Anthropological Consequences Of The Consumption Of An Empty Forest

Empty Forest

Readford (1992) says, “We must not let a forest full of trees fool us into believing all is

well” (p. 421). Forests are an ecosystem composed by flora and fauna in a perfect and natural

balance of life and death. That balance can be affected by anthropological interference, mostly

by swidden agriculture, burning, and hunting. These three interferences has one thing in

common: they exterminate animals. As a result, they turn a majestic forest into an empty forest.

There is many ways to inspect if a forest is being conserved or not by using satellites view and

images recorded from planes. However, both of them give a superficial idea about the area of the

forest; and if this area was deforested or not. Those

Therefore, empty forests, unlike forests without anthropological interference, have poor

biodiversity.

In order to understand why fauna affects flora people need to know that some species of

the flora, usually large trees, are pollinated by animals. Herrera and Pellmyr (2002) explain, "The

lack of mobility in plants creates a physical obstacle in the dispersal of their genes. In a majority

of all plants, this obstacle has been alleviated through the formation of mutualisms with animals

that transport pollen grains between stigmas" (p. 157). So in empty forests, where fauna is

compromised by defaunation, pollination of large plants is obstructed. However, in the ideal

forest, without human interference, the pollination occurs normally. Animals would visit the

plants with different purposes; some of them to eat parts of the flower; others just because they

usually visit that tree; as they do that the pollen gets stuck in the body of the animal. As a result,

trees will be able to reproduce and turn flowers into fruit. In contrast, what happens in empty

forests is frightening. Lack of animal diversity in empty forests leads to lack of pollination; as

Dispersion is a process that happens after

the pollination of a flower; and it generates a fruit; animals usually eat those fruits, and they

leave the seeds on the forest floor. In addition, sometimes the seed goes through the intestinal

tract, what makes the seed even more propitious to sewing. Wunderle Jr. (1997) writes, "In many

plant communities, seed dispersal by animals is often an important form of dissemination of

propagules and in some sites over half the tree species have seeds dispersed by animals rather

than wind, water, or other forms of dispersal. For example, in some neotropical forests, more

than 66% of the canopy tree species have seeds which are dispersed by animals" (p. 224).

Respectively, this is what takes place in an untouched forests. They have a complete cycle: after

reproduction and formation of fruits, the seeds would be sowed, and the process of growth would

start with germination. However, what happens in empty forests is that there are no animals to