PROJECT FOR INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

SESSION:2021-2022
SUBJECT: BIOLOGY
CLASS: X

UNIT: V
CHAPTER: SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF
NATURAL RESOURCES
TOPIC: CONSERVING THE WORLD’S LUNGS-
THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

Submitted by
Konkona Kar
10 D
Acknowledgement
1. Objective
2. Basic concepts
• What is a Forest Fire?
• What’s Wrong with it?
• Repercussions of Forest Fires
• The Amazon Rainforests

3. Current Status
• Concerns
• Recent Developments
• Implementation

4. Self-Reflection
• Individual Efforts
• Suggestions

5. Additional Inputs
6. Bibliography
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my humble gratitude towards our
biology teacher, Dr Somadutta Das for entrusting me
with the opportunity of working on this project based on
the chapter “Sustainable Management of Natural
Resources”. The research has proven to be a great
learning experience and has increased my awareness
about environmental issues to a larger extent. I remain
obliged for this opportunity.
Konkona Kar
1. Learning Objective

To comprehend the concept of sustainable

management of resources, in keeping with the
repercussions of human interference in our
ecosystem. The AMAZON BUSHFIRES, a
recurring environmental issue- a result of human
indulgence, has thus been chosen for discussion in
this project. It brings out the adverse effect of
climate change and environmental degradation
caused by indiscriminate exploitation of flora,
causing habitat crisis for the fauna, effecting
biodiversity, the crucial factor for ecological
balance.
2.Basic Concept

What is a forest fire?

A forest fire is an unwanted, unplanned and
uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible
vegetation.
In some forest ecosystems typically tropical
rainforests, wildfires are a natural occurrence. In
higher latitude forests, fires help maintain a healthy
balance by releasing important nutrients into the soil
and aiding seed dispersal.
Slash and burn agriculture, which involves burning
vegetation in moderated quantities to make land
suitable for cultivation, is an age-old practice of
indigenous communities which has sustained
centuries without causing drastic environmental
damage.
What’s wrong with it today?
Climate change, forest degradation, and
fragmentation have led to more fire prone conditions
globally. With warmer and drier conditions,
fires - either a result of human intervention or
lightning - tend to be more widespread and burn at
higher temperatures, causing unprecedented
devastation.
Forests degraded by logging, disease, and
fragmentation by deforestation are more susceptible
to fire.

Repercussions of forest fires

Wildfires release carbon dioxide- a greenhouse gas,
fine ash and other pollutants into the atmosphere
catalysing global warming and often causing
irreparable damage to forest ecosystems. Smoke and
haze travel miles causing public health crises as
people breathe in unhealthy levels of pollutants.
Wildlife suffers the fatal consequences of death and
habitat destruction. Loss of keystone species rattles
the balance of the ecosystem.
Economies get crippled by property damage,
destruction of natural tourist attractions, pollution of
water supplies and financially draining evacuations.
It takes an immense toll on the forest to renew itself
amidst the rampant destruction of its resources.

The Amazon Rainforests

The Amazon is a vast biome that spans eight
countries- Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia,
Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname. Brazil is home to
60% of the forest, thus having massive influence
over the region.
The landscape contains one in ten known species on
earth, the world’s second largest river- the Amazon
River, half of the earth’s remaining tropical forests
and occupies 40% of South America.

The rainforests contain 90-140 billion tons of carbon

and help stabilise global climate. Deforestation
releases this carbon resulting in catastrophic
environmental damage.

3.Current Status

Concerns
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research
reported that there were more than 80,000 fires
raging in the woods, the most ever recorded.
“There is no doubt that this rise in fire activity is
associated with a sharp rise in deforestation,” says
Paulo Artaxo, an atmospheric physicist at the
University of São Paulo. He claims that fires are
expanding along the borders of new agricultural
land.
The Amazon pulls out greenhouse gases from the
atmosphere, retarding the pace of climate change.
Logging, mining, agribusiness are nibbling away at
it, and if this continues, the rainforest may no
longer provide this buffer.
Scientists warn that the forest may reach a ‘tipping
point’ after which it would somewhat resemble a
savanna. This implies that it would be incapable of
absorbing the boatload of carbon footprint that it
soaks up today. Additionally, as the trees and
plants simmer away, billions of tons of carbon that
it has stored for decades would escape leading to
an apocalyptic situation.
The smoke and ashes released cause a magnitude
of air pollution and as a result, widespread
breathing difficulties and uptick in mortality rates.
Residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil, claim that ‘day
seemed to turn into night’.
Recent Developments
In the 2018 elections, Jair Bolsonaro campaigned
for setting aside less land in the Amazon for
indigenous tribes and preservation and making the
forest more accessible to industries.
Upon being elected the president, he put the
Ministry of Agriculture in charge of the
demarcation of indigenous territories instead of the
justice ministry.
His policies have been condemned by Brazilian
environmental groups, opposition lawmakers and
indigenous people, since they only seem to favour
industry and agricultural interests. The fires have
garnered international attention. Among the world-
wide protests and campaigns against Bolsonaro’s
environmental politics, #PrayforAmazonia on
Twitter was a predominant one.
Emmanuel Macron, President of France, insisted
via Twitter, for emergency international consensus
regarding the Amazon at the G7 summit. The
world’s seven largest economies offered Brazil
more than $22 million in aid, to get the fires under
control.
Bolsonaro refused the amount and accused Macron
on Twitter, for ‘treating Brazil like a colony’
Bolsonaro and some Brazillians perceived this to
be an attack on Brazil’s sovereignty. The then
President of USA, Donald Trump, however,
praised and congratulated Bolsonaro over a Tweet
for his measures to combat the fires. Bolsonaro
later said that he would reconsider the offer if
Macron takes back his ‘insults’. Finally, he
accepted a $12.2 million aid from the UK.

Implementation
Bolsonaro finally bowed to external and internal
pressure and dispatched 44,000 troops to six states
to bring the fires under control. Warplanes were
utilized to douse the flames.
Paulo Barroso, the chairman of the national forest
fire management committee of the National
League of Military Firefighters Corps in Brazil has
spent three decades fighting fires in Mato Grosso,
a region worst affected by fires. He says ‘We don’t
have an adequate structure to prevent, to control,
and to fight the forest fires’. There are 778
municipalities throughout the Amazon but only
110 of these have fire departments.
 Barroso aims to establish a forest fire protection
system that links the government, indigenous
people, local communities, the military, large
companies, NGOs and education and research
centres (stakeholders) to a common cause. This
initiative, however requires massive monetary aid.
The use of aircrafts to douse the bushfire may not
be a sustainable measure since it is exorbitantly
expensive. Scientists and researchers conclude that
keeping deforestation and agricultural activities in
check is the only effective long-term technique for
sustaining the biome.

4.Self Reflection

Individual Efforts
It is not quite feasible to go all the way to Brazil to
strike the gong of revolution. However, it’s quite
possible to begin through tiny footsteps. As long as
we are all in this together, these steps will go a long
way.
Conserving forests can be as easy as not throwing
away an old notebook. It can be simple as using a
steel water bottle instead of a plastic one. To say
the least, it is as little as turning off a running tap
or plugging a leaky faucet. Use a bucket to bathe
instead of the shower.
Why should just one forest shoulder the mantle of
sustenance when we have 7.9 billion beings
residing the same planet?

Suggestions
To begin with we must reduce our carbon footprint.
Let the forest take a breath.
Car-pooling, riding bikes and using public
transport are some means for the same. Avoiding
burning of fossil fuels, and adopting alternative
energy sources such as hydroelectricity, tidal
energy, wind energy and solar energy will alter the
current magnitude of pollution significantly.
Conserving water resources is the next
fundamental step. Avoiding excess use of chemical
fertilisers will help reduce eutrophication and
pollution of ground water. Treating industrial
effluents and sewage before their disposal will
further alleviate water pollution. Rainwater
harvesting is an effective method of restoring
ground water and conserving fresh water. Water
births life and its indiscriminate abuse is
deplorable.
Waste plastic pyrolysis, although a currently
expensive method, helps obtain a fuel as efficient
(in terms of calorific value) as fossil fuels, and with
even lesser an ash content (cleaner burning due to
complete oxidation) than conventional fuels. This
fuel has massive potential and implementation of
the same will have revolutionary benefits. We
 could live in a cleaner world with enough fuel to
pass on to the generations to come.
Increasing forest cover is elementary to fight the
debacle. A small change in our convention could
bring about extraordinary results. Instead of laying
foundation stones during an inauguration, we can
plant trees. On every occasion to celebrate, we can
plant a sapling. The least one can do is look after
their potted plants well. As Napoleon Hill aptly
stated ‘If you cannot do great things, do small
things in a great way’

5.Additional Inputs

Amazon fires surge anew in Brazil as cleared

forest burns
Link for the entire article:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ama
zon-fires-surge-anew-brazil-cleared-forest-
burns-2021-09-03/

Summary
o The municipality of Labrea recorded the most
fires in 2021.
o Scientists fear that President Jair Bolsonaro’s
developmental policies might sabotage global
attempts to limit climate change.
o Indigenous Land rights have taken a backseat.
o Environmental agencies and activists have tried
in vain to protest.
o The military, who had been entrusted with
management of the calamity have faltered at their
responsibility.
o Much land has been cleared for pastures and
illegal logging still persists, despite Bolsonaro’s
ban on outdoor fires and relevant decrees.
o No evidence of government firefighters or
environmental enforcement efforts have been
observed in Labrea.
o This is the third consecutive year of alarmingly
high numbers of bushfires.

Observation
o The bushfires continue to be of utmost concern
owing to poor management of the calamity.
o Economic development in Brazil is adversely
affecting the environment due to the indifference
towards the loss of crucial forest resource.
o The number of annual fires recorded has surged
in the past three years.

Conclusion
o The ebbing away of earth’s lungs is a matter of
global concern.
o If the current oblivion persists, we could be
headed for a climate catastrophe.
o The Amazon is home to countless medicinal
plants and resources. Loss of the forest would
imply the extinction of life saving drugs.
o Flora and Fauna are perishing, as a result the
ecosystem suffers irreparable loss of
biodiversity.
o The amount of carbon dioxide in the air continues
to escalate as the forest burns.
o More and more of carbon dioxide continues to be
left unabsorbed by the woods, and oxygen levels
deplete at a worrying rate.
o Ash and smoke catalyse the health risks for life
in and around the forest.
o The bushfires are a global disaster and thus
require international attention, aid and initiative
to be put to an end.
 6.Bibliography

Content
o https://www.globalforestwatch.org/topics/fires/
o https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/28/20836891/
amazon-fires-brazil-bolsonaro-rainforest-
deforestation-analysis-effects
o https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/amazon

Images
o https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire-
Forest.jpg
o https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/env
ironment/a28910396/amazon-rainforest-
importance/
o https://financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/pr
otecting-our-environment-the-role-can-
technology-play/2102418/
o https://www.beautifulworld.com/south-
america/brazil/amazon-rain-forest/
o https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-
53893161
o https://www.dailynews.lk/2019/08/26/world/195
076/brazilian-war-planes-used-douse-amazon-
rainforest-fires