Commodities for export still threaten rainforests in Brazil

Ransom for rainforests

Throughout history, mankind has regarded the wilderness as an unlimited resource that can be plundered for food, firewood, and expansion of arable land. While some island nations (including, as we have learned from recent news, Haiti) have already suffered dire consequences from deforestation, the consequences of the loss of wilderness on a global scale were only recognised late in the twentiet...

A Multiple-criteria Analysis Application for Vertical Coordination in the Transportation of Agricultural Commodities in Brazil

The strategies to perform the transportation of agricultural commodities by truck in Brazil are a challenge to decision making. This paper brings together widely held theories that are vertical coordination and decision analysis, to present a discussion of decision making in organizations. From a model capable to process main objectives, multiple criteria and variables found in transport vertic...

Gap percolation in rainforests

Rainforests biodiversity is sustained by the three-dimensional structure of their canopy which provides a wide range of physical microenvironments. Given the dynamic nature of the forest, the recognition of stable vertical layers or strata in the canopy is controversial. The spatial characterisation of potential habitats of understory species is not straightforward due to the complex structure ...

characteristics in subtropical rainforests

Does the commodities boom support the export led growth hypothesis? Evidence from Latin American countries

Commodity prices are characterized by boom and bust cycles. In this article, the impact of the commodity boom of the 2000s on Latin American and Caribbean economies is studied by analyzing four categories of commodity exports (agricultural raw materials, fuel, food, ore and minerals) as well as manufactured exports. Latin American and Caribbean economies had higher growth during the 2000s than ...