Deforestation

Converting forests for

agriculture & tree farms

Headwaters Redwood Forest,

California

Headwaters Forest -- 200,000 fragmented acres

Forest Background
The area of the world's forests,
including natural forests and
plantations, was about 3.5 billion
ha in 1995
Source: UNITED NATIONS STATE OF THE
FORESTS REPORT (SOFO - 1997)

This is 26.6 percent of the total

land area of the world except for
Greenland and the Antarctic.

Forests in Decline
Between 1970 and 1995 the worlds
natural forest cover declined:
about 10 per cent
as wood and paper consumption increased
by two-thirds

at a rate averaging 0.5 per cent

per year
equivalent to an annual loss of forest the
size of England and Wales.

Habitat Shrinkage and fragmentation

play a key role . . .

. . . reducing

interior forest characteristics

upon which many species depend

Deforestation Rates
Worldwide, deforestation is continuing at a
rapid rate, and in the developing world, it is
most rapid, at an estimated annual rate of
0.65 percent
Deforestation is most rapid in the tropical
zone of the developing world, with the
highest annual rate of loss over this period
in tropical Asia-Oceania (0.98 percent
annually)
Globally, 11.3 million hectares (ha) of the
world's forests are lost each year

Deforestation rates may be

slowing slightly in
the developing world
Natural Forests in Developing Countries:

1990-1995
decreased 13.7
million ha
annually

1980-1990
decreased
15.5 million
ha annually

Frontier Forests
Study by the World
Resources Institute
Studied the worlds Frontier
forests -- the original, natural
forests present 8,000 years
ago before agricultures
dispersed widely

Findings of Frontier
Forests Study
Almost half of Earths original
forest cover is gone
Much of it was destroyed
within the last three decades
Only 1/5 of this remaining,
original forest is relatively
undisturbed

The remaining,
original
forests
.
.
.
Almost 70% of the remaining,
original forest is in Russia,
Canada and Brazil.
Most of this is in the
inhospitable northern boreal
forests of Russia and Canada

More Findings of the

Frontier Forests Study . . .
Outside of the remote northern forests,
about 75 percent of the remaining
frontier forests are threatened
Including the least accessible original
forests, 39% of the total faces
immediate threats by logging,
agricultural clearing, and other human
activity

Oceana:
Australia,
NewZealand,
Papua New
Guinea

PNG: Forest type: Tropical

Threats: Logging and oil pipeline development. (A large oilfield
has been discovered about 180 miles inland.)
At risk: A vast tract of relatively undisturbed tropical forest of
exceptionally high species richness. Homelands for several
groups of indigenous people.

Logging Continues to
Shrink Forests
With the world's forests continuing
to shrink, after holding 10 meetings
on five continents since 1995, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests,
comprised of more than 70
governments, ended two years of
talks in February 1999 . . . .

Without
agreeing
to any
binding
curbs on
logging

 The United
States
helped
block any
agreement,
fearing
slower
economic
growth.

It not just
government
inaction that leads
activists to
frustration and
rage . . .
It is that the
government
directly supports
deforestation

U.S. Citizens subsidize the

destruction of their own
forests
U.S. Forest Service lost $1 billion
between 1995 and 1997 by
subsidizing the timber industry.
According to the U.S. Governments General
Accounting Office.

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

You
get
what
you
pay
for

And a U.S.Agriculture Office

Inspector General report
released in January 1999
acknowledged widespread
corruption in its timber
program, finding:
* The integrity of
environmental decisions was
not maintained
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Office of Inspector General Evaluation Report No. 08801-10-AT
January 1999, Forest Service Timber Sale Environmental Analysis Requirements.

Moreover:
* environmental assessments
were inadequate; and
* findings of no significant impact
were false.
This report and hundreds of
lawsuits documents that federal
resource agencies routinely disobey
environmental laws and their
statutory obligations to enforce
them.

Ecological
Apocalypse?
Yes -- but this begs the
question of our class:

What is our
responsibility in this
kind of world?
Do we have any duties
to this world?