Tropical deforestation is the clearance of trees and vegetation that occupies certain regions. This cutting down of forests is majorly caused by various reasons that majorly contribute to a country’s economy. Human activities, as well as natural factors, contribute to tropical deforestation; however, the former is the main cause of the situation.
Activities that currently contribute to tropical deforestation
Firstly, agriculture is the leading cause of tropical deforestation such that people destroy forests to grow their crops for subsistence farming. Additionally, they do this in search of space to grow their food. For instance, coffee plantations generally take up so much space in different regions. Therefore, these large scales of land were cleared to enhance the country's economy through agriculture. Developing countries globally undergo tropical deforestation because they would like to improve their economy, therefore, finding possible ways to implement their strategies (Geist et al., 2002). Furthermore, the regions that have experienced tropical deforestation also participate in livestock keeping in the various lands. The clearance of these forests allows cattle farmers to engage in cattle ranching, thereby earning income through the livestock product. Additionally, the livestock products are used to improve the economy of these countries by exporting to other countries. Therefore, the livestock in these regions are well taken care of and are provided with appropriate feeds and a good environment that promotes their growth.
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Secondly, the building of new constructions contributes to tropical deforestation because most developing countries choose to destroy these forests to build infrastructures such as hospitals and schools to develop their regions. The cutting down of forests creates space for the building of new infrastructure, contributing to the kind of contemporary lifestyle that humans have chosen. Through these new infrastructures, developing countries are able to enhance their forms of transportation, such as the roads, rails, and even ports. Quality infrastructure improves the overall performance of certain regions that have gone through deforestation. Additionally, mining sites mostly rise from the clearance of forests as it is also an activity that consumes much space. Therefore, these mines also release their wasted materials, which are exploits to the forests. From this, most forests experience natural calamities such as an outbreak of fire, which spreads so fast in the entire forest.
Thirdly, timber extraction is one of the leading factors which contributes to tropical deforestation since most companies cut down the trees for the success of their businesses. Most paper industries use wood obtained from the forests to enhance the quality of the product they sell. This also causes adverse effects upon the residences in these regions with large scales of forests (Kummer & Turner, 1994). For example, people may be unable to get fresh air that is not contaminated since trees play a huge role in taking up the air humans do not consume. Therefore, paper industries and wood companies boom their businesses through the extraction of timber from these forests. Additionally, citizens from these regions with forests also cut down these trees to get charcoal which may also be a small business that they take part in. By timber extraction for charcoal or fuel, big lands of forests are rapidly cut down since many industries and companies and citizens depend on these forests to grow their businesses. This factor hugely influences deforestation since most people rely on the timber obtained from these forests.
Environmental implications of deforestation
Tropical deforestation has certain impacts on the environment and even people who live around the regions which experience deforestation. Firstly, it poses a threat to biodiversity as the forest acts as a home to most living things, from plants to birds, to small insects, mammals, and even amphibians. Therefore, human activities carried out in the forests threaten the lives of animals and plants. Additionally, some deforestation causes occur naturally, such as an outbreak of fire, which clears up the whole forest. Animals also depend on these forests for their survival as they also try to escape the harsh conditions that are not within their homes. There are certain vegetation and animals which find it hard to survive when exposed to too much sunlight. Therefore, it is these forests that act as homes for them. Furthermore, trees also provide food for animals for survival. As humans continue to cut down trees, animals and plants will continue lacking homes and may also succumb due to massive fire outbreaks. Most plants and animals continue to experience tough conditions as the years go by since forest fires cause deforestation in the United States. Habitat is being destroyed yearly, and adapting these animals to new locations for survival may be challenging.
Secondly, greenhouse gas emissions are being emitted, and this also poses a threat to the people who stay within forest regions. Forests store much of carbon, therefore, when deforestation occurs, carbon dioxide is largely emitted, and this causes global greenhouse gas emissions. When trees take up carbon dioxide, they prevent these greenhouse gases from destroying the atmosphere and causing global warming. Therefore, with the clearance of trees, carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere as well as all the gasses the forests have been storing, which is harmful to the lives of human beings. All this eventually leads to climate change which also largely affects living things as there will be a change in accessing food, and they will also be deprived of their habitat. Therefore, greenhouse gas emissions destroy the environment due to increasing rates of deforestation hence climate change.
Thirdly, soil erosion and flooding occur due to deforestation. Forests help the land to retain water and the nutrients that the soil receives; therefore, when trees are cut down, water accumulates in most regions hence causing flooding, especially in the coastal areas. The land that is left to bear for economic purposes, such as creating mining sites and timber excavation, experiences flooding since the soil erodes and the soil nutrients. Therefore, farmers around such regions experience losses in their products since whatever they grow may not thrive due to flooding and lack of nutrients in the soil. Forest fires adversely affect the soil nutrients and trees' ability to retain water from flowing into the land. Wildfire outbreaks clear up large hectares of trees. Therefore, this causes great losses to the farmers around and destroys the environment with flooding and soil erosion. Additionally, forest fires affect the environment by causing air pollution due to the greenhouse gas emissions that accumulate in the atmosphere hence causing global warming.
Economic and market mechanisms used to reduce forest degradation
Forest degradation is largely caused by human activities in search of charcoal and timber. Thus, there are certain market mechanisms that governments can implement in order to reduce forest degradation. Firstly, the timber process plays a huge role in the rate at which humans engage in exploitative activities that harm the environment. When the government does not follow an appropriate procedure and analysis in coming up with timber prices, often, prices get too high such that industries and even citizens of certain regions that use the tree products prefer cutting down the trees by themselves. Therefore, when there are low forest fees, commercial logging and processing do not experience losses, which encourages people to waste valuable timber. In developing countries that experience forest degradation, forest fees are often below the wood value (Rudel et al., 2009). Following this, forest fees should be raised to ensure that the over-cutting of trees reduces.
Secondly, log prices should be increased to develop more sustainable practices for harvesting timber hence implementing modern technology in fastening timber processing (Nepstad et al., 2009). When there are low log prices, the forestry sector does not receive relative returns. Therefore, this makes industries continue cutting down trees as well as fulfilling agricultural plans in the region. Additionally, more profit is gotten from low log prices, encouraging people to misuse the valuable timber. Therefore, the log prices need to be increased to prevent people from engaging in tropical deforestation.
Thirdly, carbon taxes should be introduced in areas where forest degradation is experienced. It ensures that people who cut down trees thereby emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, damaging the environment. This tax will help reduce future carbon emissions since individuals will experience the high costs of fuel, therefore, mobilizing people to reduce their rates of cutting down trees.
References
Geist, H.J and Lambin, E.F. (2002). Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioScience, 52(2), 143-150.
Kummer, D. and Turner, B. (1994). The human causes of deforestation in Southeast Asia. BioScience, 44, 323-328.
Nepstad, D., Soares-Filho, B.S., Merry, F. et al. (2009). The end of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Science, 326, 1350-1351.
Rudel, T.K., Defries, R. Asner, G.P. and Laurance, W.F. (2009). Changing drivers of deforestation and new opportunities for conservation. Conservation Biology, 23, 1396-1405.
