Deforestation And the Lumber Industry
Most
of the world has been fighting the deforestation of both the Amazon and the
Congo for nearly 30 years. The
pillaging lumber industry has taken very little heed over the world's concern
that permanent damage is being done to the environment. The Amazonas, which is the largest state of
Brazil, composes most of the northwestern part of the nation. Although it is the largest state within the
nation is it also the least populated.
Most of the population can be found living within a half dozen cities,
most of which lie along the Amazon River.
The indigenous population, which used to make up a significant part of
the nation's population has continues to die out due to disease, deforestation,
and economic dislocation. The Amazonas is made up almost entirely of tropical
rainforest. It is estimated that 95% of
the state's land is comprised of rainforest, which would mean there is close to
350 million acres of rainforest within this region of the nation. There is another 700 million acres of
rainforest that comprise the neighboring nations but no other country possesses
as much rainforest as Brazil.
The lumber industry began pillaging forests within the Congo
shortly after lumber companies working within the Amazon began being attacked
for their raping of the rainforests.
Deforestation is not the only issue that plagues the Congo, but it is
one of the more globally important concerns.
The Congo is faced with poverty, disease, and the lack of a stable
sociopolitical system. Central Africa
has many valuable natural resources, but the depletion of the forests affects
the regional inhabitants as well as the global environment. These economically and ecologically effects,
are two of the major factors shaping the Congo in modern day.
Both
wild forests and rainforests exert a major influence on climate and affect the
energy exchange rates between the atmosphere and the earth's surface. They also absorb carbon dioxide and are a
major element in the progression of the water cycle. The deforestation of both types of natural resources has a
dramatic effect on the environment and is a detriment to the future ecological
development of land. The need to
preserve forests is a necessary condition for the long-term preservation of
human life and is the basis of the conservationist movement. Unfortunately the future of the environment
is not the only concern for most of these countries; economic issues cloud most
of the reasonable and ethical considerations when these nations are looking out
for their best interests. It becomes
almost impossible for these nations, strapped for economic growth, to place the
welfare of the global environment in front of their own economic and political
stability.
The
Amazonas is the primary source of timber for the world, followed by the
Congo. The United States, Great
Britain, Canada, and Japan are the 4 largest foreign purchasers of Brazilian
timber and wood products. The Brazilian
government is fully aware of the importance of the Amazonas rainforest and over
the last decade has taken many steps in decreasing the amount of destroyed rainforest
for timber production. Brazil has also
set many new laws prohibiting and punishing companies that cut down the rare
wood, mahogany and virola. Brazil has
also reduced subsidies to the agricultural sector that had worked in the
Amazonas. Brazil is also worrying about
a growing national debt, inflation and devaluing currency, on top of the
deforestation and rape of its natural resources. One of the most important details in saving the rainforests in
Brazil and the woodlands in the Congo is the continual education of the native
people and the creation of steady work.
In
the past, farmers were uneducated and knew very little of such ideas as crop
rotation and soil replenishing. Most of
the farmers grew either cotton or tobacco because both are a good cash crop and
are easily exported. This type of
farming is very detrimental to the land and can quickly deplete the soil of its
nutrients and leave the farmers without land.
Farmers were then forced to clear new land deeper into the forests in
search of rich, fertile soil. As
governments or private sector groups move into third world countries they need
to take the responsibility of teaching farmers more economical and more
ecologically sound ways of farming the lands.
Private sector groups coming into third world countries also possess the
ability to help set up markets for crops and create a means for farmers to sell
other types of crops besides cotton and tobacco.
The idea would be to improve the lives of the
farmers and by doing so enlisting them in the battle to save the rainforests.
The
most feasible way of educating the farmers would come from funding by the local
government or by allowing tax breaks for private sector groups that came into
the nation. This educational process
would need to be long term and aimed at groups nearest the rainforest or
nearest the most dense parts of the Congo.
Many attempts have been made at educating the farmers but most of these
attempts were short lived and failed to do more then give the farmers a glimpse
at what needs to be done. This educational
process would need to be consistently teaching the natives how to better farm
and treat the land. The local
governments could also entice the native farmers by offering more financial add
for different types of crops and for farms that remain on the same lands for
several seasons.
One
of the difficulties for many countries is that they see the rainforests as
little more then a valuable natural resource that they can sell to help raise
the national income of the nation. Most
estimates of the price of rainforest range from 1 billion dollars per million
hectares to 4 billion dollars per million hectares, depending on the density of
the rainforest and the amount of rare wood within the given area. It is not wrong for governments to want to
develop this land to help their nation but it is wrong for them to willingly
sell off more land then could be reasonably deforested. These governments that intend to sell
forests for profit need to follow at least a few reasonable guidelines.
1)
Designate
parts of the forests for national parks, industrial logging, agricultural
farming, and portions for yet unseen needs.
2)
Maintain
the ecological integrity of the forestlands, in part by conserving biological
diversity, water, and nutrient cycles.
3)
Maximize
forest revenues to the extent that doing so is compatible with the first two
stipulations.
4)
Clearly
delineate rights and responsibilities to land and resources to make the
distribution of benefits from forest tenure and use more equitable.
5)
Attract
and encourage both reliable foreign and local investors and companies.
6)
Make
the administration of the forest more efficient and open to public scrutiny.
These guidelines would help countries deal with the
logging industry and help create a balance between the conservation of the
forests and the economic growth of the nation.
The local governments would have to set aside specific requirements and
laws for the logging industry, and some of those requirements might be as
follows: Logging companies would pay a flat fee for entrance into the forests
and then be given a specific area of land.
Companies would then be more willing to exploit a given area to maximum
their profit. One way to ensure this would
be adhered to by the logging companies, is to require them to purchase bonds
for the lands and install stiff penalties for logging outside their designated
bounds. These bonds would be able to be
purchased by the logging companies and in the case that they neglected the
restrictions that were placed on them this bond could be taken back by the
government and resold to another logging company.
One
of the most profitable and ecologically sound alternatives to mass
deforestation in the Amazon and Congo is to attract not only responsible
logging companies but entice these companies to build production facilities
within the nations that they are logging from.
Most of the logging industry cuts down the timber and immediately ships
it to foreign countries where their factories process the wood into timber and
other wood products. The first reason
this is done is that much of the logging companies' profit come from rare or
banned woods. By shipping the woods
outside of the country, the logging companies are able to sell them to a third
party and then ship the finished products to the US and Canadian market with
less hassle from governments and conservation groups. Most of the nations that these woods are exported from have
strict laws against the export and mining of rare woods, such as mahogany. So by selling the timber to a third party
the logging industry is able to bypass many of the conservation groups aiming
at conserving rare woods. Local
governments could be a large deterrent for these companies if they began
placing stiffer penalties for exporting of rare woods or limited the amount of
raw timber that could be exported from the nation. Also by offering tax breaks for companies willing to move into
the nation and set up factories for finishing timber products logging companies
would be more willing to stay within the nation and not seek third parties for
selling the woods.
It
is estimated that it costs 2 million dollars for shipping every 10 million
dollars worth of because of the additional shipping distance to and from the
production sights. Most moderate
sawmills and pulp production factories cost between 10 and 20 million dollars
and would employ between 500 and 2000 natives.
These factories would in fact pay for themselves within about 5 years of
being opened, and that is not including the tax break that the companies would
be receiving. Most government tax
breaks are given for a 10 or 15 year span and would benefit any company looking
to maximize its profits in the coming century.
This would also greatly benefit the nations that were being
industrialized because one of the main reasons for the mass deforestation in
the Amazonas and Congo is the poverty level and unemployment rates. These new factories would attract workers
and cost the logging companies no more for labor then they would be paying for
the third parties production rates.
Another
very suitable means to slow down deforestation rates in the Amazonas and Congo
is to track more closely the export of the timber and the third parties that
are treating and processing the woods.
Most of the local governments are in dire need a cash flow and willingly
take any economic help the timber companies offer, and because of this they
often turn their back to the export of rare woods. It is not necessarily the fault of the governments but it is the
responsibility of the governments, the logging industry and the consumer
companies to make sure the woods exported from the nation are tracks and marked
in accordance with a global scheme.
This way all woods would be able to be tracked and consumers would
possess the ability to choose which types of timber they prefer to us. This would also be a good weapon in the
hands of the conservation groups because they would be able to notify consumers
and companies of illegal activities by the lumber companies.
It
is not reasonable to think that economic penalties and permits are enough to
stop the deforestation of the world but they are a good means in which we can
slow down the destruction of the rainforest and Congo. Such economic deterrents are unfortunately
nothing more then a deterrent and not a preventative force. But ideas such as these, as well as the
continued education of native farmers will help preserve the rainforests for at
least a short time. During this time of
slowed deforestation there is hope that a non-destructive means of harvesting
the natural resources of a country can be economically researched and
tested. The ideas that relate to saving
the forests are also extremely beneficial for the nations that are being deforested
because in almost all of the modeled ideas these countries gain a more
substantial income as well and educate the populace and provide
industrialization and jobs for the natives.
Bibliography:
Aiken,
Robert. Vanishing Rain Forests. Oxford. Clarendon 1992
Collins, Stephen. The Perpetual Rain Forest. Phiadelphia. Lippincott: 1959
Engineering 297B Volume1:
The Environment. Professor Bruce Lusignan
Frontier Expansion in
Amazonia. Gainesville: University of Florida Press
Miller, Kenton. Trees of Life. Boston.
Beacon Press: 1991
Sizer, Nigel.
Profit Without Plunder: Reaping
Revenue from Guyana's Tropical Forests Without Destroying Them. Washington D.C. World Resources Institute,
1996
Taylor, Leslie. "Rainforest Facts: Saving the
Rainforests, A Complex Problem".
Web Articles and Pages:
www.abcnews.com "Brazil Picks Forests to
Log", February 3, 1998
www.center1.com/ethics.html “Ethics related to the rainforest”
www.cep.unt.edu/enethics.html “Ethics related to the rainforest”
www.igc.org/ran Conservation group