Our planet is full of extraordinary beauty, in order for us to enjoy them, we would need to travel to all the locations or fly into space and enjoy them from afar. There are places that if we were to see how exquisite they were, it would take our breath away. Indonesia is one of those countries, with its powdery sand beaches, multi-ethnic culture, and beautiful lush forests filled with wildlife. Indonesia is occupied with numerous national parks and preserves. Three quarters of the country is bursting with natural trees and forests, and a person could take a walk for hundreds of miles within the continuous shelter of green. With its wide range of natural habitats, rich plant and animal resources and high numbers of island endemic species, it is also well recognized as a major world center for biodiversity (Hanum 38). Though, this may not last …show more content…
Indonesia is one of them and the home of Tesso Nilo National Park. This national park houses some of the largest lowland rainforests that still remain in Sumatra. The Indonesian government declared this to be a national park in 2004 and a decision had been made to expand this park to over 621 miles of spacious area for the habitats of the park to live. This national park was created to protect its wildlife, the Sumatran elephants and Sumatran tigers, but it is also the home for thousands of orangutans that have come to reside here. Without this forest, these animals would not be able to survive. Not only does the park have to deal with the growers who are legally planting palm trees, but also they have to deal the illegal oil palm plantations that are happening inside Tesso Nilo Forest complex. Between 2002 and April 2011 has showed that the encroachment of this park is still an ongoing process. The peaks of these encroachments show from 2006 to 2009, the increase of the encroachments were 14,164 hectares to 16,305 hectares (Palming
Robert, K. (2010, jan 26). Effects of Deforestation . Retrieved Dec 3, 1996, from www.earlham.edu: http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/17Fall96/inneske/effects.HTM
Governments in these countries need to stop thinking of forests as a renewable resource. The rate at which they are harvesting these areas drives them beyond the boundaries of sustainability. The efforts required by reforestation may not initially be cost effective, but it will result in not only the survivability of the environment, but of the country’s economy. Widespread awareness of these ideas will help fight against the natural human tendency towards instant gratification and short-term goals. Different methods of logging can be utilized to allow the rainforests to survive and regrow naturally and at a sustainable
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 .
Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter (drug war facts, Page 1).
Deforestation is a widely used term, but one with different meanings. Disturbance deforestation refers to all man made disturbances that alter a forest, these are the most common. This argumentative essay discusses the positive and negative aspects of deforestation. In the first part of the essay the pro arguments of deforestation will be discussed. For example, the issue of Global population and how forests are being used, land use and the ways forests contribute, wood use, forest growth, destruction and the reasons for cutting down the trees. The second half of the essay will cover the issues that are harmful to the environment because of deforestation. Many environmental issues take place everyday; a big question that arises, is if the global economy will ever finds middle on the issue of forest thinning. If deforestation was used only in the most crucial of times, the world might become a better place.
Szalay, Jessie. "Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2014. .
WPF/World Preservation Foundation, 2010, Deforestation statistics, sponsored by WPF, viewed 3rd November 2013, Available at: http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/blog/news/deforestation-statistics/#.UoFtypQY3TV
Rainforests once covered 14% of the worlds land surface, however now it only covers a mere 6%. It is estimated that all rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Trees are becoming more needed and used everyday. We need them cut down for many reasons such as paper and timber, while also needing them ‘untouched’ for other reasons like oxygen, we have to ask ourselves, which is more important? At the current rate, most of the rainforests are being cut down for resources like paper and timber, but less importance is being placed on main resources like oxygen.
GreenPalm (2015) states how ‘the removal of acres of rainforest threatens the rich biodiversity’ in the ‘ecosystems’. Highlighting the risks of the cutting of the oil palm trees to produce the palm oil to both the environment and also the organisms which live within the areas, as certain species in the areas of the clearing of land, mainly with the palm oil ‘exported from Indonesia and Malaysia’ according to Say-No-To-Palm-Oil (2015), face possible extinction. There is still however ways in which the production of palm oil can be sustainable to the environment, as palm oil is essential for the use by humans because of the containment of the nutrients and also with the production of foods and
The social and moral implications of diminishing rainforest biodiversity are great. From a human welfare perspective, the livelihoods of tens of millions of indigenous peoples depend on the forests, but thousands are being pushed out of their homes because they lack the shelter and support that the forest once gave them (Salim 3). These groups have "developed knowledge and cultures in accordance with their environment through thousands of years, and even physically they are adapted to the life in the forest" (Nyborg). For many of the people living in these areas, the forest is the only resource they have providing them with food, shelter and cultural ties. With the invasion and destruction of their homeland, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.
Though deforestation has increased at an alarming rate throughout the past fifty years, deforestation has been performed during the course of history. According to the World Resources Institute, a majority of the world’s enduring naturally occurring forests are found in Alaska, Canada, Russia and the Northwestern Amazon. Research has demonstrated forests are more likely to be destroyed and repurposed where economic revenues tied to agriculture and pasture are prominent, typically attributed to advantageous weather conditions, or lower expenses of demolishing the forest and delivering merchandises to the global
It has been suggested that 300 football fields worth of palm trees are removed every hour just for manufacturers to get their grubby hands on Palm Oil. The United Nations Environment Programme {UNEP} acknowledges that Malaysia and Indonesia are the main cause for this destruction is the development of palm oil plantations. The burning of these plantations is causing major air pollution in Southeast Asia. It releases Carbon Dioxide into the air and atmosphere that contribute to global warming. Research shows that 20% of all global carbon emissions comes burning fossil fuels come from rainforest destruction. Deforestation of palm oil plantations is alone responsible for the habitat loss of threatened and endangered species. Superiorly clearing of the forests impacted the Asian Elephant, Tiger, Sumatran Rhinoceros and the Orangutans. The Asian elephant and Bornean Orangutans are endangered and t...
Corporate use of land and resources has a highly negative impact on animals, humans, and the ecosystem as a whole. The palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia are ruining the ecosystem of that area. Those same plantations are causing animals to go extinct. The article, “Last Stand of the Orangutan” written by United Nations Environment Program talks about orangutans. Orangutans are endangered and are at risk of going extinct due to logging, forest fires and palm oil plantations.
Palm oil plantations have sadly cleared some of the world’s most precious, carbon capturing forests. Since rain forests are the largest carbon sinks, when destroyed they release massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Leveling forests not only impacts the climate, but releasing carbon into the atmosphere drives global warming, and tragically deforestation is the second largest manmade, human source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, after fossil fuel burning. Interrupting forests too poses a very immediate threat to some species that live in these tropical areas. The habitats are shrinking for a multitude of these species, (some of which are endangered), and sadly there are over 300,000 different animals which have been found throughout the jungles of Borneo and Sumatra, many of which are injured, killed and displaced during the process of deforestation. Scientists estimate that the fragile orangutan population too could become extinct and non-existent within our lifetime if we continue to destroy their home and natural habitats for palm oil plantations. They have also found that only about 400 tigers are left on the island of Sumatra, these figures are confronting! In 1978, there were estimated to be 1000. Soil erosion and soil and water pollution are also issues that have become apparent as a result of creating unsustainable palm
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.