So this leads into a very confusing question of the 20th century. Why are these trees being torn down? The World Wide Forest Report found that when the Roman Empire was in control of Europe 90% of the continent was forested. Today 500,000 hectors vanish in a single week ("Logging is the Major Cause of Global Deforestation" 1). There is no one easy answer as there are many causes at the root of deforestation. One is overpopulation in cities and developing countries. Population is continually growing in the third world. Some had land until increases in population forced them off it and they became landless peasants that are forced to look for land in the untouched forests.
This movement to the forests is in some ways a result of government pressures. In place of implementing programs to help the poor these governments concentrate on the cheapest, easiest, way to keep poverty out of sight and give the poor no other choice but to force other species out and themselves in. According to Norman Myers, bad land tenure, a shortage of modern agricultural tools, and government neglect of subsistence farmers have put an influx of human interference in the forests. (37) The poor are pushed in further and further and destroy more every time they must move on.
What the poor do in the forests is the most devastating. In attempts to settle farmland, the poor become "shifted cultivators" and resort to using slash and burn methods of tree removal. Slashing and burning involves what its name implies, trees are cut down and the remains are burned. The ash is used as a fertilizer and the land is then used for farming or cattle grazing, however, the soil that is cleared in slash and burn is left infertile, the nutrients in the soil are quickly absorbed by surrounding organisms ("Deforestation" 1).
The farmers must move on sometimes to other areas and repeat this process and worthy land and trees become scarce. For farmers in places like Brazil, slash and burn methods are the only way to effectively clear land of parasites and unwanted organisms; chemical means contaminate water and soil and farmers continue to turn to slashing and burning ("Slash and Burn Agriculture" 1). It has become so much a dilemma that a leading researcher, Myers, sees it of all the causes of deforestation, to be the number one cause (Myers 32)
This is a specific example of how population growth and slash and burn agriculture is a terrible cycle that will destroy the forest.
This movement to the forests is in some ways a result of government pressures. In place of implementing programs to help the poor these governments concentrate on the cheapest, easiest, way to keep poverty out of sight and give the poor no other choice but to force other species out and themselves in. According to Norman Myers, bad land tenure, a shortage of modern agricultural tools, and government neglect of subsistence farmers have put an influx of human interference in the forests. (37) The poor are pushed in further and further and destroy more every time they must move on.
What the poor do in the forests is the most devastating. In attempts to settle farmland, the poor become "shifted cultivators" and resort to using slash and burn methods of tree removal. Slashing and burning involves what its name implies, trees are cut down and the remains are burned. The ash is used as a fertilizer and the land is then used for farming or cattle grazing, however, the soil that is cleared in slash and burn is left infertile, the nutrients in the soil are quickly absorbed by surrounding organisms ("Deforestation" 1).
The farmers must move on sometimes to other areas and repeat this process and worthy land and trees become scarce. For farmers in places like Brazil, slash and burn methods are the only way to effectively clear land of parasites and unwanted organisms; chemical means contaminate water and soil and farmers continue to turn to slashing and burning ("Slash and Burn Agriculture" 1). It has become so much a dilemma that a leading researcher, Myers, sees it of all the causes of deforestation, to be the number one cause (Myers 32)
This is a specific example of how population growth and slash and burn agriculture is a terrible cycle that will destroy the forest.