Читать книгу American Environmental History - Группа авторов - Страница 19

The tropical rain forest has long had a reputation for being pristine, whether in 1492 or 1992. There is, however, increasing evidence that the forests of Amazonia and elsewhere are largely anthropogenic in form and composition. Sauer (1958, 105) said as much at the Ninth Pacific Science Congress in 1957 when he challenged the statement of tropical botanist Paul Richards that, until recently, the tropical forests have been largely uninhabited, and that prehistoric people had “no more influence on the vegetation than any of the other animal inhabitants.” Sauer countered that Indian burning, swiddens, and manipulation of composition had extensively modified the tropical forest.

“Indeed, in much of Amazonia, it is difficult to find soils that are not studded with charcoal” (Uhl et al. 1990, 30)….

The Amazon forest is a mosaic of different ages, structure, and composition resulting from local habitat conditions and disturbance dynamics (Haffer 1991). Natural disturbances (tree falls, landslides, river activity) have been considerably augmented by human activity, particularly by shifting cultivation. Even a small number of swidden farmers can have a widespread impact in a relatively short period of time....

Indian modification of tropical forests is not limited to clearing and burning. Large expanses of Latin American forests are humanized forests in which the kinds, numbers, and distributions of useful species are managed by human populations.

…There are no virgin tropical forests today, nor were there in 1492.