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Deforestation is the cutting down and removal of all or most of the trees in a
forested area and is a major issue among the worlds tropical rainforests.
Large scale deforestation has led to different negative impacts on people and
environment. There have been several strategies adopted to manage
deforestation in the tropical rainforest. I agree mostly with the statement that
the best way to manage deforestation is through the implementation of
reforestation and afforestation programmes as it aims towards the long term
sustainability of tropical rainforest. Although there may be other strategies
such as the protection of forested areas and controlled logging, their
effectiveness can be limited and may not be able to work in the long run.

Reforestation is the planting of trees in areas where the original forest has
been cleared while afforestation refers to the planting of trees on areas that
were not originally covered with forests. They are the most direct ways to
deal with the main problems of tree clearance from deforestation. For
example, the Reforestation in Peru project, organised by Latin America Travel
Association (LATA) Foundation, partners with the local communities by buying
seedlings from them and paying them to plant the trees. A total of 70,000
trees were planted in 2011. We can see from this example that such
programmes can help to attempt to restore the forest that has been cleared.
Though reforestation and afforestation take a longer time as trees take
around 15 years to mature, tree-growing helps to ensure the long term
sustainability of the tropical rainforest for as long as the programmes
continue. Hence I agree with the statement that the best way to manage
deforestation in tropical rainforests is through the implementation of
reforestation and afforestation programmes.

Protection of forested areas refers to the conservation of forested areas to

prevent them from being developed and to protect the biodiversity within.
This is a long term solution because it stops deforestation through the use of
laws which will last for a long time. However, it is not very effective because
people can choose to break these laws and still continue deforestation. It is
not feasible to ensure that none of the forest is deforested because of its
large size, huge manpower needed as well as other development purposes.
For example, according a WWF report, although nature reserves have been
set up, illegal logging activities could still be detected. As these activities are
difficult to monitor due to the vast nature reserves, they take place without
being detected by park officials. Thus, the protection of forested areas is
difficult to sustain due to the lack of manpower

Controlled logging refers to the careful management of forests that are

logged. Controlled logging only allows certain logging to take place in certain
places. This enables much of the forested areas to not be disturbed. For
example, selective cutting is encouraged as a method of logging forests. In
selective cutting, commercially valuable trees are first identified and then
logged while other non valuable trees are retained. This can benefit the forest
in many ways, such as enabling forests to regenerate. Young trees will
replace the old trees as overcrowding of the canopy is reduced. However, it is
very difficult to monitor logging and detect illegal logging activities due to the
lack of manpower and the remoteness of forested areas, which allows illegal
logging to continue undetected.

In conclusion, reforestation and afforestation is the most sustainable over the

long term while protection of forested areas and controlled logging are not as
sustainable because of the lack of manpower. The long term sustainability of
a solution is important because deforestation cannot be stopped easily. It will
continue on for a long time which is why the solution to it has to last at least
as long as deforestation continues.