Gervais Manizabayo A00015909 WRI 102.1 Dr. BRIAN K. REED Short Research Paper Thursday, 2nd October 2013.

Forestation
Environment is everything that surrounds us, such as plants, animals, soil, air, water and so forth. Nowadays, the world is facing the problems of global warming, air pollution and soil erosion due to deforestation. In many parts of the world, deforestation is mostly caused by people who cut trees for different purposes, such as finding wood, making paper, dig of land for agricultural activities and building house (kreike 3). In cutting trees, people seem to ignore the role of trees in our daily life in providing fresh air needed by all living organisms, reducing carbon dioxide responsible for global warming, providing shelter to animals, and protecting soil from erosion. In order to live in a better world, we have to protect trees and increase the area of forests because they are the easiest and the best ways of saving the environment. Burning fossil fuels release enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, which is responsible for the problem of global warming; this climate change affects the lives of living organisms on earth. Some people argue that finding alternative energy sources is the best way of saving the environment; this is not true. It is true that alternative energy sources will help in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but this will not protect soil from erosion or provide shelter and fresh air for living organisms as trees do. Apart from that, trees also have the ability

of removing a large amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. According to Heinberg and Lerch , The worlds remaining tropical forests are not only carbon store but remove 4.8 billion of tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere in each year...about a fifth of that released by burning fossil fuels (qtd.in Richard ). So, increasing trees will help in removing a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Another problem that causes deforestation is population growth (Kreike 24). As the population increases, the agricultural productivity has also to increase. Consequently, people start to cut trees in order to find enough land where they can grow crops in order to feed their families. For this issue, governments need to implement the policy of land consolidation in which citizens are encouraged to live concentrated in some specific areas rather than living scattered; this increases the land for agricultural activities and reduces the problem of deforestation. Saving trees becomes easier when governments and citizens have common understanding about the role of trees. It is possible that many populations cut trees anyhow or anytime and use them for cooking or building their houses because they have no choice or the government has no laws that protect trees. Instead of using wood, governments should help their people and teach them how to use biogas; the energy obtained by making anaerobic digestion of organic waste products such as animal manure, industrial waste products, sewage sludge and so forth. The use of biogas in rural areas will not only reduce wood dependency but also the problem of waste disposal (Mudhoo 2). In countries where this technology is yet applied, governments should set rules that protect trees and increase penalties for all illegal activities. In Rwanda, for example, if you cut one tree, you have to plant at least two trees. If you want to cut more trees, you must ask

the authorization from local leaders. These rules prevent people from cutting trees in disorder and help in reducing deforestation. Furthermore, technological advance gives another solution to the problem of deforestation. According to Mary Meeker and Liang Wu, workers at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, 2.4 billion people in the world have access to internet and about 60 billion people in the world use phones (Internet Trend D11 Conference). This is a good opportunity that we can use to reduce the dependency on papers made from trees. Instead of using hard copy books in schools or libraries, we can use electronic books. Instead of using paper in sending letters, we can make calls or send e-mails using different social networks or phones. It is true that there are some areas that do not have access to internet until today; why do those who have internet access still continue to use paper materials? Maybe they do not know or they do not care, but the truth is that reducing paper dependency will save more trees. There are many ways of saving our environment from being destroyed, and the best and easiest one is forestation. Without trees, the environment will no longer be in existence. Without trees, there will be no oxygen and rain because the atmosphere will be full of carbon dioxide gases which contribute to global warming. We have to take the environment as our own property, which God gave to us for free, so we need to work together and keep it safe if we want to live in a beautiful and safe place.

WORK CITED PAGE

Kreike, Emmanuel. Deforestation and Reforestation in Namibia: The Global Consequences of Local Contradictions. Boston: Brill Academic P, 2010. Print. Douthwaite, Richard. The International Response to Climate Changes Managing the 21 Centurys Sustainability. California: Post Carbon institute, 2010.2-4. Print. Mudhoo, Ackmez. Biogas Production: Pretreatment Methods in Anaerobic Digestion. Somerset: Wiley, 2012.Print. Meeker, Mary and Liang Wu. Internet Trends D11 Conference. KPCB , 29 may. 2013. Web. 6 Sept. 2013. <http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/kpcb-internet-trends-2013>.