Development and the Environment- Human interventions in forest Essay

Development and the Environment- Human interventions in forest environments - Essay Example This paper will discuss various human activities that currently contribute to the tropical rainforest deforestation and the intensity of their effects specifically in Latin American and Asian regions. The activities that lead to deforestation According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, the main reason behind deforestation is agriculture. While subsistence farming causes 48% of the destruction, cash crop cultivation or commercial cultivation leads to 32% loss followed by logging and fuel wood with 14% and 5% each. Geist, & Lambin (2002) also report four reasons behind 96% of deforestation; they are permanent cropping, cattle ranching, shifting cultivation and colonization. Shifted cultivators In fact, shifted cultivators are considered the biggest threat to tropical forests and they are the reason behind 48% of the total forest loss. The main reason that forces these people into forests is the unequal distribution of land. For example, in Brazil, 42% of the total cultivated land is owned by 1% of the population. In addition, according to World Rainforest Movement (n.d.), half of Brazil’s total population is landless farmers. ... Logging The role of logging in deforestation cannot be neglected. Big logging companies cut down trees for their commercial uses. However, it is not only the selected trees that are destroyed; the vines, epiphytes and lianas are all destroyed along with the tree which will take many hundreds of years to regenerate. In addition, for the removal of the wood, they construct new roads and the area gets heavily compacted by machinery leading to a further decline in the quality of the land. Furthermore, the roads constructed by these loggers are used by the farmers around the forests to get access to the deep forests. When these farmers start slash and burn to grow food, the impact of the issue grows manifold. Cattle ranching and cash crops Another serious issue is the modern day agricultural practices. The first among them is the monoculture plantations which are solely aimed at making quick money. However, the impact of this agricultural practice is unimaginable. In addition, a lot of ma chinery, fertilizers and pesticides are used to make maximum profit in the shortest possible time. This intensive farming leads to a rapid fall in the quality of the soil in a few years. The severity of cattle ranching practices is more or less the same. Cattle ranching leads to the destruction of more and more land and the land so damaged will not support any plant or animals for a long time. Fuel wood A per reports, about 2 billion people worldwide still depend on wood for cooking and heating. Considering the huge number of the people, one can easily imagine the magnitude of the issue. In addition, according to United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 75% of these people