Rainforests play an important role in regulating global temperatures, according to Rainforest Alliance. Climate scientists say that rainforest conservation and the conversion to sustainable agriculture could play a significant part in slowing global climate change. After majoring in physics, Kevin Lee began writing professionally in when, as a software developer, he also created technical articles for the Johnson Space Center.
Today this urban Texas cowboy continues to crank out high-quality software as well as non-technical articles covering a multitude of diverse topics ranging from gaming to current affairs.
Examples Of Deforestation. Facts on Overpopulation and Deforestation in the Amazon Environmental Problems Caused by Deforestation of Tropical The Disadvantages of Deforestation. What Are the Resources of the Amazon Rainforest? How Does Deforestation Affect the Air? The Importance of the Forest Ecosystem. The Wet Tropics Management Authority which oversees the surrounding World Heritage Area is promoting tourism to the area before any management plans have been formulated, before any effective waste management strategy has been devised and before any ecofriendly power alternatives have been fully explored.
Solutions: The rights of indigenous forest dwellers and others who depend on intact forests must be upheld. In instances where there are campaigns opposing specific tourist developments, they should be supported.
Genuine ecotourism should be preferred to other tourist enterprises. More Than Just Poverty and Overpopulation. Poverty and overpopulation are believed to be the main causes of forest loss, according to the international agencies such as the FAO and intergovernmental bodies.
They believe they can solve the problem by encouraging development and trying to reduce population growth. However, the World Rainforest Movement and many other non-governmental organisations hold unrestrained development and the excessive consumption habits of rich industrialised countries directly responsible for most forest loss.
The World Rainforest Movement's Emergency Call to Action for the Forests and Their Peoples asserts that "deforestation is the inevitable result of the current social and economic policies being carried out in the name development". It is the push for development which gives rise to commercial logging, cash crops, cattle ranching, large dams, colonisation schemes, the dispossession of peasants and indigenous people and the promotion of tourism.
Harrison Ngau, an indigenous tribesman from Sarawak, Malaysia and winner of the Goldman Environment Award in , has this to say about why tropical forests are being destroyed:. The roots of the problem of deforestation and waste of resources are located in the industrialised countries, where most of our resources, such as tropical timber end up.
The rich nations with one quarter of the world's population consume four fifth of the world's resources. It is the throw away culture of the industrialised countries, now advertised in and forced on to the Third World countries that is leading to the throwing away of the world. Such so-called progress leads to destruction and despair! Tropical rainforests are found mainly in the Third World countries, Australia and Hawaii being the only exceptions.
The colonial powers Britain, France, Spain and Portugal , whilst exploiting the resources of many of these countries, attempted to destroy indigenous peoples' rights to remain on their land. Colonialism turned previously self-sufficient economies into zones of agriculture export production Colchester and Lohmann. This process continues today and the situation is worsening.
Wealthy countries have been consuming so much of their own resources that they are no longer sustaining their growing populations and increasingly, they are turning to the resources of the financially poorer countries. Currently, although many indigenous people are claiming their culture and rights, they face stubborn opposition, as the governments in their own countries have often 'adopted the same growth-syndrome as their Western neighbours, with the emphasis on maximising exports, revenues and exploiting resources for short-term gain.
The problem is made worse by the low price for most Third World exports on the international market. The United States has been accused of manipulating prices for agricultural commodities for its own benefit at the expense of tropical countries WRR. The governments of the financially poorer countries feel they need to make money in order to repay their huge international debts.
In the 's and 80's, they borrowed vast sums of money from development agencies in industrialised countries in order to improve their own economies. Since , the flow of debt repayments from Third World countries to rich countries has exceeded the flow of aid money going to Third World countries RIC. Poor countries feel compelled to exploit their natural resources, including their forests, partly to earn foreign exchange for servicing their debts.
Non-government organisations in Third World countries have for many years been pointing out that there is no chance of stopping impoverishment and destruction of nature without a solution to the debt crisis. For example, in some countries in South-East Asia, the construction of roads for logging operations was funded by Japanese aid.
Later, the forests were exploited by Japanese timber companies. Poverty, while undeniably responsible for much of the damage to rainforests, has to a large extent been brought about by the greed of the rich industrialised nations and the Third World elites who seek to emulate them. Development, which is often seen as the solution to world poverty, seldom helps those whose need is greatest.
It is often the cause rather than the cure for poverty. The claim that overpopulation is the cause of deforestation is used by many governments and aid agencies as an excuse for inaction.
In tropical countries, pressure from human settlement comes about more from inequitable land distribution that from population pressure. In general, most of the land is owned by a small but powerful elite which displaces poor farmers into rainforest areas. So long as these elites maintain their grip on power, lasting land reform will be difficult to achieve. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science.
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