Deforestation Joe, Cohen, Harrison
Role of Consumers Forests are cut down for money or to provide for families Farmers cut forests to create space for crops and livestock Logging operations cut down countless trees each year to create roads Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors (forest fires)
Role of Government Deforestation is not logging, it is when trees are clear-cut for a change to a non-forest land use such as city development or agriculture. -in 2005 it had affected less than 0.002% of Canada’s forests -on a global levels, Canada is only accountable for 0.4% of global deforestation. -Canada has 402 million hectares wooded land and in 2005 only 9400 hectares were lost due to deforestation -over half of the land that was cut was cut for the reason of pastures and crops.
Multinational Corporations Deforestation has shifted from poverty driven farming to large corporations cutting forests for projects in mining, logging, oil and gas development. The world has lost about 40% of forest area, most of which cut down by multinational corporations
International Community Deforestation accounts for over 20% of all the greenhouse gas emissions globally. It is worse than all the cars, trains, planes, trucks and boats combined. Not only does it hurt the environment, it hurts the 1.6 billion people who depend on forests for food and economic activity. Governments around the world have realized that the old growth forests that they are losing will not be coming back and are keeping a closer eye on them with increased protection of these lands. Every year nearly 13 million hectares of land are lost due to deforestation but this number is on the decrease On average per year in the 1990’s 8.9 million hectares were lost, this is now at 7.3 million hectares per year.
Suggestions and Solutions Carefully manage forest resources by… Eliminating clear cutting to make sure that forests stay intact The cutting that does occur should be balanced by planting enough young trees to replace the old ones