by Ronald Reddout

Created on: April 03, 2009

Deforestation: Cause For Alarm

Tropical rainforests can be found on all the lands located both North and South of the equator as well as in the Equatorial land areas themselves. These rainforests range from those in the Equatorial areas that receive rain on an almost constant basis, to those forests receiving seasonally abundant rainfall, and the woodlands areas that are more open and dry. But deforestation has caused these rainforested areas to dwindle rapidly. The need for additional farms and pastures, timber harvesting for new construction and for fuel, and road building and development of new urban areas has taken a toll on all varieties of our rainforests. These human needs and wants in relation to the tropical rainforests have created at least three major impacts: Biodiversity, Soil, and Social.

The Biodiversity Impact is such that, when loss of forested areas occur, plants as well as animals are either rendered extinct immediately or, if living in forested fragments within the deforested area, are made increasingly vulnerable to extinction. When you consider that possibly half of the Earth's plant and animal species live in an area (the tropical rainforests) that only covers about seven percent (7%) of the Earth's dry land areas, there are very good reasons to be alarmed. Global markets are affected since sustainable harvesting of these rainforests produces a wide variety of products to include medicines, wood products, fruits and nuts, spices and natural oils, and resins for various uses. Even more important is the loss of possible cures for any number of diseases including cancer and, additionally, the loss of possible keys to the improvement of the nutritional quality and yield of foods for feeding the greatly increased population projected for this planet in the coming decades. Also, when deforestation occurs, plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria, whose genes could be a source for these cures and/or these improvements, are lost through the process of extinction. Planetary-wide genetic diversity provides a greater resilience for life when faced with major catastrophes such as massive, sustained vulcanism or meteor impacts.

Soil Impacts are never very far away in a tropical rainforest. First, the typical soil in the rainforest is thin and nutrient-poor. Rock beneath this thin soil is weathered away quickly by high temperatures and heavy rains, which cause minerals in the soil to be washed away over time. In other words, most of the nutrients in the rainforest

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>