The next 10 photos were taken on the Amazon River, and a tributary of the Amazon, just east of Manaus, Brazil.

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The next 10 photos were taken on the Amazon
River, and a tributary of the Amazon, just east
of Manaus, Brazil.
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Backwaters of Amazon River, just east of Manaus,
Brazil.
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Entering a tributary of the Amazon River, just
east of Manaus, Brazil.
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Rivers provide the primary travel corridors in
Amazon country.
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Evidence of shifting cultivators is not hard to
find.
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The following photos were taken from a small
plane in the area just south of Belem, Brazil.
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The forest spreads like a blanket from horizon to
horizon.
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Gaps in the forest cover resulting from
agricultural conversion are scattered across the
landscape.
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Large areas like this, sometimes identified as
due to commercial logging activity, are instead
the result of clearing to create pastureland for
cattle ranching.
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Logging clearly impacts the forest, but rarely
leaves the land cleared of tree cover.
This is because few species have value in
domestic and export markets.
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A large tree was removed from this location in
the eastern Amazon Basin leaving a hole in the
forest canopy.
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Other smaller trees are also often damaged during
the harvesting process.
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After felling, logs are moved to log landings for
loading onto trucks. This is called skidding.
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Skidding sometimes results in exposure of mineral
soil.
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More modern skidding practices result in far less
impact on the forest floor.
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At the landing logs are loaded on trucks for
movement from the forest.
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Impacts to the forest result from building of
access roads, skid trails, and log landings, and
from felling of trees.
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Immediately following the completion of
traditional logging, impacts are clearly visible.
Even then, the area looks nothing like the
cattle ranch shown earlier. The open areas are
soon occupied by shrubs, grasses, and tree
seedlings.
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A stand in the Brazilian Amazon that has been
harvested using low impact logging techniques.
Note the log landing.
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The same site from higher altitude. Can you find
the logging road?
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One concern about logging in forests, and in
tropical forests in particular, is that the
forest will be undesirably simplified.
If harvesting is done selectively, this is less a
concern than otherwise.
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In fact, although conventional wisdom says that
almost any of activity of mankind in tropical
forests tends to destroy them, there is growing
evidence that it is possible to sustainably
manage tropical forests, even when management
includes periodic timber harvesting.
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Summary

• Tropical forests are under a great deal of
  pressure from
• population growth.
• expansion of permanent and shifting agriculture.
• expansion of urban areas, highways, and other
  development.
• timber harvesting.
• fuelwood gathering.

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Summary (Cont.)

• Expansion of permanent and shifting agriculture
  is by far the leading cause of tropical forest
  loss worldwide.
• Commercial logging is a relatively minor factor
  in tropical forest loss overall.
• clearcutting is rare in logging of tropical
  forests due to the large number of noncommercial
  species.
• logging can damage trees not removed in
  harvesting, and the road network created can
  increase the likelihood of settlement by shifting
  cultivators.

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Summary (Cont.)

• It appears to be possible to sustainably manage
  tropical forests if other problems related to
  periodic harvest (i.e. occupation by squatters or
  shifting cultivators) can be solved.