The Consequences of Deforestation

The Consequences of Deforestation Around 10% of the earth’s surface is covered by forests. They play an important role in the planet’s biosphere by retaining water, preserving soil quality and providing habitat for an array of plant and animal life. Forests are also carbon sinks. By taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they contribute to climate stability. With widespread deforestation, this is changing. One fifth of the earth’s tropical forests were filled between 1960 and 1990. Some estimates say that 30% of the manmade increase in atmospheric levels of CO2 is due to the loss of forest. The world’s forests are dwindling in the pressures of increasing human population. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe lost much of its old wood land because of the demands of ship building. Today, unsustainable logging and slash and burn agriculture continue to erode the earth’s great forests. Forests are a vital part of the planetary biosphere. A single most important step humanity can take to minimize the effects of climate change is to preserve the areas of forest that still remain. In southern Ski Lanka, the Sinharaja rainforest had been listed as a world heritage area. The 12,000 hectares of protected rainforest is home to a range of species found nowhere else. Strict enforcement of laws protecting Sinharaja has stopped illegal logging and informal cultivation in and around the forest. Changing weather patterns mean that rainfall has become inconsistent. When it rained, it rains more heavily than before triggering landslides. During the dry season, temperatures are consistently exceeding the old average and the forest dries out. Effects on the forest are starting to show with imported trees like the Kitul and the Narra dying back. Once common species, these trees are becoming scarce as the region dries out. At the western corner of Brazil’s Amazon, it's not just the forest that is under threat but the traditional inhabitants as well. Previously, the isolated Ashaninka Indians had used violence to resist the pressure of miners and loggers from the outside world. Living on the mountains of the Amônia River for the past 400 years, the Ashaninka are one of the largest indigenous groups of the Amazon that have managed to maintain their traditions. Today, the Ashaninka are using education to preserve their culture and lands. They had established their own school dedicated to preserving the Ashaninka culture and fostering the spread of environmental awareness. Through environmental projects and the production of traditional food, this tribe is offering aid to other indigenous groups taking part in their new school for people of the forest. It is the first school to be designed by the Indian’s themselves. The regular classrooms have lost their place for more dynamic structure. Their students spend a part of the day out in the open. The idea of building a school came from the tribe’s leader Benki Piyanko. The school’s objective is to provide Amazonian residents with knowledge that will enable them to make a living without harming the environment. The Ashaninka School is not limited to Indians. It takes in bloggers, rubber tappers and even researchers who want to gain or exchange knowledge with the local people. The emphasis here is on integrating knowledge of the forest with practical skills. Students will live knowing how to make a living and how to keep the forest living. The Acre State Government has made Francisco Piyanko, Benki’s brother secretary for indigenous people in an effort to push forward similar projects. Over 20% of the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest has already been destroyed. The Tai forest national park in the Ivory Coast is the largest remnant of a primary rainforest that once spanned five countries. Qube Gibe Karle runs a conservation project for the World Wild Life Fund. He has setup a program to educate children about their environment. With the loggers are hard vat work on the fringes of the park, they have government permits to work there provided they don’t operate in the national park itself. Since the 1960’s the forest has been steadily destroyed; cut down for timber and cleared for farming. Timber is big business in West Africa and is one of the Ivory Coast’s most lucrative exports. The giant hardwood logs are tracked to the port of San Pedro had a tight permit system prevents the movement of illegally harvested lumber. Chimpanzees live in the rainforest but it's rapidly shrinking and there are only 1500 left. The chimpanzees are hunted for bushmeat. This meat is said to come from neighboring Liberia. The park’s rangers are out to stop poachers but the tracking process can take a week in deep forest and no poaching in the national park has been reduced, the bushmeat trade still thrives. Qube Gibe Karle is working hard to save the Ivory Coast last ecological treasure. He wants the next generation to understand the significance of the forest. On regular field trips, he explained how long the trees take to grow to maturity. Karle dreams to change perceptions so that people can understand the value of a living forest that’s there forever. The future of the forest and its wild life depends largely on the attitude of the people who live around it. Karle believes children are the forest’s future. One of these forest giants can live for centuries with the branches stretching to a height 60 meters.