Incompatiable Goals in Environments

‘Conservation and exploitation are incompatible goals in the management of fragile environments’ With reference to examples, discuss the extent to which you agree with this statement?

The ideas of conservation and exploitation and completely polar opposite, these goals are incompatible together in the long run. There is a large battle between these two ideas in fragile environments. Fragile environments are local environment that are extremely sensitive to change in temperature, air and water quality and other environmental conditions. The difference in goals has led to government intervention and involvement in this fragile environment.

The amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest found in the world, it is over 5.5 million square kilometers in size. It covers much of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and other Latin American countries.  The rainforest has the most productive eco system in the world. This has led to mass exploitation of the resources it harnesses.  A large road known as the tranzamonica highway has been built through the rainforest, it is over 5000km long however only 175km of it has been tarmacked. The creation of a highway has caused exploitation because it allows for much easier access to rainforest for mining, logging and farming. The road has managed to help speed up the process of exploitation of the rainforests natural resources .The road has attracted large TNCs such as McDonalds due to the cheap beef and due to cheap shipping costs from containerization allowing for them to ship the beef to their stores all around the world. In addition to this there are secondary effects of the road such as pollution of gases such as CO2, C0 and sulfur dioxide. These gases have a negative effect on the environment as they can cause for temperatures to rise and effect the fragile environment. This can cause for a reduction in the biodiversity in the area.  

Furthermore they exploit the rainforest in the amazon by performing mining of the natural resources. Mineral extraction in the amazon is worth over $50 billion a year, which is a large percentage of the countries GDP. Furthermore the workers can earn up to $140 for a weeks work, which is twice what a factory worker would receive. This encourages many workers to leave their jobs in the big cities to go and search for precious minerals in the amazon, they often go to work in mass mine such as carrajas and create informal economies. This leads to greater exploitation, as there is an increased amount of people performing the activity in search of the scarce minerals.  Furthermore the process often causes water pollution due the mercury used to extract the gold, this often causes deaths to villages that use the water afterwards.

Many argue that for Brazil to start economically growing again due to there -0.9 % growth rates they need to exploit their resource to grow their economy.

Another fragile environment, which is actively exploited, is the Serengeti national park, which is primarily in Tanzania with some parts in Kenya. The biome is a savanna grassland. It is over 30,000 square kilometers and was established in 1951 from a Hunting reserve for British men. Similarly to the amazon rainforest a road has been proposed in order to help the local economy. The road would cut straight through the national park and would be 31 miles long. It would stop the natural migration of Wildebeest and could cause numbers to drop from 1.3 million to 0.3 million due to an imbalance in the eco system. However by creating the road it will be easier to transport goods across to lake victoria, this is because the truckers have to drive around the park and sell their goods from Kenya this leads to the Tanzania government missing out on taxable income for the country. This is needed as its HDI is ranked at 151 out of 191 countries. By allowing for the road to be complete it may cause a boost in AD especially the component of exports leading to improved living standards for all in Tanzania.