Chapter 1
Introduction
1. Introduction
Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest cover to non-forest land by human activities and is one of the biggest environmental challenges today. Forests all around the world are threatened by unsustainable deforestation but especially severe has the clearing of the tropical rainforests been [6]. Satellite imagery provides an efficient means to retrieve information on the status and extent of forest resource and changes thereof. The large are coverage and high spatial resolution of newly launched optical and radar satellite systems offer new opportunities to remotely estimate and access land cover information on a wall-to-wall basis. At the same time the high temporal resolution and capacity
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Most of its area (about 60%) is located in Brazil, with the remainder spread across eight other South American countries (collectively, the Amazon region). The average annual area deforested in the Amazon region during 2005–10 was nearly five times as large as the annual area deforested in Indonesia, which had the highest deforestation rate of any tropical country outside of the Amazon. Deforestation remains a serious concern in the Amazon region, despite an 80% reduction in the annual area deforested in the Brazilian portion between 1995 and 2005 and 2014 …show more content…
Although remote sensing techniques such as simple visual interpretation of the satellite imagery, texture and technical spectral mixture modeling have been successfully implemented for the detection and quantification of clear-cut logging, the detection of subtle logging has remained a challenge particularly using coarse and moderate spatial resolution satellite data Traditionally, remote sensing methods have successfully been applied to detect clear-cut deforestation resulting from land clearance for agriculture or cattle ranching. However, subtle deforestation resulting from such activities as selective logging which targets individual tree species is an important component of deforestation and has largely remained unquantified particularly using remotely sensed methods
The Amazon Rain Forest crosses several national boundaries in South America, although the majority of it is located in Brazil. It covers over 3,562,000 acres, making it the largest in the world. But globally, over 138,600 acres of rain forest are lost each year to deforestation, 50,000 of those in Brazil alone (Holdsforth), and the world's rain forests are quickly disappearing. Deforestation in the Amazon occurs primarily for three reasons: clear-cutting, fragmentation, and edge effects.
Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious threat since carbon dioxide traps the sun’s heat and radiated light inside the earth’s atmosphere. So, with the increase in carbon dioxide more heat is trapped and thus adding to the effects of global warming. Among the many places where deforestation takes place, Amazon seems to be one of the most affected ones. More than 20 percent of it is already gone, and much more of it is severely threatened due to deforestation . It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year .
Of all of the issues that effect the planet Earth from a Global Change standpoint, one of the most visible and highly publicized is the issue of rainforest destruction. The loss of this emerald on the planet's crown will end life as we know it, if something is not done...
First of all I would have to say that yes it has a great impact on our global warming and I will go on to explain to you how it affects our planet. We as a whole have let the dollar get in the way of how our planet is affected, some would say at all costs. It is true we have refineries, car pollution, but most of all deforestation of tropical areas. In the National Geographic Magazine you will come to see and appreciate the facts of how deforestation has affected our nation and has spiraled into global warming. We can look at Brazil’s rainforest that is estimated to be larger than two hundred football fields it will be destroyed before you are even able to read the article at hand (Magazine, 1996-2014). It has been noted that within the past 40 years we have managed to do more damage than what was done in the four hundred and fifty (450) years since the European Colonization even began. That sent chills through my bones when I read that, imagine how much tropical areas have been affected. We have destroyed twen...
Lindsey, Rebecca. "Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles." Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles. NASA, 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 01 Mar. 2014. .
Countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have been greatly affected by deforestation with well over two million hectares of naturally forested land now rendered barren (See appendix 1).
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Living within the South American Amazon are countless plants, insects, and animals, as well as hundreds of thousands of indigenous people. For centuries, the Oriente region of the Ecuadorian Amazon was considered a paradise to its inhabitants- they took much pride in their ancestral land. However, within the past several decades, their lifestyle has been extremely altered, and the beautiful jungle they heavily rely on for their physical, spiritual, and cultural life, has been terribly exploited. This paper examines the historical, current, and future emerging abuses of the Amazon rainforest, often called the lungs of the world, in Ecuador by oil corporations, and subsequent effects such as loss of biodiversity and health consequences.
This is alarming since recent data indicates these enormous forests are land-dwelling carbon absorbers that could help to slow worldwide climate alteration. The United Nations ' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates “eighteen million acres of forests have been destroyed worldwide;” and NASA forecasts “that if current deforestation rates are not reduced, rainforests could become entirely eradicated in a century.” The nations with substantial deforestation are Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Africa (The Democratic Republic of Congo included), and remote areas of Eastern Europe. Indonesia, the country with the greatest deforestation within the last century, has lost approximately forty million acres of indigenous
Deforestation, defined by biologist Charles Southwick as "the destruction of forests; may involve clear-cutting or selective logging" (p. 365), is a predominantly human-driven process that is dramatically altering ecosystems worldwide. "Clear-cutting" involves the indiscriminant removal of every single plant and tree species from within a selected area. The other major process of deforestation, "selective logging," focuses removal efforts on only specific, predetermined tree species within a chosen area. The statistics gathered about human deforestation over time are considerable, and they can be somewhat controversial. Depending on the source and the location selected, the magnitude of deforestation varies. Southwick estimates that, approximately 10,000 years ago, 6.2 billion hectares (23.9 million square miles) of forest existed on earth (p. 117). That figure is equivalent to 45.5% of the earth's total land. He further estimates that, by 1990, this amount had declined 30%, with only 4.3 billion hectares of forest remaining (p. 117). Southwick also acknowledges other estimates that place the total amount of deforestation between 50% and 75% (p. 117). NASA has similar deforestation statistics that confirm these trends. According to their website, 16.5% of the Brazilian Amazon forests have been destroyed. They also note similar magnitudes of deforestation in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), despite the significantly smaller total area of forest within these countries. These grim figures are somewhat tempered by the NASA finding that, over the past ten years, the deforestation rate has declined from 6,200 square miles per year to 4,800 square miles per year. Though this trend is n...
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
So, there is a need of State Art technology for a holistic management of forests and biodiversity. The modern technology of remote sensing allows us to collect a lot of spatial data rather easily, with speed and on a repetitive basis. Remote sensing is the science and art of obtaining information about an object, area, phenomenon through the analysis of data acquired by a device that is not in contact with the object, area, or phenomenon under investigation. Remote sensing is facilitated with mapping, studying, monitoring and managing various resources like agriculture, forestry, geology, water, ocean etc. It has further enabled monitoring of the environment and thereby helping in conservation (Lillesand and Kiefer,
Fearnside, Philip M. "Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: History, Rates, and Consequences." Conservation Biology 19.3 (2005): 680-688. Print.
By definition, deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. Such as the conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, and urban use. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that an estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year and about half of the world's tropical forests have been cleared. Also, according to Bastien Sachet, “…tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emission…Every year, 13 million hectares of the world’...
Forests are vital for life and have many important functions. They are home to millions of species and protect soil from erosion. Along with this they produce oxygen which is vital for human life, store carbon dioxide and help control climate. They also provide humans with shelter, food and medicines vital for life.