Deforestation

Tropical Rainforest refers to a tropical and subtropical biome which is found around equatorial and subtropical regions.

Location: the regions with perennially warm, humid climates and high precipitation. Only about 6% of the earth’s surface is covered with tropical rainforest. It includes Amazon, C. America, Equatorial Africa, etc.

Deforestation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see

Deforestation (disambiguation). Satellite photograph of deforestation in

progress in the Tierras Bajas project in eastern Bolivia.

Distribution of Tropical Rainforest

Amazon Equatorial AfricaCentral America

South East Asia

Destruction of these forests is fatal to us because they play influential and indis-pensable roles on the earth. Deleterious consequences of the destruction of the tropical rainforest are the following:

Many Natives in the Amazon basin depend on their environment for survival. Hence, deforestation will have deleterious effects on their life style and culture.

Process and Causes of Deforestation

Slash-and-burn agriculture The agricultural technique practiced by the

penurious farmers in these regions. They burn a small portion of forest, and plant crops on the nutrient-rich ash. The fertility of the soil, however, does not last long, so the farmers abandon the land and burn different trees. Continuation of such a practice has proven to be detrimental.

Surprisingly, it is estimated that nearly 2/3 of global deforestation is caused by these poor, individual farmers.

Plantation farming The tropical rainforest is replaced by cash

crop fields which can provide the country more revenues. Cash crops include rubber, coffee, and tea. It significantly reduces the diverse gene pool of the tropical rainforest as cash crop fields tend to be monotonous.

Commercial logging Countries like Brazil and Indonesia are

cutting down the trees to sell the lumber to the developed countries. Consumers in relatively affluent countries have high demands for good-quality timbers; hence, developing countries are encouraged to cut more trees to make more revenues.By doing so, developing countries attempt to enhance their economic conditions.

Cattle ranching Some countries cut down the forests to

make room for cattle.

Fuel wood and other domestic uses Trees are still the important fuels for

cooking and other domestic uses in developing countries. Hence, many trees are cut down and burnt by local people.

Brazil’s Foreign Debt (1995-2004)

Possible Solution for Deforestation

Developed nations have already begun to launch debt-for-nature campaign in which they bought debts from Brazil for preserving their Amazon forest.

However, if a direct financial aid is given to these countries in return for saving their forest, the process of deforestation will be halted even further.

If we propagate modern technologies and farming techniques to the tropical region, we can reduce the rate of deforestation significantly.

Countries like Brazil are cutting down trees to supply meat (cattle grazing) and hard-woods to satisfy the demands from the developed nations. Therefore, reducing our superfluous demands for such products can discourage the process of deforestation.

Though restoring the deforested area is expensive and difficult, the planting of fruits and selected hardwoods can be economically beneficial for the developing countries.

Conclusion