m18.  To whom are rainforests important?

Both Less Developed Countries (LDC) and More Developed Countries (MDC) need rainforests to improve their quality of life. As populations grow in LDC, the poor are given land they clear in tropical rainforests so that they will have a place to live and be able to grow their own food. Another impact on rainforests is farming. Small scale farmers may burn off too much land and not give the soil a chance to recover before they plant crops.  These crops do not grow well; therefore the farmers burn off more and more land with fewer positive results. Cash crops of sugarcane, bananas, tea, and coffee replace tropical forests. Growing marijuana and cocaine-yielding coca take up areas that were originally tropical rain forest. Cattle ranches established on abandoned cropland may need government subsidies to make them profitable. To pay off foreign debt, less developed countries often sell off their forests, minerals, oil and other resources at low prices. Commercial loggers do not reforest the land, and may destroy 17 trees to get the one tree they want. Mining also makes a negative impact by poisoning streams with mercury. Oil drilling has destroyed forest areas through clearings for roads, pipelines, boomtowns, and leaky equipment. In addition, dams have caused rivers to flood areas of forest the size of Georgia.

Fuel wood is at crisis in levels in less developed countries. About 70% of the people in LDCs rely on biomass for heating and cooking (50% wood or charcoal, 33% crop residues, and 17% dung). In 1985, 1.5 billion people could not get enough fuel wood to meet their basic needs or were forced to use it faster than it was replenished. This causes hardship on women who must acquire the fuel; fuel may take 40% of the family income. These shortages cause dependence on crop residue and dung for cooking and heating, therefore reducing fertilizer for their crops resulting in less crop production. All of these fuels cause air pollution.

e01.    What is biodiversity?

e05.    Where are National Parks located?

e06.    What is “wilderness” and how much do we have?

e08.    What are bioregions and biosphere reserves?

e12.    Where are tropical forests?

e13.    What is biomass?

e16.    What do computer models of greenhouse changes show?

e22.    What do we eat?

g05.    How are forests of geological importance?