Deforestation

What is Deforestation?
Deforestation is when humans remove or clear large areas of forest lands and related ecosystems
for non-forest use. Including clearing for farming purposes, ranching and urban use. Therefore
that means in these cases, trees are never re-planted.
Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to peoples
need to provide for their families. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut
forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers
will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a
process known as slash and burn agriculture.
Since the industrial age, about half of world's original forests have been destroyed and
millions of animals and living things have been endangered. Despite the improvements in
education, information and general awareness of the importance of forests, deforestation has not
reduced much, and there are still many more communities and individuals who still destroy
forest lands for personal gains.

Causes Of Deforestation
Agriculture
Agriculture is the direct driver of roughly 80 percent of tropical deforestation, while logging is
the biggest single driver of forest degradation. Drivers of Deforestation and Forest Degradation
notes that industrial activities are the principal driver of deforestation and degradation
worldwide, but subsistence agriculture and fuelwood consumption remains an important direct
driver of deforestation, especially in Africa.

Drivers vary on a regional scale. For example, cattle ranching and large-scale agriculture are
major drivers of deforestation in Latin America, whereas palm oil development, intensive
agriculture, and pulp and paper plantations are principal drivers in Indonesia.
Agricultural activities
Agricultural activities are one of the major factors affecting deforestation. Due to overgrowing
demand for food products, huge amount of tress are fell down to grow crops and for cattle
gazing.

Deforestation for oil palm plantations in Borneo

Commercial Agriculture
Combine harvesters in formation harvest soybeans in Mato Grosso state in western Brazil.
Soybean is one of several cash crops grown on a commercial scale to satisfy international
markets which are increasingly important drivers of deforestation, accounting for 68% of forest
loss in Latin America and about 40% worldwide. Commercial agriculture is the largest driver of
deforestation, involving forest clearing for cropland, pasture and tree plantation.
It has been forecast that sugarcane and soya alone

will be responsible for a 20 million hectare expansion of agricultural land in Brazil over the next
40 years, more than twice the size of Hungary.

Mining
Mining is the extraction (removal) of minerals and metals from earth. Manganese, tantalum,
cassiterite , copper, tin, nickel, bauxite aluminium ore, iron ore, gold, silver, and diamonds are
just some examples of what is mined.
People mine because mining is a money making business. Not only do mining companies
prosper, but governments also make money from revenues. Workers also receive income and
benefits. Oil and coal mining require considerable amount of forest land.

Apart from this, roads and highways have to be built to make way for trucks and other
equipment. The waste that comes out from mining pollutes the environment and effects the
nearby species. The minerals and metals used are used for very valuable commodities. For
example, manganese is a key component of low-cost stainless steel. It is also used to de-color
glass (removing greenish hues), but in higher concentrations, it actually makes lavender-colored
glass. Tantalum is used in cell phones, pagers, and lap-tops. Cooper and tin are used to make
pipes, cookware, etc. And gold, silver, and diamonds are used to make jewellery.
Large scale mining versus small scale mining:
Large scale mining usually involves a company with many employees. The company mines at
one or two large sites and usually stays until the mineral or metal is completely excavated. An
example of a large scale mine is the Serra Pelada mine in Brazil which yielded 29,000 tons of
gold from 1980 to 1986 and employed 50,000 workers (Kricher, 1997).
Small scale mining usually involves a small group of nomadic men. They travel together and
look for sites which they think will yield gold or another valuable metal or mineral. Small scale
mining occurs in places such as Suriname, Guyana, Central Africa, and many other places

around the world. Some researchers believe that small scale mining is more harmful to the
environment and causes more social problems than large scale mining. This will become
apparent later in the lesson.
How does mining affect the

environment?
Mining is generally very destructive to the environment. It is one of the main causes of
deforestation. In order to mine, trees and vegetation are cleared and burned. With the ground
completely bare, large scale mining operations use huge bulldozers and excavators to extract the
metals and minerals from the soil. In order to amalgamate (cluster) the extractions, they use
chemicals such as cyanide, mercury, or methylmercury. These chemicals go through tailings
(pipes) and are often discharged into rivers, streams, bays, and oceans. This pollution
contaminates all living organisms within the body of water and ultimately the people who
depend on the fish for their main source of protein and their economic livelihood.

This chart represents remaining

forest cover due to the mining concessions.

The exact effects of bauxite mining are related to

the site. It almost always involves some habitat destruction, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity.

Lumbering

Every year lumber harvesting companies devastate our environment by the unethical cutting of
earths forests. If forests continue to be cut down faster than they can re-grow their will soon be
no wood for us to harvest. Without trees our biosphere cannot function.
Logging
Logging, or commercial logging, involves cutting trees for sale as timber or pulp. The timber is
used to build homes, furniture, etc and the pulp is used to make paper and paper products.
Logging is generally categorized into two categories: selective and clear-cutting. Selective
logging is selective because loggers choose only wood that is highly valued, such as mahogany.
Clear-cutting is not selective. Loggers are interested in all types of wood and therefore cut all of
the trees down, thus clearing the forest, hence the name- clear-cutting.
You think it would be, but actually selective

logging can be very damaging to the surrounding trees which are not selected for logging. What
happens is that the heavy equipment used to cut the selected trees often damages the surrounding
trees. It is estimated that 40% (40 out of 100 trees) die from just one tree that is selectively
logged That's a lot of damage!

Logging occurs for many economical reasons, such as: agriculture (planting crops), cattleranching, mining, oil and gas extraction, development, and subsistence-farming.

The logs, or wood, are also used to make homes, furniture, paper, pencils, wood-chips for
packaging products, fuel for cooking and providing heat for homes.

Causes of the logging

Fire
Indians from the Xingu National Park in Brazil inspect the smoldering remains of forest land
near their reserve. Forest fires release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and clouds of soot
that can disrupt normal rainfall patterns, although natural fires have always played a part
regenerating forest soils and vegetation and rarely result in permanent deforestation of an area.

However, the spread of agriculture, poor logging practices, and urban expansion make forests
more vulnerable to uncontrolled fires that result in forest degradation. An analysis of the drivers
of deforestation and forest degradation in 100 countries published in 2012 by academics from
Japan, the Netherlands, the US, Indonesia and Norway estimates that uncontrolled fires were
responsible for about 9% of total forest degradation between 2000 and 2010.
Less rain, higher temps

Many climate models predict an increase in temperature and less precipitation for the Amazon in
the coming years. But most do not account for the compounding effects of fire, which are already
causing forest dieback, noted Balch.

Those omissions could lead scientists to underestimate the amount of carbon released by dying
trees and plants, and a less accurate picture of forest health, according to the study's lead author,
Paulo Monteiro Brando. Emissions are so significant that researchers fear the Amazon could flip,
becoming a net carbon emitter instead of a carbon sink. "Big trees dying means more leaves on
the ground and less canopy cover, and those are among the ingredients necessary for a highintensity fire," Brando said. "The more intense the fire, the more carbon that will be released. We
may be missing huge amounts of carbon going into the atmosphere with these forest fires. A
2007 drought in the south eastern Amazon created conditions for intense wildfires that burned
more forest than the amount of land deforested in the past four years, the scientists noted. Still
'huge potential' Brando pointed out that while Amazon deforestation remains high, it has dropped
significantly in the past few years.

But in places where forests are degraded and fragmented, especially areas adjacent to agricultural
frontiers, drought and fire can have powerful consequences. Reducing deforestation and the
accidental spread of land management fires, along with more effective firefighting, are among
the strategies.

Consequences Of Deforestation
Flora and Fauna
Flowers and animals; we can't live without them. The flora of the earth produce the oxygen that
is breathed by the fauna and in turn, the fauna exhale the carbon dioxide that the flora need to
live. One cannot live without the other, and humans cannot live without either; hence their
importance.Flora and fauna are the plant and animal life of a region in a period of time. That may
sound simple, but the ecosystem created by the interdependence of these two life forms is not
simple at all. In fact, humans cannot breathe unless both flora and fauna survive and thrive on the
earth.

The Amazon rainforest once gave us 20% of our oxygen supply. As their destruction has
progressed, so has the incidence of respiratory illness around the world. Some of our most
effective drugs come from rainforest plants. Destruction of these plants, and their habitats, will
not only affect our health, but our very lives.

Global trade has introduced species to areas outside of their natural habitat, where there are no
predatory species to control their destructive habits.

Fire ants were brought to the United States in a cargo ship. They have caused the death of
livestock, people, and many native species of ants and insects.You need look no further than
Florida to see the importance of native flora and fauna on the local ecosystems.

Plants like Kudzu, Brazilian Pepper, Australian Pine, and Chinese Tallow were brought in from
other countries to the United States and have invaded and destroyed entire habitats of native
flora. The Everglades is being destroyed by Malaleuca, which was seeded by airplanes to dry up
the Everglades and allow sugar cane to be planted after the Cuban embargo.
The introduction of non-native brown anoles and Cuban tree frogs into Florida has nearly
caused the extinction of native lizard and toad species, which are their prey. Iguanas and other
large lizard species, as well as large snakes such as boas and pythons, are invading the
Everglades and other ecologically sensitive areas. In fact, Florida and its port cities have
introduced and become invaded by more invasive non-native species than any other state in the
U.S. Imports of salmonid eggs into Japan have caused outbreaks of disease into several of their
native fish species, causing great economic and ecological losses.

The list goes on indefinitely. The University of Arizona site tells a shocking tale of the ecological
and economic cost of invasive flora and fauna to the U.S. alone every year.

Soil Erosion
Tree roots anchor the soil. Without trees, the soil is free to wash or blow away, which can lead to
vegetation growth problems. The WWF states that scientists estimate that a third of the worlds
arable land has been lost to deforestation since 1960. After a clear cutting, cash crops like coffee,
soy and palm oil are planted. Planting these types of trees can cause further soil erosion because
their roots cannot hold onto the soil. "The situation in Haiti compared to the Dominican Republic
is a great example of the important role forests play in the water cycle," Daley said. Both

countries share the same island, but Haiti has much less forest cover than the Dominican
Republic. As a result, Haiti has endured more extreme soil erosion, flooding and landslide issues.
Life quality: Soil erosion can also lead to silt entering the lakes, streams and other water
sources. This can decrease local water quality and contribute to poor health in populations in the

area.

After heavy tropical rains fall on cleared forest lands, the run-off carries soil into local creeks and
rivers. The rivers carry the eroded soils downstream, causing significant problems. Hydroelectric
projects and irrigation infrastructure lose productivity from siltation, while industrial installations
suspend operations due to lack of water. Siltation also raises river beds, increasing the severity of
floods, and creates shoals and sandbars that make river navigation far more troublesome. The
increased sediment load of rivers smothers fish eggs, causing lower hatch rates. As the suspended
particles reach the ocean, the water becomes cloudy, causing regional declines in coral reefs, and
affecting coastal fisheries. The loss of coral reefs worldwide, often labeled the rainforests of the
sea, is especially distressing to scientists because of their tremendous diversity and the important
services they provide. Coastal fisheries are affected not just by the loss of coral reefs and their
communities, but by the damage inflicted on mangrove forests by heavy siltation.

Besides damaging the fisheries industry, deforestation-induced erosion can undermine roads and
highways that cross through the forest.

Erosion is extremely costly for developing countries. Besides the damage to infrastructure,
fisheries, and property, erosion of precious topsoils costs tens of billions of dollars worldwide
each year. For example, in the late 1980s the Indonesian island of Java was losing 770 million
metric tons of topsoil every year at an estimated cost of 1.5 million tons of rice, enough to fulfill
the needs of 11.5-15 million people.

Flooding Decline In Underground Water

Water recycling is the movement of rain from the forest

to land masses further inland. When rain falls on forests the water is intercepted by the forest
canopy. Some of this intercepted water is returned to the atmosphere by evaporation and
transpiration (release of water vapour into the atmosphere through stomata on tree leaves) while
the rest is returned to the ocean as river runoff. In a healthy forest about three fourth of the
intercepted water is returned to the atmosphere as moisture laden air masses which move inland,
cool and are converted to rain. Land cleared by deforestation returns only about one fourth of the
rain water to the atmosphere. This air mass has less moisture and delivers less rain further inland.
Deforestation inhibits water recycling and converts inland forest to dry land and potential waste
land.
Severe flooding is a result of deforestation because removal of the forest leaves little vegetative
cover to hold heavy rains. The inability of land void of forest to hold heavy rain water will also
trigger mudslides like the ones that have occurred in recent years in California, China and other
parts of the world. Severe flooding and mudslides are extremely costly because they devastate
homes and communities. The excess water from land cleared of forest becomes runoff water and
enters the ocean instead of seeping downward into the soil to recharge aquifers. Aquifer

depletion is already becoming a serious problem in certain areas of the planet and as the human
population continues to grow so will the demand for fresh water.

Measures Used To Reduce The Impact Of

Deforestation
Caribbean Territory:-Jamaica
Forests are natural ecosystems which perform many important functions. Arguably, their most
essential is their watershed function: rainfall is attracted and captured and channeled
underground into aquifers, later to appear as springs and rivers. Significant reduction in forest
cover will result in reduced humidity and a generally hotter climate, lower rainfall, less
productive or run-dry wells, reduced flow and the drying up of rivers, as well as soil erosion as
rainfall washes away topsoil.

The Solutions
Combating deforestation is a complex issue that requires a variety of approaches. A few key
solutions are as follows:-

Corporations & Markets If corporations have the ability to destroy the world's intact forests, they
also have the power to help save them.

Companies can make an impact by introducing zero-deforestation policies that require suppliers
to produce commodities such as timber, beef, soy, palm oil and paper fiber in a way that has a
minimal impact on natural forests and the climate. Companies can also introduce paper
procurement policies that set ambitious targets to maximize use of postconsumer recycled wood,
pulp, paper and fiber in their products.
2. Sustainable consumer options
Even you as an individual can make a difference in saving forests by setting the best example. It
is a crucial part of the solution to ending worldwide deforestation. As a consumer, you have the
power to put pressure on companies that have bad environmental practices. By buying recycled
or certified wood products, only supporting brands with zero deforestation policies, and getting
others to do the same you send a message to companies to embrace zero deforestation policies.
3. Politics
In order to achieve zero deforestation by 2020 we need ambitious and science-based domestic
and international forest policies from our government.
We use laws like the Wilderness Act, Lacey Act and the Roadless Rule to protect forests and
stop illegal wood products from entering the marketplace.
The caribbean community must also urgently commit to mechanisms that reduce greenhouse gas
emissions from deforestation in tropical forest developing nations. Forests for Climate is a

landmark proposal for an Caribbean funding mechanism to protect tropical forests. Developing
Caribbean countries with tropical forests would make commitments to protecting their forests
and in exchange would have the opportunity to receive funding for capacity-building efforts and
for national-level reductions in deforestation emissions. This would provide a strong incentive
for developing countries to continually improve their forest protection programs.

Conclusion
Thus, deforestation is an important issue to be discussed. It has adverse effects on each living
beings' life. Deforestation has become a huge concern in today's life as there has been a rise in
the decline of forests. Trees are cut down in order to manufacture paper products as well as for
livestock farming and so on.

In order to feed the ever increasing population of the Earth, trees and forests are converted to
farm lands. This has become a threat to the world and it has been seen that rates of decline in the
forests are increasing at a rapid rate. This has led the planet to warm up and leading to high
temperatures. This cycle would continue for the following years to come unless necessary steps
are taken to prevent deforestation. Deforestation has caused fewer trees to grow. It has also gone
a long way in eliminating valuable ecosystems in the planet.

If major steps towards afforestation are not taken, then even the great adaptability of human
beings may not be enough to cope up with the harsh climate of the future. Deforestation does
have solutions. It's just that the people must step forward. The safe keeping of our precious
planet lies with each and every member of its human population. We are the ones accountable for
our actions even though it is ourselves we are accountable too.

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