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How can satellites in space help rainforests?

Human Uses of the Rainforest

Rainforests provide food, timber, energy and jobs, but human use also brings deforestation and conflict. This GCSE Geography quiz explores how people depend on, manage, and damage rainforests.

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Fascinating Fact:

Dams and hydroelectric power schemes in rainforest regions provide electricity and water storage, but they can flood vast areas of forest and displace communities.

In GCSE Geography, human uses of the rainforest include logging, farming, mining, reservoirs, and tourism. You study how these activities create jobs and income but also lead to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and conflict with indigenous communities. The topic links to sustainability, climate change, and different strategies to balance development with conservation.

Key Terms

Deforestation: The large-scale removal of forest, usually so land can be used for farming, settlements, or industry.
Sustainable management: Using rainforest resources in ways that meet needs now without destroying them for future generations.
Commercial agriculture: Large-scale farming of crops or livestock mainly to sell for profit, not just to feed a family.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How do humans use tropical rainforests for resources?

Humans use rainforests for timber, cattle ranching, cash crops like soy and oil palm, mining, hydroelectric power, roads, and tourism. These activities provide jobs and raw materials for global trade.

What are the negative impacts of human uses of the rainforest?

Negative impacts include loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, river pollution, increased carbon emissions, and the displacement of indigenous peoples. Deforestation also disrupts regional rainfall patterns and local climates.

How can rainforests be used more sustainably in Geography GCSE?

Sustainable options include selective logging, ecotourism, agroforestry, community forestry, and protected areas. Certification schemes and careful planning aim to support livelihoods while keeping most of the forest standing.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

Which of the following is a social reason that leads to increased human use of the Brazilian tropical rainforest?

To reduce the population of coastal areas like Rio and Sao Paulo

To create more land for production of cheap beef to sell to MEDCs

To take peoples' minds off other problems in Brazil such as poverty

To pay off international debts

The other reasons are economic or political

2 .

Which of the following best describes 'slash and burn'?

Vegetation is cut down and burned, providing ash that fertilises the soil

Some branches of trees are chopped off and then burnt to provide ash to fertilise the soil

Neighbouring tribes attack each other, the winning tribe then destroys the village of the losing tribe

Large areas of rainforest are cleared using fires to make way for new roads

It is a traditional method of agriculture. When it is practised on a small scale, it is sustainable and the forest will recover

3 .

How can satellites in space help rainforests?

They can be used to create pockets of greater biodiversity

They can be used to fire missiles at people using the rainforest illegally

Powerful lasers mounted on the satellites can be used to accurately cut down a tree, minimising the damage caused during logging

They can be used to monitor activities in the rainforest to make sure that they are legal

They can also be used to measure how fast a rainforest is being destroyed

4 .

When trees are felled, the bare soil is exposed and soil erosion occurs. Why is soil erosion in rainforests a problem?

There is not enough soil left to hold up the trees so they fall over

Nutrients are lost so the rainforest trees die

It makes it hard to get logging vehicles through

The soil ends up in the rivers causing flooding

The extra soil in the rivers causes them to 'silt up'. When that happens, flooding can occur. Flooding is not a problem where the forest ecosystem is adapted to it but in areas where people live or where the ecosystem is not adapted, it causes damage

5 .

Selective logging is said to be a sustainable way of obtaining wood from a rainforest. Which of the following best describes selective logging?

Choosing a group of trees and chopping them all down

Only felling trees that have reached a certain size

Randomly cutting down trees

Only cutting a few branches off trees so that the trees can continue to grow

The problems with selective logging are that the roads allow other people in who then cut down trees to clear land for farming and also, as the trees are felled and removed, up to 75% of the trees around them are damaged or destroyed during the process

6 .

Agro-forestry is a sustainable method of using the rainforest. Agro-forestry is ...

growing trees as a cash crop

growing trees and crops at the same time

growing crops in amongst the trees

cutting down old trees to clear areas to grow cheap beef

Farmers take advantage of shelter from the canopy of trees. Planting trees helps to prevent soil erosion and the crops benefit from the nutrients from dead organic matter that drops from the canopy

7 .

Which of the following is a problem that is not directly associated with human uses of the rainforest?

Soil erosion

Flooding

Hurricanes

Global warming

Hurricanes are intense low pressure areas that form over warm ocean waters and not over rainforests

8 .

Which of the following is one of the main causes of tropical rainforest destruction?

Logging

Climate change

Cities in or near to rainforests growing in population and needing to expand

Bushfires

It isn't just the direct effects of logging that causes problems, it allows easy access to the rainforests via the logging roads. Landless peasants will then travel along the roads, clearing areas of the forest for growing crops

9 .

Which of the following is/are not reason(s) why rainforests are used as a resource?

Economic

Social

Political

None of the above

Human uses of the rainforest is driven by all of the above reasons

10 .

The exploitation of a tropical rainforest usually leads to ...

deforestation

afforestation

a large increase in the local economy

a decrease in GDP

In the long term, it is possible that exploiting the resources of a rainforest in a sustainable manner could lead to afforestation and benefits to the local economy

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Tropical rainforests

Author: Kev Woodward (PGCE, Science & Chemistry Teacher, Quiz Writer)