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Deforestation & Government
Term Paper ID:27911
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Reviews the evidence that deforestation is occurring at a deleterious rate. Discusses the potential problems with deforestation. Makes recommendations for government action.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Reviews the evidence that deforestation is occurring at a deleterious rate. Discusses the potential problems with deforestation. Makes recommendations for government action.
Paper Introduction:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
STATEMENT OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 2
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM OF DEFORESTATION 3
BACKGROUND 8
GOVERNMENT ACTION 10
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC CONFLICTS 11
BUSINESS RESPONSES 13
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 15
Text of the Paper:
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In the twentieth century, industrial economies havecontinued to tap the forests of developing economies to meet their owndemand for wood, veneer, and plywood, and again and again this isaccomplished through a joining of private investors with nationalcommercial and political interests to cash in on the short-term profits tobe made from timber exports from capital-starved nations. American Forests, 97, pp. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 2 SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM OF DEFORESTATION 3 BACKGROUND 8 GOVERNMENT ACTION 1 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC CONFLICTS 11 BUSINESS RESPONSES 13 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 15 REFERENCES 17 INTRODUCTION Deforestation is a global issue, which makes it a more difficultproblem to address than if it were strictly a domestic one or even if itwere occurring only in one region of the world. Another important element, though, and one that environmentalistsand interested western governments must face and do something about, is toprovide alternative fuel methods for the peoples of these developingcountries to reduce the use of wood for fuel. Once opened, regulating activity inthese regions is nearly impossible. The consequences of thisdeforestation will mean damage throughout the world, as well as to thosecountries, their peoples, and their governments where the deforestation istaking place. Deforestation in the tropics. Still, governments of both developed anddeveloping nations have a stake in the long-term survival of forests,notably the rainforests of tropical regions, and governmental action atboth levels is necessary. Local residents alsolose other forest resources, including animals killed for meat, fruits,oils, nuts, sweeteners, resins, tannins, fibers, construction materials anda wide range of medicinal compounds. Walsh (1989) states that about half the world's forests are temperate,and half tropical, and throughout much of history, forestlands have beendeclining. The fall of the forest. Buy or boycott tropical hardwoods? Scientific American, 262, pp. Thetropics contain a disproportionate share of the world's species of plantsand animals, many of them endemic to tiny habitats. have supported some regrowth because of the conservationmovement and tourist industry, and the tourist industry has become a majorincentive for less developed nations to preserve forests within NationalParks. A number of factors are cited for this change,and one reason has been action by the Brazilian government. It isassumed that unregulated business enterprises have contributed to theproblem as governments have allowed uncontrolled development for economicgain. Thailand recentlybanned commercial logging over the protests of influential concessionholders when surveys showed that forest cover there had declined from 29 to19 percent of the land area between 1985 and 1988; the decision was alsomade after landslides from deforested hillsides cost 4 , people theirhomes. 7) What efforts have been undertaken to get them to live up to theseresponsibilities, if any? 6) What responsibility does each have in addressing the problem ofdeforestation? There arenumerous antecedents for what happened in more recent times. Governments clearly have a responsibility to stop thisdevastation, and it is also to their benefit to do so. (1989, Fall). Temperate forests recorded a modest expansion because oftrees growing on abandoned cropland, but these forests of the temperatezones showed the effects of a crisis facing the developed nations:extensive forest die-back from a variety of causes ranging from airpollution to not-yet-understood blights. REFERENCESConnor, J. And increasingly ithas become a matter of public concern in Western industrial nations.Citizens of industrialized nations often respond to the issue of tropicaldeforestation with pedagogical or moral demands, and they treat the peopleof the tropics as a population that needs to be educated to the same levelthey themselves have reached so that those people will also want to protectthe forests. Above and beyond thespecies they comprise, tropical forest habitats offer several classes oflocal and global values: hydrological, in preventing soil erosion anddownstream siltation, and climatological, in maintaining localprecipitation and the atmospheric balance of gases (Jacobs, 1987; Katzman &Cale, 1988). The New Republic, 2 7, pp. The causes as well as the effects of tropical-forest degradation are thus matters of worldwide concern. New York: Springer-Verlag.Katzman, M. This new enforcement practice was givenwidespread publicity in Brazil and helped slow the rate of forest clearing. This is certainly true of U.S.-based companies which may seekareas for foreign investment specifically to reduce their costs, includingcosts associated with environmentally sound controls. Open forests and woodlandsoccupy drier locations and are more resistant to drought and fire, andgrasses and shrubs grow between the trees. Clearly, many of these trends are contradictory, some spurringmore cutting and some reducing the level of cutting taking place. According to recent studies, thecapitalized value of the income derived from such nontimber forest productscould greatly exceed that of the timber harvest. Local governments in Germany and theNetherlands have indeed stopped using tropical timber in publicconstruction. Various kingdoms in West Africa from the 9 sthrough the 13 s deforested areas for metallurgy. (1987). 24-25.Jacobs, M. There is also evidencethat the peak of these losses occurred in 1987 and that the rate has beendeclining since that time. In spite of these apparent successes, manyexperts believe that the boycott approach is not effective as a long-termstrategy and point to the fact that 7 percent of the wood being cut downis used for fuel in the home country (Wille, 1991). Warshall (199 ) states thatcertain nations - the United States after 19 , Japan, and Europe (but notthe Soviet Union) - stabilized their forest coverage, although not with thesame species that previously existed. The devastation of the forests carriesa high price tag. 4 -41.Repetto, R. Studies bythe National Remote Sensing Center analyzing data from India show thatthere was an estimated deforestation rate for the early 198 's of 1.5million hectares (3.7 million acres) per year, some 1 times the earlierestimate made by the Food and Agriculture Organization. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC CONFLICTS Warshall (1989) indicates the nature of the economic problem - thedeveloped world is asking the developing world not to exploit certainresources the developing world sees as necessary for economic viability.Warshall states that the crucial new aspect of the global wood-productseconomy is that the industrialized nations of Europe, Japan, and NorthAmerica relaxed exploitation of their own hardwood forests and utilized theforests of other regions of the world. STATEMENT OF RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The objective of this research is to ascertain the level ofdestruction occasioned by deforestation in the world today and the natureof the problems consequent to that destruction. In 1988 thegovernment rescinded old tax laws that encouraged forest clearing. The timber cost alone has been unexpectedly high astropical-timber prices have bucked the general downward trend of commodityprices and as many previously uncommercial species now find ready markets.The devastation has actually reduced the long-term economic viability ofthese countries, something that could spur them to change their ways. During all this time, the role of national governments has remainedsomewhat the same. Also,unusually wet conditions inhibited burning in that year. Among the research questions to be answered are the following: 1) What is the nature and scope of the problem of deforestation? This makes it all the moredifficult for them to complain when developing nations are faced with theissue of preservation versus jobs and a viable economy, which is usuallythe way the issue unfolds. (199 , April). In the temperate regions, the hectares of forest are expanding,but the increases have been more than offset by decreases in the tropicalregions. Finally, Europeand the U.S. Between the early 16 s and the early 19 s, settlers cut about one-third of the original forest covering the contiguous United States. T. In addition, corporations have a role in thatthey usually benefit from and may even drive the economic development thatcan include environmental destruction. Inthe 17 s and 18 s, the oak-hickory forests of the American midwestern andsouthern deciduous forests were felled to be replaced by wheat, corn andtobacco farms. Some governments have taken action. American Forests, 95, pp. Precisely what isdisappearing is a matter of argument, and that is part of the problem. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The evidence is clear that deforestation is taking place at anunacceptable rate, even in areas where it has been reduced, with thetropical rainforests in particular at risk. Deforestation at this rate posesextreme risks to natural systems, including the atmosphere, and theresulting release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is estimated toaccount for from 15 to 3 percent of annual global carbon dioxideemissions. It may well have significant effects on worldclimate. This stabilization shows a number ofconsequences. This is taking place against the background of an apparentlyunstoppable population growth, indicating that the regeneration and long-term sustenance of the developing world's forests will have to come from avery different organizational and financial base than now exists. While some countries have been regulating deforestation, as notedabove, a recent study commissioned by the International Tropical TimberOrganization shows that not even one tenth of one percent of remainingtropical forests are being actively managed for sustained productivity. Numerous investigators have collected data, and analysisby the World Resources Institute indicates that both the logging and theconversion are largely the result of government policies, many of which aredriven by the severe economic pressures afflicting debt-burdenedunderdeveloped countries. Recent figures show that Brazil hashad the greatest losses of any single country, though there have beendifferent assessments of the size of those losses. A number reflecting therate of deforestation does not even begin to convey the impact of an erodedfield where a rainforest once stood, an impact which extends beyond theimmediate area. First, the intensification and mechanization of agriculturereduced the demand for new farmland, altering migration patterns and landuse. It is now knownthat the destruction of tropical forests is a more serious problem than itwas thought to be only a decade ago, as shown by recent estimates based onremote sensing from satellites and on careful field surveys. These countries havesuffered other economic losses as well. Journal of Agricultural Ethics 1: pp. They can create an economic environment thataccelerates or decelerates deforestation or the impoverishment of standingforests, but they can also institute policies which control the process.Unfortunately, more often than not government policies have increased therate of deforestation. Ungreen machine: Brazil's environmental fakery. In addition, incomesderived from such products generally go to local residents, while theprofits from timber operations more typically go to distant elites orforeign corporations (Repetto, 199 ). W. Third, Japan, Europe(especially Britain), and the U.S. Deforestation not onlytakes place in various regions of the world, it also affects everyone, withthe potential for worldwide ecological devastation. GOVERNMENT ACTION As the deforestation has continued, a sense of crisis has emerged inthe tropics as governments have been made to realize that the rapiddeforestation represents a waste of valuable resources and a severeeconomic loss. This destruction is being brought about by inefficient commerciallogging operations and the conversion of forested areas to cattle ranchingand agriculture. This contributes substantially to the buildup of greenhousegases, which may lead to global warming. BUSINESS RESPONSES Business interests in different parts of the world have been madeaware of the nature of the problem and have been finding that the concernsof environmentalists and others could affect their ability to do businessas they have in the past. Much of the concern over deforestation has focused on Brazil, which hasthe world's largest intact tropical forests and the greatest amount ofdestruction each year, but the problem also affects India, Indonesia, andBurma, where there has been a dramatic rise in the rate of destructionsince 198 . G. Satellite imageryof the region shows that large areas legally designated as forestland arealready in fact virtually treeless. Some companies indeed operate withless environmental conscience when they are operating outside their ownborders than they ever would at home, where they are also often constrictedby laws. The forests of southern Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, theMiddle East, much of highland China, Nepal, Tibet and Sahelian Africa arenow a shrub/grass complex. Surveys in the Amazon show thatdeforestation is particularly rapid where roads for logging or otherpurposes have opened up a region. Thesecondary economic impacts of deforestation may be worse than deforestationitself, and this has been seen in developing countries before. (199 , July 21). An examination of the issue will show the degree ofdeforestation that has already taken place, the rate at which it continuesto reduce the size of the forests of the world, and some of the ways inwhich governments and corporations have responded, as well as ways in whichthey should respond in the future to reduce the scope of this problem. It is now believed that in 1 biologically rich andseverely threatened regions accounting for 3.5 percent of the remainingtropical-forest area, 7 percent of all plant species will probably goextinct by the end of the century at current rates. Repetto (199 ) notes that tropical forests are disappearing at therate of tens of thousands of square miles per year and that thisdeforestation is laying waste to a valuable natural resource throughoutmuch of the developing world and is bringing countless plant and animalspecies to extinction. Both governments and businesses need to become aware of the real costsof deforestation, costs which extend far beyond the loss of trees, andprices charged for the wood do not reflect the true costs. Other nations with high rates of loss include Cameroon, CostaRica, the Philippines, and Vietnam, followed by Colombia, Ivory Coast,Thailand, Laos, and Nigeria. Those pressures are increased by certainpractices of developed countries and their national and internationalfinancial institutions. In the United States, timber companies extract wood fromfederal lands and avoid the costs of infrastructure (roads) and post-harvest environmental degradation (road washouts and sedimentation of fishstreams). It is also believed that the problem is such that its continuationwill actually reduce economic viability rather than enhancing it and thatgetting governments to realize this is one step to reversing the trend. Similar problems can be found in other countries. One reason for this attitude is the perception thatdeforestation is the result of innumerable individual decisions that arerational on a small scale (e.g., subsistence farming, ranching, orlumbering for profit) but that have consequences that are irrational on thelarge scale (e.g., alteration of hydrological patterns, effects on globalclimate, or reduction of biodiversity). & Cale, W. England's Prince Charles called for a boycott of tropicalhardwoods from "unsustainable sources." Hardwood dealers have encounteredprotests at their logging sites and boycott threats at home, and this hasstarted having an effect. switched to using wood from othernations and "banked" their own, but this also meant that they depleted thereserves in other regions, notably the Third World and developing nations.Fourth, the extraction and trade of wood products has a technologicalcomponent, seen in the fact that tropical woods have a fiber structure thathas resisted pulping. Logging in that area thus cost taxpayers anestimated $5 million in 1988. 3) Who are the primary participants? Many of the developednations of the world have decimated their own forests, and though todaythey are involved in attempts at preserving vast tracts of the forest theyhave left, they have already contributed to the problem by the destructionwrought during their formative period. Both governments andcorporations will benefit from efforts to protect the world's forests, andboth need to take responsibility for seeing to it that the ecology of theworld is protected. The global timber tradebegan in the colonial era, and countries that had the transport, capital,technology, and political means extracted wood products from every regionof the world. (Monastersky, 199 , p. (1989, November-December). In the Philippines, undisturbed forests containing one valuablefamily of tall trees, the dipterocarps, shrunk from 16 million hectares in196 to less than a million hectares left standing in remote hill regions;the government has suspended logging in most provinces, and mills are thusclosing or are importing logs from Sabah and Sarawak, two states inMalaysia (Repetto, 199 ). 5) What role does business and government play? The Wilderness Society estimates thatAmericans subsidize private logging companies at a rate of $4 million ayear. Europe, for example, may havelost 15 percent of its standing volume to such causes in recent years. D. 36-43.Walsh, B. The lesson of the developed world is instructive in terms of what hasbeen done to reverse domestic deforestation. Inmost countries, forests designated for logging are left virtuallyunprotected from encroachment by settlers. The basic problem of tropicaldeforestation is seen in the fact that habitat destruction in the tropicalrain forests is proceeding at an average annual rate of 1 , -2 , square kilometers, an area the size of England. The size of theproblem has been accelerating in recent years. 257-273.Monastersky, R. 26-3 . The "externalities" or "non-harvesting" costs are partially coveredby the taxpayer through congressional allocations to the Forest Service,and as an example, in the Tongass National Forest of Alaska, the U.S.Forest Service spends $1 of taxpayer money for every $1 it receives fromprivate concessionaires. 68-75.Wille, C. (1988). Brazilianscientists started using new satellite data to spot fires as they burninstead of months after, allowing officials to dispatch helicopters toissue fines for illegal fires. Economic incentives for tropical forest preservation: Why and how. World forests. However, with new methods, tropical wood can now beseparated into fibers and made into paper, so tropical forest cutting ischanging from selective cutting for specific trees to clear-cutting forboth timber and pulp. (1991, July-August). 4 )Warshall (1989) agrees and notes that the conversion of forests to otheruses, especially agricultural uses, and the impoverishment of existingstanding forests has been a consistent theme of this century. This could bechanged if governments produced incentives to protect forests anddisincentives to destroying them, and this has worked to a degree inBrazil. Whole Earth Review, pp. Ithas been shown that in countries where loggers have been allowed to extractas few as two or three trees per hectare, destroying the rest asuncommercial, they now regret their shortsightedness. The tropical rain forest: A first encounter. Joint agreements between nations, concessionairesand trading companies and, more recently, bilateral or multilateral agencyagreements have been responsible for much of the increase. Greece lostits famous oaks to the axes of northern invaders in pre-Hellenic times. Perhaps 7 percent of the woodharvested in tropical countries is used locally, mainly for fuel, andsevere fuel shortages result as forests disappear. TheIndonesian government captured 37.5 percent during the same period. The majority of the world's forests are closed, meaning theirbranches form a canopy overhead that creates shade and prevents the growthof grasses and shrubs on the forest floor. Greece lostits topsoil from deforestation, forcing it to change to a subsoil economy(grapes, olive oil, pottery) and making it dependent on international tradeand a large naval force to import topsoil grains. In addition, the deforestation oftropical forests is rapidly eliminating the habitat of large numbers ofplant and animal species. Science News, 138, pp. BACKGROUND While this destruction now centers on these nations, Monasterskypoints out that the present deforestation only echoes what went before inmore developed nations: Historically speaking, deforestation in the tropics echoes what happened long ago in the temperate forests of North America and Europe. Economic development indirections other than those that destroy forests would also provide anincentive for the populace to protect the forests while still allowing themto live and to increase their economic viability. As a result, American companies can sell the wood at below totalcosts. (1992, July 13). The new developing nations need theincome that comes from selling their hardwoods, a trade created by thedeveloped world, but the developing countries have no alternative regionsto exploit to meet their own needs and slow down the exploitation of theirown resources. 28-33.Warshall, P. The ultimate economic costs in terms of flood relief, health,lost floodplain farming, and housing could never be met by the timbercutters but are left to the government (Warshall, 1989). 2) What are the causes of deforestation? The political economy of deforestation. Also to be considered arethe roles of both government and business first in the destruction itselfand then in any responsible program to curtail that destruction. Fifth, hardwood products have become luxury items,leading to the likelihood of more hardwood substitutes. About half of the world's species inhabittropical forests. SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM OF DEFORESTATION The destruction of tropical forests has long been a source of alarm toprofessional ecologists and environmental activists. Floods are a majorproblem once the forests are gone, and this has been seen in India, SouthAmerica, and Asia, among other places. 4) What are the consequences of uncontrolled deforestation? Forests areundervalued, and the real price of sawn wood is hidden by administrativepractices. Groups such as the Rainforest Action Networkhave been aggressive in asking consumers to avoid all products made fromimported tropical rainforest wood. In thePhilippines, the government captured only 14 percent of market income fromlogging concessions from 1979 to 1982, and at the same time virtually allmajor productive forests in the Philippines have been logged out. The process is taking place todayin China as timber cutting in Tibet hurts water quality and increasesflooding. Second, the U.S., Japan and Europe made a significant shift to bothcoal, petroleum, hydro- and nuclear power for heat energy for both homesand industries, reducing their need for wood as fuel. The figures on destruction onlyhint at what is actually happening in the forest. Monastersky (199 ) echoes these figures and cites the internationaloutcry raised over the last few years by ecologists and conservationistsabout deforestation and its effects. The supposedeconomic benefits of deforestation are illusory and/or temporary, andindeed it seems to cost the government more than it makes while benefitingtimber companies that are taking advantage of economic realities.Businesses have a responsibility, though it is less clear that changingtheir ways will produce an economic benefit for them.
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