forest sustainability Flashcards
What are ecosystem services?
→ benefits that humans derive from natural ecosystems
→ provisioning services
→ regulating services
→ supporting services
→ cultural services
What is deforestation?
Deforestation is the permanent conversion of forested land to non-forested land, typically for agricultural or industrial purposes. Deforestation can have negative impacts on biodiversity, the climate, water resources, and human well-being.
What are provisioning services?
Provisioning Services: Material and energy outputs from ecosystems
Food: Provides for human consumption
Raw materials: For construction and fuel
Freshwater: Plays an important role in the global hydrological cycle
Medicinal resources: Used as traditional medicines and for the pharmaceutical industry
What are regulating services?
Regulating Services: Act as regulators to control certain factors
Local climate and air quality: Trees provide shade, forests influence rainfall and availability of water
Carbon sequestration and storage: Regulate global climate by storing and sequestering greenhouse gases
Biodiversity improves the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to the effects of climate change
Moderation of extreme events: Create buffers against natural disasters
What are supporting services?
Supporting Services: Support almost all other services
Provide living spaces for plants and animals and maintain a diversity of different breeds
Provides different habitats essential for a species’ lifecycle including migratory species
Maintenance of genetic diversity: Variety of genes between and within species populations
Biodiversity hotspots: species that have exceptionally high number of species making them genetically diverse
What are cultural services?
Cultural Services: Non-material benefits people obtain from contact with ecosystems
Recreation and mental and physical health: Doing physical activities in green spaces maintains mental and physical health
Tourism: Provides considerable economic benefits
Aesthetic appreciation and inspiration for culture, art, and design
Spiritual experience and sense of place: Considered sacred or have a religious meaning
what are the causes for deforestation?
→ increased agricultural land use demand
→ urbanisation
→ transport infrastructure development
→ industrial development
→ forest fires
elaborate on increased agricultural land use demand
● resettlement in forests to ease overcrowding, settlers establish farms converted from cleared forests
● to grow cash crops like rice and vegetables in extended farmlands, more forest areas are cleared for more profit
● plantation companies acquire forest land to grow cash crops like oil palm, destroying hectares of forested areas
elaborate on urbanisation
● people resettle from rural to urban settlements for more employment opportunities (city jobs are more stable than village jobs)
● hence, more urbanisation occurs! rainforests are cleared for more towns and cities, accomodating for more people
elaborate on transport infrastructure development
● roads and railway tracks cutting through forests (like trans-kalimantan highway) have been constructed to improve accessibility and access to previously remote areas
● this makes destruction of larger parts of rainforests easier
elaborate on industrial development
● logging and mining!
● heavy logging of trees to be sold as timber is caused by wood being rapidly processed and exported
● vegetation is cleared to expose underneath ground for mining, causing large expanses of rainforests to be cleared
→ also causes soil erosion
elaborate on forest fires
● slash and burn techniques are used to clear large areas for oil palm plantations and agriculture
● cheaper than employing labour to cut down trees and is the traditional agricultural method for shifting cultivators
→ would not invest so much if
they’re not going to permanently farm there
