Destruction of the Rainforest
The tropical rain forests once blanketed the Earth like a wide green belt around the equator. Just a few thousand years ago forests covered 14 percent of the Earth 's land surface, or 5 billion acres. Humans already have destroyed half of this rain forest area, with most damage occurring in the last 200 years. Many of the main causes of the rainforest destruction include: logging, agriculture-shifted, cultivators, agricultures-cash, crops and cattle, ranching, fuelwood, large dams, mining and industry, colonization schemes, and tourism.
In most cases, this is untrue due to the nature of rainforests and of logging practices. Large areas of rainforest are destroyed in order to remove only a few logs. The heavy machinery used to penetrate the forests and build roads causes extensive damage. Trees are felled and soil is compacted by heavy machinery, decreasing the forest 's chance for regeneration. The felling of one selected tree, tears down with it climbers, vines, epiphytes and lianas. A large hole is left in the canopy and complete regeneration takes hundreds of years.
Removing a felled tree from the forest causes even further destruction, especially when it is carried out carelessly. It is believed that in many South East Asian countries, "between 45-74% of trees remaining after logging have been substantially damaged or destroyed" (WWF).
The tracks made by heavy machinery and the clearings left behind by loggers are sites of extreme soil disturbance which begin to erode in heavy rain. This causes siltation of the forests, rivers and streams. The lives and life support systems of indigenous people are disrupted as is the habitat of hundreds of birds and animals. Little if any industrial logging of tropical forests is sustainable. The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the body established to regulate the international trade in tropical timber, found in 1988 that the amount of sustainable logging was on a world scale, "negligible".
In most cases, this is untrue due to the nature of rainforests and of logging practices. Large areas of rainforest are destroyed in order to remove only a few logs. The heavy machinery used to penetrate the forests and build roads causes extensive damage. Trees are felled and soil is compacted by heavy machinery, decreasing the forest 's chance for regeneration. The felling of one selected tree, tears down with it climbers, vines, epiphytes and lianas. A large hole is left in the canopy and complete regeneration takes hundreds of years.
Removing a felled tree from the forest causes even further destruction, especially when it is carried out carelessly. It is believed that in many South East Asian countries, "between 45-74% of trees remaining after logging have been substantially damaged or destroyed" (WWF).
The tracks made by heavy machinery and the clearings left behind by loggers are sites of extreme soil disturbance which begin to erode in heavy rain. This causes siltation of the forests, rivers and streams. The lives and life support systems of indigenous people are disrupted as is the habitat of hundreds of birds and animals. Little if any industrial logging of tropical forests is sustainable. The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the body established to regulate the international trade in tropical timber, found in 1988 that the amount of sustainable logging was on a world scale, "negligible".
References: Colchester and Lohmann (Ed), The struggle for Land and the Fate of the Forest, 1993, Zed Books, London. World Rainforest Movement, Rainforest Destruction: Causes, Effects and False Solutions, 1990, World Rainforest Myers, N., The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future (updated for the Nineties), 1992, Norton, New York. Rainforest Information Centre, The Australian Rainforests of West Africa: Ecology, Threats, Conservation, 1991, Birkhauser, Basle. Collins, Sayer & Whitmore (Ed), The Conversation Atlas of Tropical Forests: Asia, 1992, Macmillan, London.