Reasons for deforestation.

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Jonathan Kemmish

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of forest in an area. There has been dramatic deforestation across the world as a whole. It is estimated that 35 – 40 per cent of the original forest has been removed by felling, grazing or burning. The vegetation that is replacing the forest is often smaller in size and less species rich.

Reasons for deforestation

         Earth without forests is a picture that most of humankind presently could not conceive. Forests cover much of the planet's land area. They are extremely important to humans and the natural world. For humans, they have many aesthetic, recreational, economic, historical, cultural and religious values. Timber and other products of forests are important economically both locally and as exports. They provide employment for those who harvest the wood or products of the living forest. Herbalists, rubber tapers, hunters and collectors of fungi, nuts, bamboo and berries are able to utilize such resources. Other non-wood forest products come in the form of medicinal compounds, dyes and fabrics. There are many people who are dependent on forestlands for their livelihoods. One-third of the world's people depend on wood for fuel as a significant energy source.

        People destroy or degrade forests because, for them, the benefits seem to outweigh the costs. Underlying causes include such issues as poverty, unequal land ownership, women's status, education and population. Immediate causes are often concerned with a search for land and resources, including both commercial timber and fuel wood. The impact of the timber trade is generally greater than has been claimed in the past. The North plays a key role in many of the factors leading to forest decline.

        

Deforestation and forest degradation occur in response to policy, market, and institutional “signals”. These tend to either “push” people into the forest, through difficult economic or social conditions outside it; or to “pull” people into the forest, through the attraction of profits (from logging or forest clearance). Many policies effectively undervalue forests, such as low fees for logging, or they overvalue the benefits of removing forest for other uses, which can be seen in the subsidization of food prices. In contrast, they do not provide long-term incentives to look after forests. The lack of security of forest ownership and forest-use rights encourages exploitative behavior. Some policies even require deforestation in order to show the owner has “improved” the land. Commercial and official debt, owed by many developing nations to industrialized countries, forces developing countries into deforestation to generate foreign exchange.

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Whilst these are the root causes of deforestation, increasing population, increasing demands for forest products, and inappropriate technology, exacerbates them.

Deforestation in a LEDC

Brazil

The world’s forests are in grave danger. Over half of the original forest cover has been destroyed, and things are set to deteriorate unless the current alarming rate of deforestation is checked. Every minute an estimated 26 hectares of forest is lost – that’s an area equivalent to 37 football pitches - and it is not difficult to see that if this continues we will be left with a planet devoid of woodland. This ...

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