Impacts of Population on Canaima
Canaima National Park has spectacular natural beauty that takes up 30,000km2 of Southeastern Venezuela. Its home to the Angel falls and dozens of tall rock mesas called tepuis, which rise dramatically out of the surrounding flat lands. Along with this comes a plentiful supply of biological resources in the forests that cover the land. Not only is it home to landforms but also the indigenous people, Pemon, that have lived off the land traditionally for 200 to 300 years, mainly relying upon swidden agriculture that has sufficed them for years. Although, this practice is no longer functioning to the same degree.
Population
To begin with, a growing population has an impact everywhere it occurs. Nevertheless, …show more content…
Shifting cultivation or swidden agriculture is the act of clearing a plot of land from the forest, either by cutting or burning a plot in the forest in order to grow small crops. The Pemon natives of Canaima National Park rely principally on swidden agriculture. The plots are used for a limited amount of time and then left to allow the forest to regenerate and nutrients to recover. Although this practice worked well for many years the results haven’t been as successful since the population in Canaima has been growing. In conjunction with the growing population more forest land is having to be cleared and plots are being used for extended amounts of time and recovery times are reduced. There is also a risk that the section of the forest that is not being cleared can become affected too on account of the fires used to clear the plots of land are not being controlled properly. Along with this, because of the depleting amount of forests there isn’t enough source of seeds because of lack of regeneration or inadvertent burning, this causes grasslands to become established from the lack of soil nutrients needed for agriculture and regrowth of the
Canaima National Park has spectacular natural beauty that takes up 30,000km2 of Southeastern Venezuela. Its home to the Angel falls and dozens of tall rock mesas called tepuis, which rise dramatically out of the surrounding flat lands. Along with this comes a plentiful supply of biological resources in the forests that cover the land. Not only is it home to landforms but also the indigenous people, Pemon, that have lived off the land traditionally for 200 to 300 years, mainly relying upon swidden agriculture that has sufficed them for years. Although, this practice is no longer functioning to the same degree.
Population
To begin with, a growing population has an impact everywhere it occurs. Nevertheless, …show more content…
Shifting cultivation or swidden agriculture is the act of clearing a plot of land from the forest, either by cutting or burning a plot in the forest in order to grow small crops. The Pemon natives of Canaima National Park rely principally on swidden agriculture. The plots are used for a limited amount of time and then left to allow the forest to regenerate and nutrients to recover. Although this practice worked well for many years the results haven’t been as successful since the population in Canaima has been growing. In conjunction with the growing population more forest land is having to be cleared and plots are being used for extended amounts of time and recovery times are reduced. There is also a risk that the section of the forest that is not being cleared can become affected too on account of the fires used to clear the plots of land are not being controlled properly. Along with this, because of the depleting amount of forests there isn’t enough source of seeds because of lack of regeneration or inadvertent burning, this causes grasslands to become established from the lack of soil nutrients needed for agriculture and regrowth of the