... harmlessly extracting sap from rubber trees, which is then used in such products as car tires and pencil erasers. Rubber tapping is one of the many ways in which the resources of the Amazon are exploited without permanently harming the ecosystem. It is a sustainable agricultural system and Chico Mendes followed in his father's footsteps in becoming a rubber tapper. For major trans national ... 180 million years old. Not surprisingly, Mendes encountered a great deal of opposition from industrialists and corrupt government officials who were profiting from the tearing down of the Amazon. ...

• Word Count: 798
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... a highly evolved group ecologically, exemplifying living in balance with the ecosystem. They cultivate many types of plants utilizing biological pest control. They domesticate and classify the insect life. All parts of the surrounding jungle are utilized by them for practical and medicinal purposes. The Kayapo belong to the Ge linguistic group that reside around the southern tributaries of the Amazon. They represent an ancient culture of seasonal farmers ... and gatherers. During the rainy season they live in highly complex wheel-shaped villages in ... ...

• Word Count: 832
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... XVI). This natural cycle occurring in the Amazon produces a vital 1/5 of the world's oxygen (Ghitis). Such important products as: Brazil nuts, cocoa, curare (an important drug), pineapples, and rubber can be found within the confines of this dense jungle (Amazon 402). These important economical products are one of the reasons why the detrimental deforestation of the Amazon is taking place by the uncaring hands of big business and ... the governments that stand behind them in their efforts. The Brazilian government has decided to allow big business to cut millions of ... ...

• Word Count: 1233
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of food crops. It was estimated during the 1920's that in the whole Amazon Region there was scarcely a hundred square miles devoted to any kind of agriculture, let alone the production of local supplies of food . In the interior many of the smaller towns whose names still appear on standard maps are entirely abandoned, engulfed in the rapidly advancing jungle. It is said in Brazil that if ... money is to be made from the most poverty-stricken of areas, the Syrian traders will make it. In the Amazon the Syrians had taken over most of the retail trading in the 1920's. By advancing loans ....

• Word Count: 3885
• Approx Pages: 16
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate