“Maintaining biodiversity at its present level is impossible if people are going to achieve a reasonable standard of living in the near future”
- Discuss this with reference to a tropical biome you have studied (40 marks)

Biodiversity means the variety of life forms/organisms in an ecosystem, biome or entire planet. Globally, biodiversity is not evenly distributed. It generally increases from the poles towards the equator as around 50% of the world’s plants and animals live in tropical rainforests. This is because of the proximity to the equator causing a warmer, more moist, stable climate which means plants grow better and can support more species higher up in the food chain. Standard of living is the level of wealth, goods and
This entire portion of the Brazilian rainforest has been drowned and the wildlife lost, there is also the possibility that unknown and endangered species were killed because of the creation therefore reducing biodiversity. Despite this, the scheme has been a key source for clean, renewable energy through the use of hydroelectric power; however the upset the project caused outweighs the benefits of the generated power. Sustainable development has been successful in many ways in minimising the loss of Biodiversity whilst creating economic development and wealth for countries with TRF biomes. Despite the damage The Grande Carajas mining project caused it has also aimed to be quite eco-friendly. It has resulted in the demolition of trees on only 1.6% of its total areas. This has been shown to not of inhibited the project from becoming one of the world’s largest mines or from them supplying to countries such as Japan and Germany. Therefore, it’s not necessary to destroy the forest in order to achieve increased levels of wealth. Rubber tapping is an alternative industry to logging. It’s a process where rubber and latex are extracted from rubber trees. It’s an old tradition, which could be the reason for 63,000 families carrying it out on a daily basis. This type of sustainable development is successful, as it doesn’t involve cutting down or damaging trees so reserves can be established to allow rubber tappers to continue on the tradition allowing the