Importance of Rainforest Rivers to People

have also been important in the lives of forest and non-forest peoples. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, sprawling civilizations and smaller societies formed along major waterways which served as a means of transport and communication, a route for trade, and a source of fish and freshwater. However because of their location along major rivers, such settlements were the first to disappear, either directly effected by warfare or indirectly effected by the onslaught of European diseases.

Today large tropical rivers remain important forms of infrastructure providing a cheap, reliable, and easy means for transportation and communication. Major rivers ports like Iquitos, Peru and Manaus, Brazil are trade centers where forest products are exchanged for outside goods. Often, the only access to such ports, isolated by the surrounding forest, is by water or air. For example, there are no roads leading into to Iquitos and all construction materials, automobiles, and other essentials must be shipped in to the city by river or air.

Besides providing a means for commerce and communication, tropical rivers are a key source of protein, in the form of fish, for the population. However in some areas, fishermen report smaller catches as regional over-fishing takes its toll. The river also provides services for city dwellers by fertilizing the surrounding soils every flood season and by taking away the tons of human waste and pollutants that city dwellers dump into the river.

Tropical fish provide an important source of income for many city dwellers, especially in the Amazon which is home to some 2300 species of fish. Many of the fish seen in temperate zone aquarium shops are imported from Brazil and Peru.

LAKES

Oxbow Lake in the Brazilian Amazon, 1999

Oxbow lakes are formed when a river curve gets cut off when a river changes course. The resulting crescent-shaped body of water gradually becomes lake-like and often becomes more acidic than the nearby river because of the effect of decay of forest vegetation. Many of the tropical aquarium fish are caught in these lakes.

Free-standing lakes in the rainforest also exist, though are not as abundant tropical rivers. Like oxbow lakes, the tend to become more acidic with time as vegetation decays.

The Death of Lac Alaotra, Madagscar

Rainforest Waters
Rivers, Streams, & Creeks
Floating Meadows
Importance of Rainforest Rivers

Types of Rivers
Flooding, Low, and High Water
Life by the River
Threats to Rivers