Impacts of Deforestation

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Impacts of Deforestation

• By Jon Owens, Justin Walters and Stacy Molnar

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The Amazon

• Worlds largest rainforest and river basin.
• Falls within 8 countries and covers about 40 of
  South America.
• Produces 60 80 of its own rainfall.

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Deforestation in Brazil
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Deforestation in Brazil

• Between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost
  nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forestan
  area larger than Greece
• Large portion of deforestation is attributed to
  the following
• Land clearing for pastureland
• Misguided government policies
• Infrastructure Improvements
• Other

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Land Clearing for Pastureland

• Leading cause for deforestation
• 60 - 70
• Cost of meat cheaper
• Eradication of foot and mouth disease in Brazil.
• Land Tenure Laws

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Misguided Government Policies

• Brazilian Government encourages poor farmers to
  settle in the rainforest
• They can gain rights to the land after a few
  years of farming and can then sell it.

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Infrastructure Improvements

• Roads create access to parts of the forest that
  were inaccessible before.

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Other Causes for Deforestation

• Commercial farming
• Soybeans
• Fire
• Caused by farmers clearing land
• Logging
• Legal and illegal

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Solving Deforestation Amazon

• Creation of a federal force to fight
  environmental crime for which 3,000 new agents
  will be hired.
• Plans to bring criminal charges to the top 100
  companies and individuals.
• Inclusion of protected area costs in highway
  plans and budgets
• a key measure as new and improved roads often
  cause greater deforestation

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The Congo Basin

• Worlds second largest river by volume
• Worlds second largest rainforest
• 18 of Worlds remaining rainforest
• 70 of Africas plant life
• Has 600 plant species and 10,000 animal species
• Since 1980 has the largest amount of
  deforestation out of any region in the world

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Logging

• Increased since the start of peace time in 2004
• Timber industry is the largest industry in this
  region

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Subsistence Agriculture

• Majority of deforestation due to this
• Poor farmers and colonists who have been pushed
  into the rainforest due to many past wars

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Mining

• One of the worlds richest mineral deposits
• Mining is poorly operated

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Bush Meat Trade

• Exotic animals being killed for meat
• Creates more deforestation to create roads
  accessible to these animals

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Repercussions

• Total Land 34,150,000 ha
• Primary Forest 7,464,000 ha (33.2)
• Modified Forest 14,957,000 ha (66.6)
• Production Plantation 51,000 ha (0.2)
• Annual Change in Forest
• 1990-2000 -0.07
• 2000-2005 -0.08
• Total Change in Forest 1990-2005 -1.12

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Problems with monitoring

• The size of the Congo River Basin is too large
  for people to keep an eye on the entire area.
• There are only two proposed solutions to keep
  monitoring on cutting down trees
• Many corrupt governments in this region who get
  most of their GDP from these logging companies.

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Proposed Solution Regulating Logging Industry

• Banning the cutting down of endangered trees
  (similar to ban on ivory trade)
• Greatly decrease the harvesting of some trees
  (similar to what was done with whaling)
• Agree to lower the amount of deforestation per
  years (similar to caps and trade system)
• Since most of the companies doing the logging are
  for pulp and paper, require a more strict
  recycling program in contrast to cutting down
  more forests.
• Problem
• Commercial logging only constitutes 25 of the
  logging that happens in the Congo

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Proposed Solution Forest Protection Schemes

• Creating national parks and forest reserves
• Investing countries could give interest free
  money to these countries to invest towards these
  parks and reserves.
• Paying off countries debt if the country will
  promise to not develop the said area (As in cases
  of Norway and Costa Rica)

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Effects of Deforestation

• Climate affects
• Desertification
• No water recycling
• Loss of carbon and nitrogen exchange
• Rise in temperature
• Other effects of deforestation
• Soil erosion

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Climatic Effects Water Cycle

• Vegetation helps play a big role in precipitation
  of a region
• They do this by absorbing ground water from their
  roots
• Then they release the water vapor into the
  atmosphere
• This then leads to precipitation falling back
  down to the ground replenishing the ground water
• So as a result of the vegetation being removed it
  cause the precipitation patterns of a region to
  completely change

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Climatic affects Desertification

• The loss of the vegetation causes the soil to
  lose its moisture
• As a result of this the area beings to dry out
• Also because of the area drying out this leads to
  a lack of precipitation
• Thus causing the area to become a desert

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Climatic Effects Carbon Exchange

• Vegetation helps to filter carbon dioxide out of
  the atmosphere
• Trees act kind of like natures little carbon
  scrubbers
• Trees are the second most important carbon sink
  next to the ocean
• Also if there is no vegetation to filter out
  carbon dioxide it will help increase greenhouse
  gas emissions
• It is estimated that if deforestation continues
  at the rate that it is then it could increase
  greenhouse gases by 10

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Climatic Effects Temperature Increase

• Vegetation helps to keep the region that it is
  located in nice and cool
• The trees provide shade for the area thus giving
  the area a more moderate climate
• Also this ties into the fact about trees acting
  like carbon scrubbers
• If the vegetation is no longer there than the
  carbon levels will go up causing an increase in
  the temperature of that particular area

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Climatic Effects Soil Erosion

• Vegetation helps to hold soil together
• This is especially important in hilly areas
• As a result of deforestation soil no longer has
  anything holding it in place
• So during rain storms most of the soil is washed
  away often causing big problems for anyone that
  lives in the area

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Climatic Effects Soil Erosion cont.

• Soil erosion also leads to flooding in some areas
  
• Another big problem with soil erosion is the fact
  that the soil is being washed into the river
  causing them to silt up
• As a result this is making the freshwater
  undrinkable and killing the fish population in
  what ever water system is near by

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Effects

• So to just kind of go over the effect again real
  quick
• Deforestation has an affect on the climate
• Also they affect the make up of the region an how
  people live in the region

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Questions or Comments
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Citations

• Balakrishnan, Angela. (Sept. 2008) Brazilian
  government faces criminal charges over Amazon
  deforestation. http//www.guardian.co.uk/environme
  nt/2008/sep/30/forests.brazil
• Butler, Rhett A. Deforestation in the Amazon.
  http//www.mongabay.com/brazil.html
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Oct. 2008) Brazil Gets
  Tough to Stop Amazon Deforestation
  http//www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2008/
  WWFPresfallenamazon.html
• http//rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000
  /Congo.htm
• http//rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/deforestatio
  n.html
• http//rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/
• http//wrmbulletin.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/democr
  atic-republic-of-the-congo- deforestation-of-prote
  cted-areas-for-mining-operations-in-the-province-
  of- katanga-the-case-of-the-basse-kando-reserve/
• http//farm2.static.flickr.com/1273/590536974_a386
  d64e4b.jpg
• http//www.mtsobek.com/generated/trips/225/topwebi
  mageGorillaMomBaby.jpg
• http//i147.photobucket.com/albums/r296/keeleyson/
  Brazil-erosion-mercury.jpg
• http//www.earlham.edu/pols/17Fall96/inneske/effe
  cts.HTM