Getting down to the roots of deforestation<\/p>\n
By Susilo<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Left to its own devices, the Earth would be a
\nforested planet. If our ancestors had never descended from them,
\ntrees would still cover about half the planet's surface. Now,
\nless than a quarter of the world's original forest remains, most
\nof it gone during the past 50 years. Every week another 400,000
\nhectares disappear and the rate of destruction has doubled over
\nthe past decade. As the trees fall, valuable topsoil has eroded
\naway, water supplies have become disrupted and the climate is
\nbeginning to change.<\/p>\n
Repeated international attempts to slow down, let alone
\nreverse, global deforestation have ended in failure -- most
\nnotably the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. But the other
\ninitiatives that have been launched by the United Nations and
\nenvironmental groups are serious attempts to get a grip on the
\ngrowing crisis.<\/p>\n
Last month, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable
\nDevelopment held the biggest international meeting on \"combating
\ndeforestation\". The UN's member nations formulated the most
\ndetailed assessment ever compiled of the state of the world's
\nforests. And throughout the year environmental groups will launch
\na worldwide scheme for labeling wood from forests that are
\nmanaged non-destructively.<\/p>\n
At present, only a tiny portion of the world's timber comes
\nfrom such sustainable sources. The consumers in industrialized
\ncountries, however, have shown that they are willing to pay more
\nfor wood from managed forests. It will give an incentive for
\nconservation. What they need is a label to identify which wood
\ncomes from sustainable managed forests. Such an incentive,
\nhowever, becomes insignificant compared to the ones furnished by
\nhistory and basic human survival.<\/p>\n
\"Forests precede civilization\" runs the old saying, \"desert
\nfollow.\" The site which was a city state of the Mesopotamian
\ncivilization, is now a bump in the sand; its soils, which 4,000
\nyears ago produced crops, were destroyed by deforestation.
\nSimilarly, the deserts of North Africa were once the breadbasket
\nof ancient Rome; this region's rich forests provided Hannibal his
\nelephants.<\/p>\n
While Christopher Columbus said he had \"never behold so fair a
\nthing\" as the forest that wrapped the mountains of Haiti, today
\nthose hillsides are bare, the soil washed away after the trees
\nwere cut down. Nearly 40 percent of country's population suffer
\nfrom malnutrition. This is similar to Ethiopia's famine that
\nfollowed the deforestation of once fertile highlands that had
\nsupported agriculture for thousands of years. In the past 50
\nyears 90 percent of the country's trees were lost.<\/p>\n
Studies show that deforested hills disappear 500 times as fast
\nas those with trees. Furthermore, land covered with trees and
\nother plants also absorb 20 times more rainwater than bare earth.
\nThe leaves break up the impact of raindrops, and their roots
\nallow water to perforate the ground. Without trees, floods become
\nmore frequent and ground water supplies dry up. In India for
\nexample, 60 million hectares of land is vulnerable to flooding,
\ntwice the area threatened 30 years ago. Yet water shortages in
\nvillages near logging sites have more than trebled in the past 20
\nyears. In addition, two-fifths of the world's people depend on
\nthe forest cover of mountains for stable water supplies.<\/p>\n
Main cause<\/p>\n
Indiscriminate logging is a factor in our changing climate.
\nForests regulate the climate, generating rainfall and absorbing
\ncarbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming.<\/p>\n
The majority of the planet's plant and animal species depend
\non forests. Tropical forests, only 6 percent of the plant's area,
\nshelter half of its species. As the trees are felled, the rate of
\nextinctions has accelerated to approximately 10,000 times the
\nnatural rate, threatening a biological destruction similar to
\nthat which swept away the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
\nOminously, the diversity of plant life -- which survived earlier
\nmass extinctions -- has been the first to suffer.<\/p>\n
As species disappear, they take with them genes,
\npharmaceutical compounds and other chemicals of incalculable
\npotential. An extract from the rosy periwinkle has increased the
\nchances of the child surviving leukemia fourfold to 80 percent,
\nyet this discovery occurred just before the plants habitat in the
\nforests of Madagascar was destroyed.<\/p>\n
The Pacific yew, close to extinction because it was routinely
\nburnt as a weed as North American forests were felled, has been
\nfound to contain an important cancer fighting drug called taxol.
\nDrugs from forest products already earn over US$100 million a
\nyear, but species that are potentially many times more valuable
\nare being destroyed.<\/p>\n
The above illustrations show that forests are far more
\nvaluable standing. Another study showed that preserving tropical
\nforests that protect valuable watersheds will provide benefits 25
\ntimes greater than those gained from destroying them. Similarly,
\na study in the Peruvian Amazon, concluded that sustainable
\nharvest of the forest for fruit and latex (natural rubber) was
\nnine times more valuable than felling it for timber.<\/p>\n
The fate of tropical forests have become a center of concern
\nin developed countries because half of tropical forests have been
\ncut down this century, and if current rate of destruction
\ncontinues, these forests will no longer exist by 2025.
\nIronically, these developed countries have an even worse record.
\nThe temperate rain forest of Northwest America, one of the most
\nproductive ecosystems, is cut down and even faster than its
\ntropical counterparts.<\/p>\n
Worldwide, only one hectare of tropical trees are planted for
\nevery 10 cut down. In Africa this ratio is close to 1:30. Some of
\nthe temperate forests are replanted, and in some rich countries
\nthe tree cover is increasing. But while it is much better to
\nreplant than not, the new forests bear little resemblance to the
\nones they replace. They have none of the ecological richness of
\nthe original forests, and they are not as good at safeguarding
\nsoil and water. The countries that do replant claim to be
\npracticing sustainable forestry. Finland, for example, is often
\nheld up as a model despite the fact that only 3 percent of its
\noriginal forests remain and hundreds of species are at risk.<\/p>\n
The International Tropical Timber Organization, representing
\nthe trading countries, has optimistically agreed that all trade
\nshould come from sustainable sources by the year 2000. There is,
\nhowever, no chance of that being achieved. Equally discredited is
\na Tropical Forest Action Plan launched in 1985 to coordinate
\ninternational aid for more rational forestry. And effort to
\nsecure a treaty binding both temperate and tropical forestry at
\nthe Earth Summit got nowhere.<\/p>\n
But concern for forests has grown since the 1992 summit. The
\nthird annual meeting of the Commission for Sustainable
\nDevelopment devoted much of this issue. Countries drew up
\ninventories of the state of their forests and formulated
\nproposals for sustainable use: there were no fewer than eight
\ninternational initiatives to draw up criteria for sustainable
\nforestry.<\/p>\n
On a more practical level, environmental groups have banded
\ntogether to form the Forest Stewardship Council which has over
\nthe past two years been identifying examples of sustainable
\nforestry. So far 800,000 acres of forest in places as far apart
\nas Europe and the Pacific islands, have met the strict standards
\nof this organization. Woods from these sources will soon be
\nidentified with a logo. Several countries including, Switzerland
\nand the Netherlands, have said that they will only imports from
\nsustainable sources by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
Susilo, and environmental observer, is a graduate of the
\nUniversity of Melbourne, Australia.<\/p>",
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