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The Problems Of Deforestation
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The year 2011
is ‘The International Year of Forests’. This designation has generated
momentum bringing greater attention to the forests worldwide. Forests
cover almost a third of the earth’s land surface providing many
environmental benefits including a major role in the hydrologic cycle,
soil conservation, prevention of climate change and preservation of
biodiversity (Sheram, 1993). Forest resources can provide long-term
national economic benefits. For example, at least 145 countries of the
world are currently involved in wood production (Anon., 1994a).
Sufficient evidence is available that the whole world is facing an
environmental crisis on account of heavy deforestation. For years
remorseless destruction of forests has been going on and we have not
been able to comprehend the dimension until recently. Nobody knows
exactly how much of the world’s rainforests have already been destroyed
and continue to be razed each year. Data is often imprecise and subject
to differing interpretations. However, it is obvious that the area of
tropical rainforest is diminishing and the rate of tropical rain forest
destruction is escalating worldwide, despite
increased environmental activism and awareness.
Deforestation
is the conversion of forest to an alternative permanent non-forested
land use such as agriculture, grazing or urban development (van Kooten
and Bulte, 2000). Deforestation is primarily a concern for the
developing countries of the tropics (Myers, 1994) as it is shrinking
areas of the tropical forests (Barraclough and Ghimire, 2000) causing
loss of biodiversity and enhancing the greenhouse effect (Angelsen et
al., 1999). FAO considers a plantation of trees established primarily
for timber production to be forest and therefore does not classify
natural forest conversion to plantation as deforestation (but still
records it as a loss of natural forests). However, FAO does not consider
tree plantations that provide non-timber products to be forest although
they do classify rubber plantations as forest. Forest degradation
occurs when the ecosystem functions of the forest are degraded but where
the area remains forested rather cleared (Anon., 2010). Thirty per cent
of the earth’s land area or about 3.9 billion hectares is covered by
forests. It was estimated that the original forest cover was
approximately six billion hectares (Bryant et al., 1997). The Russian
Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China were
the most forest rich countries accounting to 53 per cent of the total
forest area of the globe. Another 64 countries having a combined
population of two billions was reported to have forest on less than ten
per cent of their total land area and unfortunately ten of these
countries have no forest at all. Among these countries 16 are such which
had relatively substantial forest areas of more 1than one million
hectares each and three of these countries namely Chad, the Islamic
Republic of Iran and Mongolia each had more than ten million hectares of
forest. The forest area remained fairly stable in North and Central
America while it expanded in Europe during the past decade. Asian
continent especially in India and China due to their large scale
afforestation programme in the last decade registered a net gain in
forest area. Conversely the South America, Africa and Oceania had
registered the net annual loss of forest area (Anon., 2010; 2011a).
The
forest is a good source of food, income, ecological resources, social
and cultural features, as well as physical facilities like power and
building materials. Other functions of the forest are prevention of
erosion, as well as the provision of essential habitat for wildlife to
survive. Hence, the necessity to conserve the forest and the
biodiversity therein. In addition to conserving biological and cultural
diversity, it is now widely recognised that many protected areas also
have important social and economic functions. These include protecting
watersheds, soil and coastlines, providing natural products for use on a
sustainable basis, and supporting tourism and recreation (Lee et. al,
2003). Studies in China have also confirmed that medical herb production
is a big business and that the suppliers have chosen to invest in
forest protection and reforestation in order to guarantee future
supplies (see Chen, 1983 and Hou, 1994 for greater details).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This research was carried out in order to assess the causes and effects of deforestation in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. the researcher collected his information by distributing questionnaire to the people living in Ovia North East Local government Area in Edo State and to the Ministry of Agriculture Department of forestry in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State. The information gathered were analyzed and presented in percentages. From the analysis, the resea ... Continue reading---
