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DEFORESTATION

By deforestation we understand the destruction on great scale of the forest by the human action. The deforestation is not just like the forest degradation that consists of the reduction of the quality of the forest. Both processes are related and produce diverse problems. They can produce erosion of the ground, which favors the floods or droughts as well. They reduce the bio diversity, which is mainly significant in the rain forests, which lodge good part of the bio diversity of the world. The forests play a key role in the storage of CO2; if they are eliminated, the excess of CO2 in the atmosphere can take to a global Earth heating. On the tempered regions agriculture was based on the elimination of the forests taking advantage of the fertility of its grounds. Most of tropical forest grounds are much less fertile than those of tempered regions and are easily subject to erosion due to the high rainfall that prevents the accumulation of nutrients in the ground. However, the colonial ideas were based on the mistaken assumption that an exuberant forest meant fertile grounds. The increasing deforestation not only eliminates the natural polinization, but also increases to the levels of CO2. The equivalent to a football ground of rain forest surface is destroyed every minute that passes.:

The cause of deforestation is  very complex. A competitive economy creates the need for money in poorer third world countries. The governments sell logging concessions to pay international debt, or to develop industry. Brazil had an international debt of $159 billion in 1995 ("BSRSI").





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What happens after a forest is cut is very important in the regeneration of the forest. In a tropical rain forest, almost all nutrients are found in the plants and trees, not in the ground.  When the plants and trees are cut down to plant crops, the most common method used by small farmers is to burn the tree trunks to release the nutrients necessary for growing plants. This process is called "Slash and Burn" agriculture ("BSRSI"). When the rains come, they take away most of the nutrients and leave the soil naked. When the soil has lost most of its fertility, farmers have to look for other areas to plant. They left this area to grow back. The forest will probably grow back slowly because of the lack of nutrients. There are other types of farming, for example, "shade agriculture" ("BSRSI")  In this case some of the trees remain uncut to provide the growing crop (e.g. Coffee, Chocolate) with shade. Other types of farming can destroy a lot more the rainforest. Intensive agricultural systems use lots of chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers. Then we have commercial logging and this bring different consequences.  Selective logging consists of cutting only a few trees. But they use heavy machinery and destroy the ground and knock down or damage other trees.  Clear cutting is the worse method. When all the trees are taken away, the ground is left with almost no resources to grow back.


The deforestation of tropical rain forests threatens biodiversity. Deforestation may have deep effects on global warming.  Because the causes of deforestation are the result of a very complicated group of socio-economic factors the solutions we are looking for in our project have to take in account many different aspects related with politics.


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Next: El Niņo

References:
BSRSI. "Rainforest Report Card".  online: http://www.bsrsi.msu.edu/rfrc/deforestation.html
Pictures:
1. Picture from: http://www.ddbstock.com/deforestation1.html ( Deforestation for farming )
2. Picture from: http://www.landau-forte.org.uk/geography/rainforest.htm

         

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