“Man walks the earth and desert follows his steps.” (von Storch and Stehr, 2000)
“The earth’s last great forests are being destroyed in this century, torn apart for trifling profits.” (NY Times)
- A. Current State of tropical rainforests
- B. Synergism
- C. Human use of biological productivity: the diversion of net primary productivity
- D. Causes of tropical rainforest destruction
- 1) Human population growth
- 2) Land ownership patterns
- 3) Conversion for agriculture
- 4) Housing and urbanization
- 5) Commercial logging and the demand for wood
- 6) Use as a fuel source
- 7) Government policies
- 8) Subsidies from governments and international lending agencies
- 9) Inadequate valuation of tropical rainforests as resources
- 10) Inadequate protection of tropical rainforests
- 11) Establishment of transportation networks
- 12) Mining and other extractive activities
- 13) Inappropriate interventions
- 14) Dam construction/use of rainforests as hydropower sources
- 15) Poverty and wealth
- 16) Excessive extraction of forest resources
- 17) Philosophical and ethical attitudes
- 18) Economic attitudes
- 19) A tolerance for greed and corruption
- 20) Social structures
- 21) Wars and disruptive social change
- 22) Ecotourism
- 23) Distrust of government
- E. Why preserve the tropical rainforests of the world?
- F. Consequences of deforestation
- 1) Damage to remaining trees and other vegetation and increased fire susceptibility
- 2) Impoverishment of soils and erosion
- 3) Loss of biodiversity (including genetic diversity)
- 4) Loss of genetic resources and evolutionary potential
- 5) Changes in the water cycle
- 6) Changes in water levels and erosion
- 7) Changes in vegetation
- 8) Climate change and increase in greenhouse gases
- 9) Difficulty of reforestation
- 10) Increase in physical disturbances
- 11) Loss of “ecosystem services” which rainforests provide
- 13) Unintended consequences
- 14) Disruption of culture and livelihood of indigenous peoples
- 15) Exacerbation of social imbalances
- 16) Economic losses
- 17) Increase in pathogens
- 18) Loss of productivity
- 19) Loss of evolutionary potential
- 20) The creation of “environmental refugees”
