Werther
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THE CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION
I. DIRECT CAUSES
- Slah-and-Burn Farming:
- typical for poor farmers (only some acres are destroyed)
- by burning the chopped trees the soil gets minerals which are needed for the growth of crops
- Commercial Agriculture:
- also known as "cash crop production"
- huge areas of forest are cut down to grow crops
- rising importance of export goods (coca, rubber, oil palms, bananas, coffee, sugar)
- Cattle Ranching:
- big and important farmers chop down several square miles to saw pasture to graze cattle for the world market (a typical example is Brazil that grows beef for American hamburgers)
- often highly subsidized by the government
- Commercial Logging:
- cutting trees for sell as timber or pulp, mostly to developed countries
- another possibility: sold to the paper industry or used as fuelwood
- can occur selectively or by clearcutting
- commercial logging often uses heavy machinery as f.ex. bulldozers and road graders
- Mining:
- a problem that occurs only in some areas, but it happens in the Amazon
- affects the indigenous people
- has a bad impact on the water quality
- Tree Plantations:
- natural forests are cut down to plant more uniform, more easily managed monocultures
- do not only destroy the rainforest, but also pollute it because of the fertilizers
- indigenous people have to be displaced
- deep impact on the biodiversity
- Urbanization:
- forests are cut down to get more space for living (population grows)
- infrastructure is being improved: roads, etc. are built
II. INDIRECT CAUSES
- Weak Policy and Little Influence of Government Institutions:
- Brazil has got tremendous international debts and the timber industry brings money => do not really do something agains the destruction of the rainforest
- forestry departments have a low status within the government => lack of money, staff etc.
- corruption in the government => politicians got money from the timber industry for example
- Land Tenure:
- great unequality in the distribution of the land (mostly in developing countries)
- also foreign land-owners who produce cash crops and do not care about the environmental impacts of their production
- landlessness drives the poor to clear the forests
- Market Pressures:
- increasing demand for goods produced in isolated forest areas, such as timber or food products for example
- as long as the population grows the demand for such products will grow aswell
- Social Factors:
- lack of participation (passive and active) by different groups: industrialists, politicians and ranchers
- only few governmental organizations that actually do something about the problem
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