Belcastro 1

Taylor Belcastro

Instructor Sarah Haak

English 1510

16 November 2017

Results of Deforestation on Our Planet

As the population of the Earth rises, there becomes a need for more room for production,

be that of food and other resources, entertainment, such as with tourism and resorts, and just

living space in general. With these growing needs, it is critical that we, not just as human beings

but also as inhabitants sharing this planet with other organisms, consider how the destruction of

forests and rainforests affects the health of our planet and the other animals living on it.

Deforestation, as defined by National Geographic, is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale,

often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. This is a problem that occurs all around the

world, however it serves to be a bigger problem in countries in Mesoamerica and southeast Asia.

Deforestation is ever-growing in this day and age. Animal Production and Health Division says

that as of 1994, the remaining area of forests is roughly the size of Portugal, with every year 46-

58 thousand square miles of forest being lost to deforestation, equating to about 48 football fields

of forest disappearing every minute, as stated by Bennett in Deforestation and Climate Change.

Tourism and large industries such as palm oil and animal agriculture are the main forces behind

growing deforestation. Trying to compete more on a global stage, Brazil has been pushing to

increase its palm oil industry. Levitt, writer for Guardian News and Media, stated that with a

projection of $90 billion in revenues by 2021, the global palm oil market is a major income and

development opportunity for rural Brazil, however, the expansion serves as a huge risk for
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forested land in the Amazon region, which is home to at least 10% of global biodiversity. For

these nations in South America, the industries are chosen over conservation because it helps

them grow as a developing nation. However, deforestation is not only happening in South

America, but also in southeast Asia, and it does not only affect the forests, but also the animals

living in those forests. In Indonesia, there exists a tiger subspecies named Sumatran tigers. As

stated by the World Wildlife Fund, these animals are critically endangered due to accelerating

deforestation and poaching. These tigers are being pushed out of their habitats to look for food

where they are more likely to be wounded or killed by people they confront. The increase of

deforestation both harms the forests and the animals that live in it. Furthermore, deforestation

also serves as a leading cause to climate change around the world. It changes the climate of the

land because a decrease of trees means increased sunlight, which in turn means warmer

temperatures which could devastate the land (National Geographic). Also, as stated by Bennett,

when trees are cut down it decreases or eliminates the amount of transpiration in an area, which

means for less amounts of rainfall leading to droughts in the area. With less transpiration, which

in turn leads to less precipitation in an area with rising temperature, it could permanently alter

the environment in a way that it may not be able to return to the way it was before. Globally,

deforestation serves as more than just the destruction of the habitats and environment of one

area. When areas are deforested, the carbon dioxide stored in those trees are released into the

atmosphere, as stated by Bennett in Deforestation and Climate Change. This does more than just

hurt the area that it is occurring in, but also pollutes the Earths atmosphere with a major

greenhouse gas. With more tourism and increased production by industries such as palm oil and

animal agriculture, deforestation has harmful effects on the animal species living in targeted

areas, as well as the climate of the whole planet.

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Tourism and industries are leading causes of deforestation around the world. Although

industries such as palm oil and animal agriculture arguably cause a substantial amount of

deforestation around the world, tourism contributes to the problem as well. One of the largest

growing tourist attractions is of the Mt. Everest region of Nepal. Tourism there started around

the seventies when people from around the world started arriving for mountaineering trips. As

the tourism started to grow over the years, the number of trekking porters coming to the region

grew from 5,500 in 1978 to 19,047 in 2001. As the airstrip at Lukla became the main gateway to

the region, more routes started to become developed such as the Goyko route, as well as the

number of inns increasing from seven inns in 1973 to 71 inns by 2000, as stated by Stevens in

Tourism and Deforestation in the Mt Everest Region of Nepal (2003). As the region became

more known as time went on, more people came to travel on the different routes in the area. This

in turn had an effect on the environment in the region. To deal with the growing amount of

tourism in the region, Sherpas, the name for the people of the region, used local forests

intensively as integral parts of their lifestyles and their operation of inns. Forests furnish foods

and medicines, as well as building materials, firewood, grazing and compost material for the

small-scale farming carried out by most families (Stevens, 2003). Cutting down the forests

became a norm for the people in the region as a mean of making an end. As stated by Stevens

(2003), a relatively large, busy inn can easily require around 600 loads of firewood, which is

about sixteen trees annually. However, the total amount of firewood that is used throughout the

region by the ends is exceeding 2,000-2,500 trees per year. With the amount of wood being used

exceeding 2,000 trees per year around the time the essay was published in 2003, that would mean

by this time, if trends continued, that more than 20,000 trees have been cut down, potentially

being a major problem for this small region. Although the amount of deforestation does not
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necessarily equate to the amount of deforestation that is happening due to the industries in South

America and southeastern Asia, Sherpas in Khumbu have noted thinned forests, diminishing

tree size, changes in forest composition, and scarcity of forest floor deadwood near settlements

(Stevens, 2003). Although there is not as much deforestation in the region, the forests and the

environment surrounding them are still being affected in a way that could harm those who live

there, animals and humans alike. With an understanding of how tourism and industries influence

deforestation, one can analyze how these things effect the animals that live in the targeted areas.

Deforestation from industries and tourism are subject to blame for the destroying of

animal habitats around the world, especially for places in South America like the Osa Peninsula.

The Osa Peninsula is an ecosystem in Costa Rica that consists of multiple different types of

forests. Of those forests, 60-70% of the tree species are currently being harvested, as stated by

Sanchez-Azofeifa et al., writers for the International Mountain Society (2002). Conservation

advocates look for affected areas to protect. If the targeted areas get too small or isolated, the

animals of the area become susceptible to loss of both genetic and species diversity. To prevent

this from happening, corridors are needed to link conservation areas into conservation nets,

allowing for biodiversity to be preserved and habitat continuation (Sanchez-Azofeifa et al.,

2002). With the corridors in place, it will allow conservation of the forests as well as allow the

animal species to survive and possibly thrive in hope that the targeted areas do not become too

small or isolated. However, Sanchez-Azofeifa et al. (2002) states that from 1977 to 1997, the

proportion of peninsula covered by forest shrunk from 97% to 89%, to only 896 cubic

kilometers. With only 896 cubic kilometers left outside of the national park, that amount of

forested area is considered lower than the minimum amount needed for some species to preserve

their long-term genetic integrity. Among those species is the Jaguar. Jaguars are estimated to
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require anywhere from 30-140 cubic kilometers per mature adult male to maintain a healthy

population. Also, it is proposed that a protected habitat must have at least fifty reproductive

individuals to maintain a population, which in turn implies that there needs to be at least 1,500

cubic kilometers of forested land for Jaguars to live with a healthy population, as recorded by

Sanchez-Azofeifa et al. (2002). This means that the remaining amounts of land outside of the

national park is not enough to sustain the population of the Jaguars, which is only one example

of a species that is not able to live with less than 896 cubic kilometers of land. Unless

conservation efforts are put in, the amount of species that will be able to live with a healthy

population will continue to decrease, as more of the forest and its tree species are deforested,

destroying animal habitats. With the understanding of how animal habitats are being destroyed

by deforestation, one can look less on how deforestation is affecting the species living in the

areas being targeted and more on how deforestation is affecting the climate change of our planet.

Deforestation affects not just the relative area that is occurring in, but it also affects the

entire planets climate as well. Natalie Tawil, writer for Congressional Budget Office and of

Deforestation and Greenhouse Gases (2012), stated that although the releasing of carbon dioxide

into the atmosphere is largely due to the burning of fossil fuels, cutting down forests releases

carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as well. This means that by cutting down trees, which help

filter the atmosphere of greenhouse gases, the problem is twice as bad because carbon dioxide is

released back into the air. However, that is not all, estimates on forest-based emissions are made

indirectly due to the inability to measure the emissions from forest loss. Instead, researchers

measure forest loss itself and use that as a basis for estimating emissions, as recorded by Tawil

(2012). This does not account for all the trees that are illegally cut down that are not recorded by

the government, which in turn could lead to suspicions that more carbon dioxide is being
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released than is stated. Deforestation is more harmful to the environment than most would think.

Although burning fossil fuels is largely to blame, from 1990 to 2005, forest-based emissions

from Brazil and Indonesia were significant enough to place in the top CO2-emitting nations in

the world, alongside countries like the United States, China, and Russia, as stated by Tawil

(2012). Enough forests were being cut down to rank these two countries among fossil fuel

burning leaders in terms of emissions. Although this can be seen as huge deforestation problem

on one side, on the other it shows the growing of these developing nations in the industrial

world. With more deforestation means more room for agriculture, which, From 1990 to 2005,

agricultures annual average share of GDP was 7 percent (about $47 billion) in Brazil and 17

percent (about $31 billion) in Indonesia (Tawil, 2012). Although trees are being cut down, the

increased space for production allows for the countries to thrive. Furthermore, governments and

the landowners in developing nations incur costs when choosing to preserve forests, such as with

setting up programs and passing laws for monitoring, as stated by Tawil (2012). With production

allowing for increased opportunities for these developing countries to grow, while the enactment

of preservation efforts being too cost-effective, the decision to disregard protection of these

forests to make economic gains would be tempting for most. Knowing how industries and

tourism interact with animal habitats and the environment of not just the areas being targeted but

the world, one is able to decide for themselves their opinion on the issue of deforestation.

Deforestation is a major issue that needs to be addressed. Personally, I believe that

Deforestation is a problem that has to be fixed to ensure a pleasant future on planet Earth. It

causes too many problems with too little rewards. If preservation efforts are not taken, it could

end up permanently ruining the Earth beyond repair, leaving our generations to come to live on a

planet that is not quite as beautiful as when we received it. Deforestation could lead to even more
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problems down the road, and although there are less economic gains to be made when choosing

to preserve these forests, it will prevent worse problems from occurring. Tourism in the Nepal

region and industries in South America and southeast Asia are cutting trees down at an alarming

rate, but are growing economically. The deforestation is harming animal species all around the

world, especially in the Osa Peninsula. Lastly, deforestation is not just harming the areas it

happens in, but also harming the climate of our earth by releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

Although many countries are gaining economically from these major industries and tourism, it is

at the expense of the other animals living on the planet, their habitats, and the climate of our

Earth. Although it is impossible to fix this issue now or any time soon, it should be an issue of

top priority and steps should be taken to plan for the future.
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Works Cited

Bennett, Lauren. "Deforestation and Climate Change." Climate Institute. N.p., 18 Apr. 2017.

Web.

"Cattle Ranching and Deforestation." Livestock Policy Brief. Animal Production and Health

Division, n.d. Web.

"Deforestation and Its Effect on the Planet." Facts, Information, and Effects | National

Geographic. National Geographic, 25 July 2017. Web.

Levitt, Tom. "The Amazon's New Danger: Brazil Sets Sights on Palm Oil." The Guardian.

Guardian News and Media, 29 June 2017. Web.

Sanchez-Azofeifa, Arturo G., Benoit Rivard, Julio Calvo, and Inian Moorthy. "Dynamics of

Tropical Deforestation around National Parks: Remote Sensing of Forest Change on the

Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica." International Mountain Society 22.4 (2002): 352-58.

JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web.

Stevens, Stan. "Tourism and Deforestation in the Mt Everest Region of Nepal." The

Geographical Journal 169.3 (2003): 255-77. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web.

Sumatran Tiger. WWF, World Wildlife Fund, 2017. Web.

United States. CBO's Microeconomic Studies Division. Congressional Budget Office.

Deforestation and Greenhouse Gases. By Natalie Tawil. N.p.: n.p., 2012. Print.

developing nations of South America. (Perspective 2)