Deforestation

Question 1

How are natural resources valued?

Answer 1

It’s difficult to answer. Many resources do not have a dollar amount attached to them, or cannot have a dollar value (sacred land, for example). Sometimes we don’t know enough about how something works, so don’t know the value lost if the resource is lost.

Other things can be valued, but are often overlooked. Trees in the Amazon sequester CO2 and provide significant amounts of rainfall through evapotransporation. People clearing trees and planting soy don’t consider what would happen if they lost these benefits. They are taken for granted.

Question 2

What is TEEB?

Answer 2

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity.

A research initiative by the UN Environment Program. Nature has a $0 value. They are trying to put a dollar value on nature, which can allow governments and institutions address environmental problems. 45 billion annually could help save 5 trillion in ecosystem services.

Question 3

What is deforestation?

Answer 3

Clearing of forest for agriculture, settlement, mining, infrastructure.

Question 4

What is Closed Forest/woodland?

Answer 4

Minimum 20% crown cover

Question 5

What is open forest/woodland?

Answer 5

5-20% crown cover

Question 6

What is primary forest?

Answer 6

Forest unaltered by human activity

Question 7

What is secondary forest?

Answer 7

forest resulting in human activity

Question 8

How much forest cover was there pre-agriculture?

Answer 8

5 billion hectares

Question 9

When did forest clearing begin in Europe?

Answer 9

Early as 1000B.C. from population pressure

Question 10

When was most of Europe cleared of forest?

Answer 10

by 1500A.D.

Question 11

How much forest cover is there in 2000?

Answer 11

3.9 billion hectares

Question 12

Where has most forest been lost?

Answer 12

Temperate areas in Norther Hemisphere

Question 13

Where is forest cover stable or increasing and where is it decreasing?

Answer 13

Stable in high latitudes and decreasing in tropical regions.

Question 14

Which two countries had the highest deforestation rates 2000-2005?

Answer 14

Nigeria and Vietnam

Question 15

What accounts for global deforestation?

Answer 15

Agriculture 64%

Logging 18%

Fuelwood 10%

Cattle ranches 8%

Question 16

What are socio-economic factors underlying deforestation?

Answer 16

Poverty

Unequal land distribution

Low agricultural productivity

Rapid population growth

Tax incentives that offer loggers and ranchers or large-scale resettlement

International demand for timber or agricultural products, which generate income and countries use to repay debt

Question 17

How much tropical forest is in Latin America?

Answer 17

10 million square km

Question 18

What percentage of tropical deforestation is in Latin America?

Answer 18

About 50% and Brazil account for 70% of that

Question 19

What are the causes of deforestation in Latin America?

Answer 19

Cattle Ranching

Agriculture expansion

Roads

Resettlement

Population Pressure

Question 20

Outline Soy production in Latin America

Answer 20

Grown for livestock in Europe and China

Subsidized to clear stumps

Commercial - small farmers can’t afford machines, fertilizer, etc

Huge farms 1000s hectares

Has pushed cattle pasture further into rainforest

Roads needs to reach markets and coastal ports

Moratorium in 2006 - no more soy produced on Amazon farmland deforested after June 24 2006.

Question 21

Explain land tenure in South America

Answer 21

Colonists can get land by clearing forests and putting cattle on it. Cattle are safe investment as crops can fail and drop in price. Land must be used to potential or it’s lost. Illegal logging common because no enforcement

Question 22

What did Brazil commit to in 2005 regarding its deforestation?

Answer 22

To reduce it by 80% by 2020.

Question 23

What are the pressures on deforestation in Africa?

Answer 23

Population

Fuel wood

Agriculture

Logging

Question 24

Explain the state of affairs in Africa deforestation

Answer 24

2nd largest forest losses 4 million hectares per year.

On a small scale - 60% of new agricultural land in 80s and 90s was small scale and subsistence farming

90% of population fuel source is wood

Small scale timber harvesting and charcoal production

Large scale agriculture lacking because little infrastructure and weak governments

Question 25

Explain farming practices in Africa

Answer 25

Often use slash and burn in dense vegetation, low nutrients, pest outbreaks. Causes soil erosion and maybe permanent deforestation. Often dependent on bushmeat, which puts species at risk, more so with more road construction through forest. Bushmeat linked to disease outbreaks

Question 26

What pressures deforestation in South Asia?

Answer 26

population pressure

logging

agriculture

corruption

fodder collection

Question 27

What pressures deforestation in India?

Answer 27

Commercial forest use policies inherited from Brits

Rapid industrialization and urbanization

Demand for milk,eggs, meat expected to grow with incomes

Livestock pressures forests as demand for fodder and grazing increases

Question 28

What kind of crops pressure deforestation?

Answer 28

Rice, palm oil, rubber, coconut

Question 29

What was forest cover in 1900 Philippines? 2000?

Answer 29

70% and then 17%

Likely contributes to flooding

Question 30

What are consequences of deforestation?

Answer 30

Landslides

compaction

increase run off

soil erosion

laterisation: formation of hard, impermeable surface

Increase flooding or drought

Sediment flow in reservoirs

loss of habitat - fragmented forests which reduces migration and makes disease easier to spread.

loss of biodiversity

loss of carbon sequestration, evapotransporation

higher surface temperatures as soil being darker absorbs more heat than green leaves

Question 31

What are forests hard to manage?

Answer 31

Far away from governments and the law

Illegal loggers use violence

Illegal logging may account for half of all timber supply

Question 32

How has Brazil made progress in deforestation?

Answer 32

Implemented REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation)

Norway gave them 1 billion to compensate not clearing forest.

Deforestation decreased by 67%

Protected area now 1/2 of Amazon

Indigenous people have 20% control of Amazon

Logging laws enforced, jail time

Educated to increase productivity of soy, beef

Exposés of soy and beef industry

Social programs to lift 10 million out of poverty

Question 33

What is International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA)?

Answer 33

Intergovernmental organization promoting diversification of trade of tropical timber using sustainable management

Members manage 80% of world’s tropical forests, and 90% of its trade

Law enforcement policies

Forest restoration

Question 34

What is the Tropical Forestry Action Plan?

Answer 34

Largest initiative to focus on conservation and sustainable development

wants to restore, conserve, mange forests sustainably to benefit rural people, agriculture and economy

Poverty causes deforestation, must alleviate poverty

70 countries joined, but slow start and lacking funding