Deforestation as a Human-Made Environmental Problem Essay

Introduction

The increases in the population of humankind have put a strain on natural resources. This analogy provides reasons why human activities are the leading cause of deforestation.¹ Among the human factors for deforestation are global warming, climate change, acid rain, natural storms, and forest fires. Virgin land has been lost significantly in the United States alone. An additional 5 million acres of forest land have been destroyed annually between 2001 and 2015, and the statistics do not seem to end.² 25% of pharmaceuticals and half of cancer treatment drugs introduced since 1940 are manufactured from rainforest ingredients.³ Therefore, losing this precious resource is a matter of grave concern. Deforestation has serious long-term and short-term effects on the ecosystem and human health, which is the main focus of this paper’s discussion. In addition, the debate forwards potential mitigation strategies.

The Short-Term Effects of Deforestation

Deforestation has immediate effects on plants and animals, alias flora and fauna. Forests are a habitat for several animals and plants, including nesting birds, nestlings, and eggs of various animals. Loss of habitat for such living organisms leads to the death of many of them. The few that survive are forced to relocate to other environments. The laws of survival of the fittest create territory wars with species of different kinds, including natural selection for population control. One of the immediate effects of deforestation is its severe effects on flora and fauna that the rainforest provides refuge in.

Rainforests and the majority of forest plantations occupy vast land on the leeward side of the mountainous regions. Geographically, this side of the mountain receives generous amounts of rainfall for the survival of plantations. Such steep slopes on which forest vegetation grows are prone to erosion, landslides, and avalanches. Trees have roots that hold the soil together to prevent corrosion. Also, they provide a catchment area for snow, particularly during the winter seasons, to prevent landslides and avalanches. Destruction of forest reserves by human primary and secondary activities reduces these benefits and exposes man to danger and soil destruction.

Deforestation exposes soil to heat and rain which quickly damages the top soil viable for agricultural production. There is a substantial rapid degradation of the quality and fertility of such lands. Also, the exposure of the tops soil due to deforestation leads to erosion and avalanches, as has been highlighted. Removing the top fertile soil through flooding and sedimentation is detrimental to the fisheries of the coastal region and food production. Soil quality deterioration, flooding, and exposure of soil are all qualities are short-term effects of deforestation that reduce sustainable food production for humanity.

Long-Term Effects of Deforestation

One of the long-term effects of deforestation is global warming. Trees, being plants, absorb carbon dioxide for food production during photosynthesis. At the same time, respiration occurs through the process of oxygen emission by plants. The growth of forests provides an environment in which photosynthesis exceeds respiration to end that surplus carbon is stored in tree trunks in sequestration. This carbon is released into the atmosphere when trees are cut down for whatever purpose to produce global warming and its detrimental effects.

Climate change and imbalance are the subsequent tragedy of deforestation to humanity. Forest cover is responsible for absorbing greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, while releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. The release of oxygen in the atmosphere explains the humid atmospheric climate in the rainforests and other forest covers.⁴ Additionally, the shade the trees provide for the soil is responsible for soil moisture. Cutting down trees and losing trees in general leads to severe imbalances in the climatic conditions, which tend to be drier.

Deforestation is a significant influence in the formation of acidic rain. Acid rain has emanated from the reaction between sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. However, there is overwhelming evidence from scientific research that reveals that burning fossil fuel and biomass produce chemicals for forming formic acid. Such compounds called terpenoids are exposed to oxygenating agents to produce formic acid responsible for acid rain formation. Acid rain from deforestation introduces risks to the natural ecosystem and habitat for several organisms. Ocean species face more significant risks in addition to what industrial pollution adds to the acid rain from deforestation. It is then safe to conclude that deforestation causes acid rain, considerably influencing biodiversity’s instability.

Deforestation leads to a decrease in the general quality of life of human beings. Many people draw their survival from the existence of forests and their benefits. Agricultural production is a function of rainfall which increases with the preservation of forests. Other people rely on hunting and gathering, which is also a benefit reserved for the existence of the woods. Herbalists create drugs and pharmaceutical interventions from the proceeds of the forest. Other necessities used by humanity, including natural oils, fruits, nuts, resins, latex, and cork, are resident in tropical and rain forests. In addition, many lives have been disrupted by deforestation, for instance, the migration of people in Brazil. Intuitively, deforestation significantly affects man’s quality of life in the long term.

How Human Activities Have Caused Deforestation

When the human population increases, there is a need to create a habitat land for them. This concept is defined as urbanization, a process through which cities grow. Urbanization statistics provide by 2030, over 60% of the world population, which accounts for over five billion people, will be living in urban areas.⁵ The percentage of people living in the urban areas as of 1955 was merely 15.6%. Therefore, notable that with these calculations, there is an influx of the growth of cities by 15.6% in just 65 years alone.⁶ Part of the land that provides room for urbanization has crept from the forest reserves.⁷ Conclusively, urbanization as part of the human settlement program is one of the leading causes of deforestation.

Food production for sustenance demands vast agricultural land for livestock and plant farming. One of the leading causes of deforestation is the conversion of forest lands into agricultural lands. Research shows a net loss of 5.5 million acres of forest land in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay alone, with 3 million of the same land traced to agricultural needs.⁸ These areas recorded such losses in a period ranging from the year 2000 to 2015. The ever-increasing world population is more needful of food in the trending years, which explains that if nothing is done, there is a risk that even more forest land will be converted into agricultural usage. It is with this profound evidence that another leading cause of deforestation is agricultural production for food sustenance.

Livestock rearing and ranching is another typical driver for deforestation globally. Latin America leads in extensive cattle grazing, which has severed a significant chunk of the forest cover. Research done in 2006 reported that from 2000 to 2010, people would convert 24 million acres of land for grazing and livestock rearing.⁹ The demand for Amazon beef and products from the soybean industries in Latin America and worldwide is responsible for the deforestation for livestock rearing.

The industrial revolution has seen several manufacturing and processing companies spring up. For a long time, there hasn’t been a universal remedy for waste control and management in the global scope, particularly for developing nations. Improper waste disposal introduces agents of acid rain into the atmosphere. Trees growing in highly elevated regions become significantly disadvantaged because they sit under acidic clouds. Acidic rain releases aluminum into the soil, making it difficult for trees growing in such areas to take up water and nutrients such as magnesium and calcium. Trees are then exposed to damaging agents like cold weather, diseases, and infections, resulting in deforestation.

Climatic influences majorly cause wildfires in tropical forests. However, there are shreds of evidence that anthropogenic ignition sources cause part of the wild forest fires.¹⁰ One such anthropogenic ignition source is the habitual logging and charcoal burning in as much as in most countries, which is unlawful, illegal, and incriminating. Selective logging is also responsible for shifting climatic patterns that expose forest lands to thermal conditions vulnerable to wildfires. While it is the climatic influences that produce most deforestation through the fire, it is human influences that are responsible for the climatic changes. In addition, human activities such as selective logging and charcoal burning are responsible for losing vast forest reserves.

Prevention and Mitigation Strategies for Deforestation

There are several mitigation and prevention strategies for deforestation. Since deforestation is one of the hindrances to the achievements of the millennium development goals because of the effects of global warming and climate change it causes, this is one of the most widely researched topics. Mitigation measures for deforestation include eco-forestry, afforestation, and reforestation. Other includes; law enforcement, green-energy use, recycling, and several strategies that have been documented as potential solutions. However, this discussion forwards an argument favoring international body governance, commercial afforestation, evidence-based policy formation, and law enforcement.

One of the mitigation strategies is the utility of international organizations as drivers of change. For instance, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international body whose function is to ensure forest lands’ preservation against depletion. One of the projects they currently handle is called the Clean Development Mechanism. In this project, they strive to foster the need for member countries to create avenues for afforestation and reforestation. Engaging such international bodies provide management oversight for national and local drivers of change. These international bodies should ensure that each member country has sub-unions responsible for environmental conservation and that they provide supervision.

Researchers provide that the use of wood and timber may not decline in the coming ages. This looming problem is why there has been a constant demand for deforestation. Finding a solution that can sustainably allow for the usage of timber and the preservation of forests is plausible to mitigate deforestation. One such strategy is commercial afforestation which is planting trees for money. In research that Foster and his team did, they argue that irrespective of whether trees are harvested, there is potential to mitigate 1.64 Pg CO₂e by 2120.¹¹ They provide definitive evidence that commercial afforestation alone can provide greenhouse gas mitigation. This intervention is also beneficial in giving a carbon-free future.

The law and its enforcement agencies factor significantly in ending deforestation. A case study of law enforcement and policy formulation in Brazil has proven to yield results. However, the success of Brazil in significantly reducing deforestation was strategic and evidence-based. Conducting research on the causes of deforestation in a region provides policy recommendations for strategic management practices, including which laws to implement aggressively. Countries like Indonesia have met a limited extent of success because their law enforcement is not based on a strategic policy informed by research. Forest law enforcement based on evidence from policy information is pertinent to reducing levels of deforestation in any country.

Conclusion

Deforestation is a primary global concern because of its effects on global warming and climate change. Other detrimental effects of concern include biodiversity change, the risk to the overall living standards of human beings, and the risk to agricultural production, among several other long and short-term effects. Most of the causes of deforestation are caused by human activities, irrespective of whether they are primary or secondary causes. Chief causes of deforestation include acid rain, urbanization, agricultural production, livestock rearing, and wildfires.¹² It is possible to prevent deforestation, and mitigation of such activities is realizable. Measures of relief and prevention include evidence-based policy law enforcement, international bodies’ intervention, and commercial afforestation. Other measures include eco-forestry, afforestation, reforestation, recycling, and green-energy use.

References

Dearden, Philip, and Bruce Mitchell. Environmental Change & Challenge: A Canadian Perspective. 6th ed. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Fang, C., Liu, H., & Wang, S. (2021). The coupling curve between urbanization and the eco-environment: China’s urban agglomeration as a case study. Ecological Indicators, 130, 108107. Web.

Forster, E. J., Healey, J. R., Dymond, C., & Styles, D. (2021). Commercial afforestation can deliver effective climate change mitigation under multiple decarbonization pathways. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-12. Web.

Franco-Solís, Alberto, and Claudia V. Montanía. “Dynamics of deforestation worldwide: A structural decomposition analysis of agricultural land use in South America.” Land Use Policy 109 (2021): 105619. Web.

Gu, C. (2019). Urbanization: Processes and driving forces. Science China Earth Sciences, 62(9), 1351-1360. Web.

Hickmann, Thomas, Oscar Widerberg, Markus Lederer, and Philipp Pattberg. “The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat as an orchestrator in global climate policymaking.” International Review of Administrative Sciences 87, no. 1 (2021): 21-38. Web.

Mollinari, Manoela Schiavon Machado. “Fire in the Amazon forest amidst selective logging and climatic variation.” Ph.D. diss., University of Sheffield, 2020. Web.

Ortiz, Diana I., Marta Piche-Ovares, Luis M. Romero-Vega, Joseph Wagman, and Adriana Troyo. “The Impact of Deforestation, Urbanization, and Changing Land Use Patterns on the Ecology of Mosquito and Tick-Borne Diseases in Central America.” MDPI. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021. Web.

Raven, Peter H., and David L. Wagner. “Agricultural intensification and climate change are rapidly decreasing insect biodiversity.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 2 (2021): e2002548117. Web.

Sarmin, N. S., Hasmadi, I. M., Pakhriazad, H. Z., & Khairil, W. A. (2016). The DPSIR framework for causes analysis of mangrove deforestation in Johor, Malaysia. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management, 6, 214-218.Tacconi, Luca, Rafael J. Rodrigues, and Ahmad Maryudi. “Law enforcement and deforestation: Lessons for Indonesia from Brazil.” Forest policy and economics 108 (2019): 101943. Web.

Shah, Shipra, and Jahangeer A. Bhat. “Ethnomedicinal knowledge of indigenous communities and pharmaceutical potential of rainforest ecosystems in Fiji Islands.” Journal of integrative medicine 17, no. 4 (2019): 244-249. Web.

Thornton, P., & Herrero, M. (2010). The Inter-Linkages between Rapid Growth in Livestock Production, Climate Change, and the Impacts on Water Resources, Land Use, and Deforestation. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5178, Web.

Footnotes

1. Sarmin, N. S., Hasmadi, I. M., Pakhriazad, H. Z., & Khairil, W. A. (2016). The DPSIR framework for causes analysis of mangrove deforestation in Johor, Malaysia. Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management, 6, 214-218.Tacconi, Luca, Rafael J. Rodrigues, and Ahmad Maryudi. “Law enforcement and deforestation: Lessons for Indonesia from Brazil.” Forest policy and economics 108 (2019): 101943. Web.
2. Raven, Peter H., and David L. Wagner. “Agricultural intensification and climate change are rapidly decreasing insect biodiversity.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 2 (2021): e2002548117. Web.
3. Shah, Shipra, and Jahangeer A. Bhat. “Ethnomedicinal knowledge of indigenous communities and pharmaceutical potential of rainforest ecosystems in Fiji Islands.” Journal of integrative medicine 17, no. 4 (2019): 244-249. Web.
4. Dearden, Philip, and Bruce Mitchell. Environmental Change & Challenge: A Canadian Perspective. 6th ed. Oxford University Press, 2016
5. Fang, C., Liu, H., & Wang, S. (2021). The coupling curve between urbanization and the eco-environment: China’s urban agglomeration as a case study. Ecological Indicators, 130, 108107. Web.
6. Gu, C. (2019). Urbanization: Processes and driving forces. Science China Earth Sciences, 62(9), 1351-1360. Web.
7. Ortiz, Diana I., Marta Piche-Ovares, Luis M. Romero-Vega, Joseph Wagman, and Adriana Troyo. “The Impact of Deforestation, Urbanization, and Changing Land Use Patterns on the Ecology of Mosquito and Tick-Borne Diseases in Central America.” MDPI. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Web.
8. Franco-Solís, Alberto, and Claudia V. Montanía. “Dynamics of deforestation worldwide: A structural decomposition analysis of agricultural land use in South America.” Land Use Policy 109 (2021): 105619. Web.
9. Thornton, P., & Herrero, M. (2010). The Inter-Linkages between Rapid Growth in Livestock Production, Climate Change, and the Impacts on Water Resources, Land Use, and Deforestation. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5178, Web.
10. Mollinari, Manoela Schiavon Machado. “Fire in the Amazon forest amidst selective logging and climatic variation.” Ph.D. diss., University of Sheffield, 2020. Web.
11. Forster, E. J., Healey, J. R., Dymond, C., & Styles, D. (2021). Commercial afforestation can deliver effective climate change mitigation under multiple decarbonization pathways. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-12. Web.
12. Ortiz, Diana I., Marta Piche-Ovares, Luis M. Romero-Vega, Joseph Wagman, and Adriana Troyo. “The Impact of Deforestation, Urbanization, and Changing Land Use Patterns on the Ecology of Mosquito and Tick-Borne Diseases in Central America.” MDPI. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Web.