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Deforestation

Deforestation


(By Mariama, Estelle, Barnabé)


What is Deforestation and what are its causes?

Deforestation is when a forest or a large part of it is destroyed by burning or felling of trees for exploitation.There are many reasons for deforestation in the world.
The first major cause is agricultural. Many forests in our world are cut or burnt in order to plant fields. Old-growth forests are destroyed because of the demand of some products which is growing and growing. As an example, we have the forests of Borneo and Sumatra. Those forests lost a lot of their density due to palm oil cultivation or other crops like rice. In 2010, Borneo forests possessed no more than 44, 4% of their total area and scientists predict a decline of 11, 8% for 2020. In America, vast areas are deforested because of intensive agriculture. There’s not only cultivation but also animal husbandry. In Brazil, Latina America, Asia and Africa, many lands are devoted in breeding, which accelerates deforestation.


A cultivation which necessited the clearing of a forest

The second major cause is the trade in timber. Timber is essential for households. The trees which were cut for fields are used for our daily comfort. Wood is mainly used as fuel and this is one of the principal reasons of the near-total deforestation of Haiti, as an example. In South Africa, 140 000 hectares are destroyed per year for drying tobacco. The wood which is used for furniture, fuel, construction and paper is not necessarily of legal origin because of the absence of government in this area. 15% of the wood is used for paper, 55% for cooking and heating as fuel and 30% for sawn timber.
Conflicts are also a source of legal or illegal deforestation, in some countries such as Cambodia or the Democratic Republic of Congo, the sale of wood is used to finance weapons in case of war. We can also add the fact that many spaces that were freed after deforestation are used for putting up the population.
There is another factor which is mining; this human activity sheds many chemicals in the soil. We have the example of the Serra dos Carajás mine in Brazil has destroyed 150 000 km ². These activities may deprive the forest of water.
The wood logging

Even if the human activity has the most negative and massive effects on the forests, they can also be destroyed because of natural disasters: diseases and fungus, as an example, Dutch elm disease is responsible for the death of most of the elms in Europe in 1980. Some bugs and herbivorous species can be quite dangerous for trees, for example, between 1938 and 1958, 60% of firs and 20% of spruces died in Quebec because of spruce budworm. Moreover, 160 million m² of wood was destroyed because of the hurricane in 1999 in France, there’s also the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in the United States which burnt a huge quantity of trees.
Even though natural disasters can damage the forest, human activity is the greatest factor of massive and negative effects on the earth’s ecosystems.

What is the impact of deforestation on our planet?

Deforestation is today one of the main concerns of the earth. The survival of our civilization depends largely on our capacity to preserve our forests.

The first negative impact of deforestation is soil degradation, because of the missing vegetation, which will end up in desertification.

The chain reaction keeps going, leading to perturbations of the climate: Normally, trees absorb rainwater, and on hot days, this water is evaporated to balance the temperature, which forms clouds that will fall into rainwater. But without trees, temperature will continue to grow and will lead to desertification. On the other hand, water won’t be absorbed during the rainy seasons in tropical regions, which will lead to flooding.

Another main consequence of deforestation is the greenhouse gas emissions: All of the plants absorb CO2 and reject oxygen. Without trees, CO2 can’t be absorbed.
Moreover, when trees are burnt, the CO2 which was into the wood is released. Deforestation is the cause of 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Those greenhouse gas emissions, as you may know, are the main consequences of global warming.

Finally, we’ll end with the most serious one: the destruction of biodiversity. Deforestation critically threatens fauna and flora by destroying their natural housing.
The Amazon region, often considered as the Earth’s oxygen source, is one of the most ancient and inhabited forests in the world; It is stricken by deforestation, which could cause the end of many species. Indigenous people of the region, such as the Kayapo people, are threatened by the destruction of their natural environment. Poor farmers of Brazil are exploited in the cultivation of crops that eat away the forest.

The Amazon region is now endangered

In Southern Asia, the island of Borneo has an amazing rate of deforestation, while it holds the last ancient forests in the world! In Borneo, the orang utan species is particularly endangered owing to the destruction of its natural environment.


What should we do now?
Our main goal now, is to protect ecosystems by cutting as less trees as possible. Here are some alternatives in order to reduce our wood consumption.
1. Reduce your daily paper consumption…
… By doing easy gestures: using both sides of a sheet of paper when writing or printing. You can also go back to handkerchief, which won’t create paper waste. Using the internet also reduces your paper consumption: it’s possible now to release news, pictures, messages for your friends or family through the internet, without consuming any paper.
2. Recycle…
… Of all your home waste; paper represents around 30 % of it. Your paper waste will be brought to a recycling plant where it will be mixed with water and chemicals, de-inked and dried to obtain a new matter called recycled paper. You can even buy recycled paper; its production will pollute 73% less than cutting trees. And recycling can be applied to most of the other waste (plastic, glass, aluminum)…


3. Discover Kenaf Paper …
… Which can replace the rare and precious trees which are cut in Amazonia or in Borneo forests; the Kenaf tree is a plant that grows 3 centimeters a day, and reaches his harvestable size in a 4 or 5 months. To give you an example, 20 tons of Kenaf paper can save 60 trees of a forest! It can even be recycled to create a virtuous circle. And just as recycled paper, Kenaf paper is buyable.

4. And Green Charcoal…
… Which will replace the ordinary black charcoal, if you’re using it to warm your house. The ordinary charcoal is made burnt raw wood, which has the negative effects of rejecting CO2 and to eliminate a lot of trees, as charcoal is still one of the most used resources on the Earth today. Green charcoal is made from vegetal waste (in a farm for example) which is burnt to create a new sort of charcoal. Green charcoal has many positive effects; mainly, it doesn’t need the massive cutting of trees. Moreover it rejects less CO2 than classical charcoal and is reputed to burn better. It’s buyable in places such as organic products shops.
We found positive results for all of those actions; we really can change things and meet our needs within respecting the Earth! So let’s start right now!

In Maladrerie area in Aubervilliers, concrete buildings are surrounded by trees.


Bibliography :
  • Nathalie Fiset, The Positive and negative consequences of the Deforestation, [online]. Page updated on April 12th, 2007. Page consulted on 04/09/2013.
    URL : http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Positive-and-Negative-Consequences-of-Deforestation&id=525336

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