Definition of Deforestatio1

Definition of DeforestationWhat is deforestation? The green definition of deforestation is the destructionof a forest and changing the use of the land.Many people are concerned about the fact that there is no official or commondefinition of deforestation. For instance, should it also be used to describeforests where the nature of the trees have changed, such as replacing slowgrowing indigenous trees with fast growing woods, meaning that the preciouseco-system of the forest is destroyed?Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested land, foruses such as: pasture, urban use, logging purposes, and can result in aridland and wastelands. The removal or destruction of significant areas of forestcover has resulted in an altered environment with reduced biodiversity. Inmany countries, deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate andgeography. Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficientreforestation, and results in declines in habitat and biodiversity, wood for fueland industrial use, and quality of life. Forests disappear naturally as a resultof broad climate change, fire, hurricanes or other disturbances, howevermost deforestation in the past 40,000 years has been anthropogenic. Humaninduced deforestation may be accidental such as in the case of forests inEurope adversely affected by acid rain.[1] Improperly applied logging,fuelwood collection, fire management or grazing can also lead tounintentional deforestation.[2] However, most anthropogenic deforestation isdeliberate. The consequences of deforestation are largely unknown and the impacts notverified by sufficient scientific data [3] leading to considerable debateamongst scientists.

Use of the term deforestation

The lack of specificity in use of the term deforestation distorts forestryissues.[4] The term deforestation is used to refer to activities that use theforest, for example, fuel wood cutting, commercial logging, as well asactivities that cause temporary removal of forest cover such as the slash andburn technique, a component of some shifting cultivation agriculturalsystems or clearcutting. It is also used to describe forest clearing for annualcrops and forest loss from over-grazing. Some definitions of deforestationinclude activities such as establishment of industrial forest plantations thatare considered afforestation by others. The term deforestation is such anemotional term that is used "so ambiguously that it is virtually meaningless"

unless it is specified what is meant.[5] More specific terms terms includeforest decline, forest fragmentation and forest degradation, loss of forestcover and land use conversion. The term also has a traditional legal sense of the conversion of Royal forestland into purlieu or other non-forest land use.Causes of anthropogenic deforestationIn simple terms deforestation occurs because forested land is noteconomically viable. Increasing the amount of farmland, wood extractionand, infrastructure expansion are all important factors in drivingdeforestation in different regions [6] with mining also an important cause. [7] There is considerable interplay between theaw factors. For examplelogging(wood extraction) or mining requires roads to transport thetimber(infrastructure expansion) and farmers use these roads to move intopreviously unreachable areas of forest (agricultural expansion). The ultimatecause of most deforestation is increased food production. Cattle, permanentcrops, shifting cultivation and colonization are all equally important to globaltropical deforestation[8],Forested land can not produce as much food as cleared land. At the extreme,rain forests can not support human populations at all because the foodresources are too scattered. However even in open forest and woodlandcommunities food production can be increased by orders of magnitude whentrees are removed. The planet could not support current population andcurrent living standards without if deforestation had never occurred [9].Cattle, permanent crops, shifting cultivation and colonization are all equallyimportant causes of global tropical deforestation [10]. Slash-and-burn is amethod sometimes used by shifting cultivators to create short term yieldsfrom marginal soils. When practiced repeatedly, or without intervening fallowperiods, the nutrient poor soils may be exhausted or eroded to anunproductive state. Slash-and-burn techniques are used by nativepopulations of over 200 million people worldwide.

While forests have potential value as carbon sinks or biodiversity reservesthe benefits of these are insufficient to justify the loss of income from forests.Indeed the presumed value of forests as a genetic resources has never beenconfirmed by any economic studies [11]. As a result owners of forested landlose money by not clearing the forest and this affects the welfare of thewhole society [12]. From the perspective of the developing world, thebenefits of forest as carbon sinks or biodiversity reserves go primarily toricher developed nations and there is insufficient compensation for theseservices. As a result some countries simply have too much forest. Developingcountries feel that some countries in the developed world, such as the UnitedStates of America, cut down their forests centuries ago and benefited greatlyfrom this deforestation and that it is hypocritical to deny developingcountries the same opportunities: that the poor shouldn’t have to bear thecost of preservation when the rich created the problem [13].Aside from a general agreement that deforestation occurs to increase theeconomic value of the land there is no agreement on what causesdeforestation. Logging may be a direct source of deforestation in some areasand have no effect or be at worst an indirect source in others due to loggingroads enabling easier access for farmers wanting to clear the forest: expertsdo not agree on whether logging is an important contributor to globaldeforestation [14] and some believe that logging makes considerablecontribution to reducing deforestation because in developing countrieslogging reserves are far larger than nature reserves [15]. Similarly there is noconsensus on whether poverty is important in deforestation. Some arguethat poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have noalternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials andlabour needed to clear forest. [16]. Claims that that population growth drivesdeforestation is weak and based on flawed data. [17] with populationincrease due to high fertility rates being a primary driver of tropicaldeforestation in only 8% of cases [18]. The FAO states that the globaldeforestation rate is unrelated to human population growth rate, rather it isthe result of lack of technological advancement and inefficient governance[19]. There are many causes at the root of deforestation, such as thecorruption and inequitable distribution of wealth and power,[20][21][22]population growth[23] and overpopulation,[24][25] and urbanization.[26]Globalization is often viewed as a driver of deforestation.[27][28][29]

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