fail soon after the land is cleared,
but there is also a need to stop the destruction as soon we can.
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