Tropical Deforestation.

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Tropical Deforestation

The clearing of tropical forests has been occurring worldwide on a large-scale basis for many centuries. This process, known as deforestation, involves the cutting down, burning, and damaging of forests. The loss of tropical rain forest is more profound than merely destruction of beautiful areas. If the current rate of deforestation continues, the world’s rain forests will vanish within 100 years-causing unknown effects on global climate and eliminating the majority of plant and animal species on the planet.

Why Deforestation Happens

There are many reasons for deforestation. Most of the clearing is done for agricultural purposes-grazing cattle, planting crops the area (typically a few acres) is cleared and then the tree trunks are burned - a process called Slash and Burn agriculture the burning creates short term nutrience for crops to grow on. This way of living is known as subsistence farming. It is continually occurring, as the tropical rain forest soil is actually low in nutrience. This is because the trees and plants use all of the nutrience. This means that the cleared area will only last for one crop (season) and will then be infertile and the farmer has to move on to another ‘patch’. Charities and various organisations are trying to re-educate the subsistence farmers in the rain forest as a way of trying to stop this process from happening. (See diagrams below)

 

Slash and burn farming, tree cutting, and destructive environmental practices are all linked to the economic plight of the rural population.

Commercial logging is another common form of deforestation. This consists of cutting trees for sale as timber or pulp. Logging can occur selectively-where only the economically valuable species are cut-or by clear cutting, where all the trees are cut. Commercial logging uses heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, road graders, and log skidders, to remove cut trees and build roads, which is just as damaging to a forest overall as the chainsaws are to the individual trees. These machines not only contribute to the clearing of forests but they also damage the wildlife in the area. The loud noise and human talk will inevitably petrify the birds, insects, and larger animals such as monkey’s millions of different varieties of animals are killed each year by this process.

The causes of deforestation are very complex. A competitive global economy drives the need for money in economically challenged tropical countries. At the national level, governments sell logging concessions to raise money for projects, to pay international debt (many of which are owed to America or Europe). For example, Brazil had an international debt of $159 billion in 1995, on which it must make payments each year. The logging companies seek to harvest the forest and make profit from the sales of pulp and valuable hardwoods such as mahogany.


Figure 1. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in 1986. The darker the area, the more forest that is remaining.

Deforestation by a peasant farmer is often done to raise crops for self-subsistence, and is driven by the basic human need for food. Most tropical countries are very poor by U.S. standards, and farming is a basic way of life for a large part of the population. In Brazil, for example, the average annual earnings per person is U.S. $5400, compared to $26,980 per person in the United States (World Bank, 1998). In Bolivia, which holds part of the Amazon rain forest, the average earnings per person is $800. Farmers in these countries do not have the money to buy necessities and must raise crops for food and to sell.

There are other reasons for deforestation, such as to construct towns or dams, which flood large areas. Yet, these latter cases constitute only a very small part of the total deforestation.

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is the using of resources without directly affecting the environment. This style of farming and agriculture is currently being used worldwide in an attempt to reduce the potential affect that humans are having on the rain forests. In areas of the world this has been happening for hundreds of years already, for example the Indians of Santa Rosa practice a form of agriculture, which resembles shifting cultivation, known as the milpa system. This is labour intensive but allows the population to grow crops with out using up too many of the natural resources. It is only recently that the Western world has realised the importance of this style of agriculture.  

Agroforestry

Agroforestry combines agriculture and forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems. Agroforestry is a "social forestry" - its purpose is sustainable development. Practices are focused on meeting the economic, environmental and social needs of people on their private lands. At the farm level, Agroforestry is a set of practices that provides strong economic and conservation incentives for landowners. Agroforestry practices help to attain community/society goals for more diverse, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.

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The Rate of Deforestation

The actual rate of deforestation is difficult to determine. Scientists study the deforestation of tropical forests by analysing satellite imagery of forested areas that have been cleared. Figure 2 is a satellite image illustrating how scientists classify the landscape. Contained within the image are patches of deforestation in a distinctive “fishbone” of deforestation along roads. Forest fragments are isolated areas left by deforestation, where the plants and animals are cut off from the larger forest area. Regrowth-also called secondary forest-is abandoned farmland or timber cuts that are growing back to become forest. The majority of the ...

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