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alba c.
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deforestation vs. economy
June 13, 2009 - 12:10 AM
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For milenia, human kind has depended on forests for survival. But only in the past decades, this dependence has become a massive destruction of earth´s forests. We all know what deforestation is, and that is causing global warming and climate change. stop deforestation!, it seems easy to say.
However, this will also bring serious consequences. For example, just in Ontario, Canada, logging aports $1.85 BILLION dollars to their national economy, and its respoinsible for up to 45% of jobs in the region. To stop logging and timber industry would defenetly have a cost to the countries economy. Thousands of unemployeed, poverty and even famine. Not to mention we are living through an economic crisis, where countries can`t afford any more loss.
So, whats the solution? How would our lives change without forests products, how will the economy react?? Some say, the only "cure" to deforestation is to stop cutting trees at once. Will sustainable development work, after we destroyed 1/4 of the world´s forests? are we willing to pay the price of stop the cutting trees? or what would be the cost if we dont stop it now??????
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siddiqua
Joined: Feb 20, 2005
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Re: deforestation vs. economy
June 13, 2009 - 01:37 PM
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This reminds me of the argument I recently had with my uncle. He is a lawyer for a case supporting a canal project to supply water to nearby farms. But at the cost of the environment. He thinks farmers need the water much more, and the project needs to go ahead, otherwise the area would be drought ridden and the farmers would become poverty stricken. This has always been the conflict. Where do you draw the line. On the one hand you have to conserve our forests, on the other the economy needs to grow, people need jobs. I also like to look at this issue from the point of view of say, the logger. To me saving the forest is important, even though I live ina city and to him, its his job that's important.
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siddiqua
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Re: deforestation vs. economy
June 13, 2009 - 01:40 PM
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Even though it may make a difference on a micro scale, I still feel drastically reducing our consumption of everything, but not being unwise or stopping buying, but just not buy things you don't need would really help us. We need to fidn a balance between spending which makes the economy run and reducing consumption which would at least keep forests out of the danger zone.
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Suneboy
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Re: deforestation vs. economy
June 13, 2009 - 09:27 PM
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The deforestation results in the vague natural disaster. Without forests and woods our life seems to be impossible, however we need forest and its products for survival. Utilization of natural forest obviously increases the income but the main thing we need to remember for the conservation of forests is that:
[b]Plant two when you cut one[/b]
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sun-e-boy (सूर्य)
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Yashoda
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Re: deforestation vs. economy
June 14, 2009 - 02:21 PM
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I think we can conserve forest by planting trees that entails a threefold strategy:
• Conservation: preventing mass deforestation, forest fires and other catastrophes.
• Sustainable management: applying techniques to optimize CO2 fixation and have an impact on the quality of wood products.
• Reforestation: planting tree masses in deprived lands and transforming farmland.
This post was edited on: 2009-06-14 at 02:22 PM by: yashoda
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Jade Johnston
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Re: deforestation vs. economy
June 24, 2009 - 02:31 AM
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When regarding the debate over the conservation of forests and the growth of the economy, it is important to not adapt an extreme black and white view. It is not impossible to adopt a form of sustainable forestry management which can meet the demands for forest products, protect the livelihood of local communities, as well as protect the natural environment.
An accepted definition by the FAO as according to Wikipedia of sustainable forestry management is:
"the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems. In simpler terms, the concept can be described as the attainment of balance - balance between society's increasing demands for forest products and benefits, and the preservation of forest health and diversity. This balance is critical to the survival of forests, and to the prosperity of forest-dependent communities."
I am not trained in forestry, nor am I here to say which is the best way to do things. However, in my opinion, if creative thinking and understanding of the varying views is used then a solution can be found which will benefit all parties involved.
I would just like to point to one example. This link will take you to a short film about the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada.
http://a.bandon.onenw.org/external_files/savethegreatbear.org Click on uturn_medium.mov to take you to the film.
Some important things to note from this example is that in terms of local livelihood, most forestry workers are not locals to the region and are flown in and out of the region and therefore do not contribute to economic development of the region. Also, after the initial hostility of the two groups involved (environmentalists and foresters) they were able to make a compromise which allowed the foresters to still continue with their work (in less ecologically important areas) and the environmentalists to preserve the integrity of the forest. Also, when considering this particular example we can see that using a sustainable forestry approach it is even possible to CREATE additional jobs, as various scientists are needed to map out the ideal areas for logging which will not degrade the ecosystem too greatly.
I hope that this might open up some more dialogue about additional possibilities for forestry management. As the example illustrates, nothing can be achieved if we do not try to see things from other perspectives, and taking a one sided hard lined approach will not lead to progress, especially not to progress of a sustainable manner.
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