Chesterton Community College Geography Department

Cross Unit Task for OCR(B) GCSE Geography

Whose Rainforest? How should we use the Amazon rainforest?

Suggested outline for the cross unit task.

1. Introduction
Say what you are going to do. Outline the structure of your essay or poster.

2. Where is the Amazon rainforest?

Explain where the rainforest is. Include a map. Don’t forget to give it a title. Refer to the map in your writing.

3. Why is the Amazon rainforest such a valuable resource?

Explain why the rainforest is so valuable – think about medicines, animals and plants, culture, water cycles,
global warming and climate control. Talk about different scales – local through to global. Describe the
physical processes in detail.

4. Describe how the Amazon rainforest is used by indigenous people.

How do indigenous people use the forest and its products? Include information about rubber tapping,
shifting cultivation, harvesting and extractive reserves.

5. Describe how the use of the rainforest has changed over time and the effects that this has had.
Logging, ranching, hydroelectric power, tourism, industrial developments, resettlement, trade in animals and
plants, plantations, scientific research, prospecting for gold and other precious metals, mining.
Explain the effect that these developments have on the rainforest. You could include water, food chain, soil
nutrients, soil, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

6. Who benefits from modern exploitation of the rainforest?

Talk about who benefits from these forms of development, and the ways in which indigenous (local) people
have been affected. You could include effects on culture of tribes, the health of the local people, competition
for land and food.

7. Choose different groups of people and explain why they have different views about use and development of
the rainforest.
You will need to choose at least 3 groups of people.
Examples include:
Greenpeace
local tribes such as the Jacuna or Yanomami
Brazilian Government
managers of the Avanca Brazil project
managers of a logging company, owner of a hydroelectricity plant eg. Belo Monte Hydroelectric Complex
Brazil’s economic minister
Brazil’s environment minister
a wood importer or furniture manufacturer outside Brazil
residents
tourists

8. Discuss whether the Amazon rainforest can be used sustainably.

Define the term sustainable. Do you think it is possible to use the rainforest sustainably? Explain how you
might do this. You could write about agroforestry, ecological reserves, extractive reserves, ecotourism.

9. Explain your own viewpoint.

What do you think should happen to the rainforest? How should we use the forest? Should we maximise
economic exploitation or maximise conservation? Who should take the decisions? Why is this an
international issue?