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Rainforest Destruction Essay, Research Paper

name = Shiv Sudan

email = buba_stiky@hotmail.com

publish = yes

subject = Science

title = Rainforest Destruction

papers = Introduction

With the increase of rainforest destruction that is taking place, it could take ten years for the rainforests to be destroyed for good. If we don’t restrain or take action towards the destruction there is no telling what will happen to the world. Most scientists have predicted that at the rate that we are going at there will be no rainforests left by the year 2050. Long ago, rainforest were capable of reviving themselves until World War Two, because of technological improvements, allowing people to travel and work faster. People were able to destroy the rainforest at an unprecedented pace. In addition the worlds decisions were made purely on economic grounds, and did not look at the long term affects. There are three main threaths to the rainforest: agriculture, international logging and fuelwood collection.

Agricultural practices take place in many different forms: migrant peasant cultivation, large-scale corporate farming, clandestine narcotics production, or animal husbandry related to cattle. All these forms of agriculture practice in the moist and wet tropics which usually calls for a destructive course. Agriculture is one of the rainforest’s main threats since it accounts for a large amount of the distraction. Cattle ranching is the main factor in the deforestation for agriculture. Cattle ranching was the major cause of destruction in Brazil accounting for seventy two percent of Brazil’s deforestation up to the year 1980. Cattle ranching was also one of major causes of deforestation in Costa Rica and many other amazon countries. Road construction accounted for twenty seven percent of Brazil’s deforestation between 1966 to 1975 which all fall under the agriculture category.

Under the category of international logging you would find, tropical timber extraction. The companies which deal with timber extraction have a major effect on the volubility of the remaining areas of the rainforest, but the impact does not stop there. After the loggers leave, slash-and-burn cultivators move into areas of the forest by the logging roads. Agriculture and the logging industry are very close together, since agricultural farmers move into the previous logging territories after the loggers leave.

Fuelwood collection is used world wide as a source of heat and energy. It is of major importance as a forest product which, over two billion people depend on daily. Consuming eighty five percent of third world countrie’s wood production. Of the two billion people, ninety six million are unable to satisfy their minimum needs. As a result they try to ration the fuelwood that they have by only cooking once a day, and by eating raw foods.

The world is destroying the rainforest faster then it can grow. It takes millions of years for the rainforests to grow and only days to destroy. Further on in the project you will see the rainforest’s main threats: agriculture, international logging and fuelwood collection are talked about in more depth.

International Logging

Tropical timber extraction by international companies have had a profound impact on the viability of the remaining areas of the rain forests. Yet, the impact does not stop there because after the loggers leave, the slash-and-burn cultivators come into the areas on the logging roads. The agriculturists and the logging industry are very close to each other. A ratio shows, for every 177 cubic feet of logs removed by exploiters of timber, 2.47 acres are cut and torched by the slash-and-burn cultivators.

The logging industry could have a longer and more profitable life if it adjusted its consumption to regenerate cycles instead of concentrating on the race it currently runs with competing companies around the world. With the logging companies 10.9 million acres of clod broad-level tropical forests are logged annually, while an additional 18.5 million acres are cleared for other purposes, generally agriculture. An estimation of 45 percent of this reduction, or 8.4 million acres, can be assigned to directly to shifting cultivation, the balance to other population burdens. The combination causes 29.4 million acres of forest modified. With all the outcries deforestation of the tropics will not decrease, but will increase. An example is, Brazil’s rate will increase by 33 percent annually.

Regulations laid down by tropical countries on overacting and the taking of undersize trees go un-enforced. Realistically speaking the industries major concerns are profit and uncertainties over ever-changing political conditions in the countries in which the investments lie. Indonesia serves as a typical example of a country in which the logging industry’s environmentally unfavorable flexing of its political muscle. With the use of proper cyclic methods, forests should regenerate within 30 years. The Indonesian government requires logging corporations to follow a 35 year cutting cycle, yet it grants them a 20 year lease. Most of Indonesia’s accessible forests are already appointed to multinational timber corporations. Within nine years Indonesia is expected to be completely overact.

Recent FAO figures have indicated that the gap between deforestation and reforestation. By the end of 1980, only 28.4 million acres are planted. Yet, 29.4 million acres of virgin closed tropical broad – leveled forests are removed annually, which works out to be a 1:10 ratio away from keeping pace with deforestation; in a naturally globally forested forest for every 10 trees removed only 1 is replaced. Ratios vary from coast to coast. For example, Africa has a ratio of 1:29 and India’s loss of tree covers 3.3 million acres annually.

Fuelwood Collection

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