Amazon Interactive
Making a Living
Indigenous peoples have lived in the Amazon for thousands of years. For mostof that time, they hunted, fished, and grew a variety of crops in smallgardens. Their lifestyle was called subsistence, because they hunted andgrew only what they needed to subsist, or survive. They practiced a kindof agriculture called slash and burn.
Slash and burn soundsterribly hard on the environment, but--if doneproperly--it is one of the most ecologically harmoniousmethods of cultivation. Farmers clear the land by slashing the trees andbushes, then burning them to release nutrients into the soil. They growcrops in the new field for a few years, then clear another plot of landto plant. Later, they will return and clear an old field, now covered withthe young trees of a secondary forest.
In the Ecuadorian Amazon, indigenous Quichua people often rotate their crops everyyear. That way their crops always have rich soil. Also, after a year incultivation, a field becomes overgrown with weeds.
Watch the animation below to see how a Quichua farmer might rotate his crops over the years to ensuregood yields on his land. Each year he clears and plants a new section ofland, leaving the old section to regrow as secondary forest.
When you see the ?, it's your turn to decide whereto plant crops for the coming year. Click on the section of land you wouldclear next.
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| Primary Forest | Secondary Forest Lower Left | Secondary Forest Lower Right | Subsistence Cropland |
Would you liketo learn more about the crops or animals thatyou'd eat in the Amazon?
