Topic: Slash and Burn Source 1: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/project/projects_in_depth/wwf_on_the_ground_in_madagascar/the_problem__slash_and_burn_agriculture/ According to the WWF, the practice of slash and burn annually destroys thousands of hectares of Earth’s forests. When the ground is burned and there is no longer vegetation, farmers cannot use it for farming any more because of the lack of nutrients. Slash and burn is done in places with very little protection or civilization. This lack of protection lets the farmers destroy the land without getting attention for civilization. Madagascar’s forests are an example of a target, and today only 10-20% of the original land exists. The impacts of deforestation are loss of biodiversity, habitat degradation, modified climate, and loss of water cycling. Populations of animals decrease, and eventually some can become extinct because species cannot support themselves in the small forest land left. In the forests of New Guinea, settlers and loggers increase the carbon dioxide level because the lack of trees cannot absorb all of it, therefore increasing pollution. Also, deforestation reduces the critical water cycling services provided by trees. Source 2: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0804.htm Some people that use land for survival cause two thirds of the world’s deforestation. First, they cut down the trees and burn the rest of it to put the trees’ nutrients int the ground. Then, they plant their crops, but because soil is not fertile for a long time, the land dies. Now it can only be used for cattle grazing, but if the cattle eats all the grass without letting it grow back, the now non fertile farmland is barren dirt. Slash and burn has been a met... ... middle of paper ... ...needed to protect the world's forests, the rights of the people who depend on them, biodiversity and the climate. They work alongside indigenous communities at the frontline of forest destruction - in the Amazon, the Congo, Indonesia - to investigate, document, expose and take action against forest destruction. With the help of hundreds of thousands of supporters, they’ve won some amazing victories. Deforestation of the Amazon for soya and beef has significantly reduced due to the soya and cattle moratoria, the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada has been protected and is being sustainably managed, 80,000 hectares of northern Finnish reindeer grazing forests have been protected, and, thanks to pressure from our supporters, multinational giants like Nestlé and Unilever have changed their palm oil sourcing policies to help protect Indonesia's rain forests and peatlands.
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 .
Take, for example, that livestock agriculture and the plant-based agriculture specifically used for feeding that livestock utilizes 30 percent of land on Earth. With crops in high demand to feed the many animals that are slaughtered or otherwise used by humans, it's been found that the soil has lost a great deal of its nutritional value and has eroded to the point that, in the United States, nearly 33 percent of topsoil is diminished.
Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Forests make up a large percentage of the globe. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath, determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. The wood from the forests are used everyday form many useful resources. Moreover, thinning the forests increases the amount of available light, nutrients and water for the remaining trees. Deforestation (forest thinning) is one of the most critical issues of environmental problems that are occurring today.
Traditional agriculture requires massive forest and grassland removal to obtain land necessary to farm on. Deforestation and overgrazing has caused erosion flooding, and enabled the expansion of deserts. But with drainage systems, leveling, and irrigation provided by the Green Rev, all this terra deforming will unlikely happen again. We can retain clean air and lessen the global warming effect caused by deforestation.Many people argue that a revamp in agriculture will be way too expensive and unrealistic especially for those poor farmers in third world countries. However many times, they exaggerate the price.
Deforestation is fast becoming one of the world’s worst environmental/geographical occurring disasters known to mankind, and is due to humankind’s greed, ignorance and carelessness when considering the future of our environment.
“The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Scaling to 46 years, human have been here 4 hours, the industrial revolution began 1 minute ago, and in that time, we’ve destroyed more than half the world’s forests.” - Unknown. One major environmental problem in our world is deforestation - what is that, you ask? According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, deforestation is the action or process of clearing of forests. Some consequences of this include a large contribution to global warming and climate change (about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year), loss of biodiversity especially in tropical rainforests, and the extinction of many known or yet to be discovered species. But, through some Debt-for-Nature Swaps, leaving forests
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
Protect biodiversity by opposing the privatisation and manipulation of the plant and animal gene pool. Cyberactivists Many Greenpeace supporters use the Internet to work with Greenpeace. Their website is an interactive source of information and action - by sending letters, faxes, emails - to support their campaigns Frontliner’s Everyday more than 100 Greenpeace Frontline campaigners are on the streets of Australia talking to the public about their work and raising funds to enable it to continue. Frontline develops important relationships with Greenpeace by recruiting long term supporters.
Deforestation for agricultural or logging purposes and the overexploitation of non-timber products can be due to driving factors such as the nation’s population growth, poverty, low levels of education and the nation’s political unstable situation (Kremen et al., 1998). As human population grows the demand for land, agriculture, timber and non-timber products and income grows. More people need to extract from natural resources to provide for their basic needs, and this is happening in and around Masoala National Park as the human population of Madagascar continues to grow (Worldometers, 2017). Poverty can also lead to anthropogenic pressures on the natural environment. Local communities will continue with slash-and-burn agriculture, illegal logging and harvesting of non-timber products as they benefit from these different forms of (illegal) resource use. Local communities in and around Masoala National Park often depend on its natural resources, either directly as they provide in their basic needs or indirectly as it can generate income (Ormsby and Kaplin, 2005). Poverty is often related to low levels of education, which is also the case in Madagascar. Generally, the educational attainment in Madagascar is low and adult illiteracy remains high (Fritz-Vietta et al., 2011; Ormsby and Mannle, 2006). In underdeveloped countries where educational levels are low people often depend on forms of agriculture as their main source of income. For many people living in Madagascar slash-and-burn agriculture constitutes the most important source of income (Fritz-Vietta et al., 2011). Since the farmers in Masoala National Park have low levels of education they are often not able to enter alternative working fields and obtain an income from other sources than agriculture. A politically unstable situation can also be a driving force that leads to certain anthropogenic
When most people think of deforestation they think of the rainforest. However, this is an environmental issue that takes place all over the world. In the following pages I will expand on what exactly deforestation means, and why as a world we have a need for it, even though it has adverse effects globally. Deforestation affects our environment by reducing biodiversity, changing the water cycle, affecting soil erosion and also plays a part in the ongoing phenomenon of global warming. Since, this is a global matter, the United Nations has implemented policies to help reduce the damage done by deforestation. The UNREED policy is globally based, while the REED+ policy is nationally based. I will also explain the importance of these policies and what they mean.
Timber and especially hardwoods like mahogany and ebony are being felled at an alarming rate to satisfy the needs of the swiftly developing world. Another problem for the forest areas of the world is the type of agriculture used by some peasant farmers known as "slash & burn". This method of farming involves the burning of trees to add to the initial supply of nutrients in the soil. Over time this supply slowly wares down and so the farmer once again moves onto another plot of trees to slash and burn.
The single biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation is conversion to cropland and pasture, mostly for subsistence, which is growing crops or raising livestock to meet daily needs. The conversion to agricultural land usually results from multiple direct factors. For example, countries build roads into remote areas to improve overland transportation of goods. The road development itself causes a limited amount of deforestation. But roads also provide entry to previously inaccessible—and often unclaimed—land. Logging, both legal and illegal, often follows road expansion (and in some cases is the reason for the road expansion). When loggers have harvested an area’s valuable timber, they move on. The roads and the logged areas become a magnet for settlers—farmers and ranchers who slash and burn the remaining forest for cropland or cattle pasture, completing the deforestation chain that began with road building. In other cases, forests that have been degraded by logging become fire-prone and are eventually deforested by repeated accidental fires from adjacent farms or pastures.
Deforestation is the elimination of existing trees from the earth; attributable factors include urbanization, logging, ranching, and farming and to some extent land speculation. Land speculation can be included as cleared land is more valuable than forested land. Deforestation, done in the name of progress, and the long-term, devastating effects of it, is killing our planet.
middle of paper ... ... resources, and improved understanding of environmental implications of harvesting and trade of forest products. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development is another important and effective step towards the rectification of Deforestation. Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s) play an important, but in some cases, inappropriate role in rectifying the problem. NGO’s like Green Peace and the World Wildlife Fund are two such NGO’s.
Scientists themselves are just beginning to understand the serious problems caused by deforestation. Deforestation occurs all over the world by all types of people. Peasant farmers even add to the problem because in most tropical countries the farmers are very poor only making between eight hundred and fifty four hundred dollars annually (NASA Facts). Therefore, they do not have enough money to buy what they need to live therefore they must farm to raise crops for food and to sell. In these poor countries the majority of people are peasant farmers this farming adds up to a great deal of deforestation. These farmers chop down a small area of trees for there plot to farm on and burn the tree trunks (NASA Facts). The combined number of farmers maintaining this process creates a great deal of clearing and burning of the land they need to cultivate, which results in land being treeless. Commercial logging is also another common form of deforestation. This commercial logging wipes out massive amounts of land sometimes deforesting several miles at...