Maintaining Biodiversity at Its Present Level Is Impossible If People Are Going to Achieve a Reasonable Standard of Living in the Near Future?

Maintaining biodiversity at its present level is impossible if people are going to achieve a reasonable standard of living in the near future?

Discuss this statement with reference to a tropical biome you have studied

Biodiversity can be defined as the number of organisms found within a certain geographic region. In a tropical biome such as the Amazon rainforest or the tropical rainforest found in Borneo the biodiversity is extremely varied and diverse. This is because there is an abundance of warmth,sunlight and moisture which are the perfect growing conditions for plants to grow in. The standard of living that people expect to be reasonable depends on the level of wealth, comfort, material goods they can get. This means that the wealthier the person or community the more likely they will have a better quality of life. However for the standard of living to increase development must occur. Examples of how development is occurring in the Amazon rainforest is the Trans- Amazonian highway, agribusinesses and logging. Development can also occur in a sustainable way such as through ecotourism, afforestation and selective logging. These ways of development can help reduce the impacts on biodiversity and still allow us to reach a reasonable standard of living.

For standard of living to improve for people living in a tropical biome development needs to occur. This however can have considerable effects upon both the environment and also themselves. An example of this is deforestation which occurs in large parts of the Amazon. The deforestation occurs on a massive rate to provide extensive land for farming and also for logging to provide timber. The land that is cleared for farming is often cut down using the slash and burn methods which is very wasteful and produces large amounts of greenhouse gases. The cutting down of the rainforest is harmful to the biodiversity because it does