Reforestation In Brazil Essay, Research Paper
During the past several decades, changes in the global climatic pattern have become evident and have attracted much attention from both the general public and the professional environmental organizations. Deforestation is one of the main reasons for these known changes. One of the reasons that cause the disappearing of the Amazon rainforest is industrial logging, which is the single largest problem. Other problems that also contribute to the disappearing of the Amazon forests include road construction, cattle ranching, and the production of wood products, all of which are important factors to be considered. The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest rain forest today, which has 54 percent of the total rainforests that are remaining on the planet. If Amazonia is a country, it would be the ninth largest country in the world. The Amazon is very important because it is a major contributor to the balance of global climatic patterns and because it provides places for variety of living organisms. A single pond in Brazil can contain more kinds of fish than are found in all of Europe’s rivers. Twenty-five acre of rainforest in Borneo may contain over seven hundred species of trees, which is equal to the number of trees in the whole North America; one single rainforest in Peru has more bird species than the entire United States. One tree in Peru had forty-three different species of ants, which is the estimated to be equal to the number of ant species in the British Isles. The Amazon rainforest is truly amazing. (Taylor, Leslie. Herbal Secrets of the Rainforest. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA) (Steen, Harold K., and Tucker, Richard P. Changing Tropical Forests. Forest History Society, 1992) (Amazon Rainforest Photos. http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/EST133/amaztour.htm) For years, however, the Amazon suffered from non-stop deforestation. It is estimated that, as of 1997, 52 million hactre of Amazon rainforest has been cut down. According to scientific estimation, if such rate of destruction in Amazon is not controlled, nearly 80 to 90 percent of its present ecosystem will be destroyed by the year 2020 (Taylor Leslie, Herbal Secrets of the Rainforest. Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA). Similarly, the rate of the destruction of rainforests around the world is currently increasing, especially after the year 1997. As Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, head of the Amazon forest program stated, ” 1997 will be remembered as the year the world caught fire.” During that year, over 200,000 acres of rainforest were cut or burned each day. That is, over 150 acres of rainforests disappeared every minute. At this rate, more than half of the world’s tropical rainforest will be cut down for industrial uses in less than 50 years. While it is generally recognized that reforestation programs in the Amazon region are essential to the global climate, the Brazilian economic problems are preventing or delaying the initiation of these programs. Cattle ranching is the primary reason for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. When the demand in the world for meat increases, more rainforest lands are being destroyed and turned into farmland for animals. By estimation, there are 220 million cattle, 20 million goats, 60 million pigs and 700 million chickens, in South America just to meet the world’s demand. (Eden, Michael J. Ecology and Land Management in Amazonia. London, and New York: Belhaven Press, 1990) The cattle ranching program continues to move southward into the center of South American rainforests. Large acres of land in the Amazon rainforest are been cut and burned then reseeded with grass for cattle and other farm animals. Currently, the cattle ranching business in the Amazon rainforest has caused a total of 500,000 acres of rainforest destroyed. This has already effected the natural rainforest’s ecosystem. There have been attempts to disallow or prohibit the cutting down of forests for cattle ranching. One of the most common stories was about a guy named Chico Mendes. Chico Mendes was born in 1944 and became an educated rubber tapper at age 9. Spending his whole life in the forest and depend his business on the forest resources, he thinks the Amazon rainforest is very important. He realized that the forest resource is limited and a careful balance between forest growth and consumption of trees must be achieved in order to keep the forest alive in the future. Cattle ranching, unlike rubber tapping, will destroy this balance because the rate of resource usage is more than the forest’s ability to regenerate. Chico knew that he had to protect the rainforest for the future of the rubber tappers. To protect the rainforest one must understand how to use the natural resource in the Amazon forest without destroying it. Accordingly, in attempt to save the Amazon forest, he tried to talk with the cattle ranchers. Chico organized the tappers into a group; he had gained international support for his hard work on environmental protection. Together, they tried to confront the cattle ranchers. However, most often, people like Chico Mendes are poor and have difficulty winning for their land against the wealthy land speculators and ranchers. Later on, Chico Mendes was assassinated just after the Brazilian government established the first extractive reserve. Chico Mendes was an environment protection hero who has influenced many Brazilians in the Amazon to stand up to protect the forest. (Bullfrog Films presents. The Decade of Destruction. 1990.) (National Wildlife Federation Remembering Chico Mendes. http://www.nwf.org/international/chico/index.html. 1997) One of the major problems that people like Chico Mendes faced in their attempt to save the forest was the declining Brazilian economy. As of 1991, Brazil’s national debt was over US$130 billion, the highest national debt in the world (Financial Post, Weekly edition, Tue 16 Jul 91, page 10. Editorial). Another statistic shows that between December 1989 and December 1995 there had a total increase by 38.15%. During that time, US$159.005 billion is the foreign debt the Amazon government owe. Ranching, to many Brazilians, is an important source of income, a solution to help reduce the national debt. Therefore, taking the cattle ranching programs away does not solve the problem. As a result, the heavy debt problems on the Brazilian government can not help people that want to protect the forest from the decades of destruction such as Chico Mendes realize their dream of stopping the cattle ranching programs and saving the forest. Not only does the cattle ranching in Amazon rainforest contributes to the destruction of the rainforest, but the logging industries within South America are also a major factor to Amazon deforestation. Specifically, logging has devastated the Amazon forest as much as cattle ranching. Many companies and industries see trees as simply unlimited natural resources to be cut and processed for profits. These corporations never care about the disappearing of the forest. They do not realize that once the rainforest is gone, it is gone. There are no methods available with the present technology that can bring back the rainforest to its original form. Logging of the tropical hardwoods like: teak, mahogany, rosewood and other timbers for the production of paper, furniture, building materials, charcoal and other wood products is a big business at present. (Pearce, Fred. New Scientist Vol. 178 Issue 1737 p.62. Bodley Head, 1990) These businesses rely mainly on tree logging to keep their economical status and to make enormous profits. However, some of these logs are not used wisely and efficiently. For example, several kinds of hardwood are imported to developed countries just for the use of making coffins, which are eventually burned in flame. (Anderson, Anthony B. Alternatives to Deforestation. Columbia University Press, New York, 1990) On the other hand, logging in the Amazon rainforest is also a large economic resource in Brazil and is needed for the pay back of debts. However, there is a problem. The Brazilian government is selling their assets too cheaply. The logs are sold in the Amazon rainforest for as little as $2 per acre. The Brazilian government failed to realize that the logs are worth thousands of dollars per acre. The government does not realize that when the rainforest is gone, their main source of income is also gone.
Another major reason for logging is the production of paper. There is a Japanese power plant and pulp mill for the mass production of papers. In order for this plant to operate, it needs 5,600 square miles of Amazon rainforest. The industry burns down all the trees within the given area and replanted with pulpwood trees. This single plant will consumes 2,000 tons of trees in the rainforest wood every day to produce 55 megawatts of electricity to run the pulp plant. This industry has been running since 1978, and it is producing over 750 tons of pulp for paper every 24 hours. (McKeever Institute, Economic Policy Analysis. http://www.mkeever.com/brazil.html) The industry had built 2,800 miles of roads through the Amazon rainforest to be used by its 700 vehicles. The Aracruz in Brazil is the world biggest pulp mill; it will produce one million tons of pulp a year. The largest markets for the Aracruz are the United States, Belgium, Great Britain, and Japan. More and more rainforest are cut down because of the demand of the present world. It’s will need 200 million tons of woods each year just to produce papers. This means, 4 billion tons of woods will be consumed by the year 2020. (Pearce, Fred. New Scientist Vol. 178 Issue 1737 p.62. Bodley Head, 1990) As one can see, the destruction in the Brazilian Rainforest is unimaginable. The Amazon rainforest is facing serious logging destruction. However, the Brazilian government had implemented programs that help reduce the companies from logging illegally within the Amazon region. The environment plan of the Brazilian government was successful. One of the success store from preventing the deforestation is: Brazilian government had stop an investment project. This company had harvested and profited millions and millions of dollars from logging. The Asian logging companies in Brazil’s Amazon region had conflicts with the Brazilian government because of forest cutting. During last year, a report is issued about the destruction from these companies. The Brazilian government had notice that the destruction rate of the Amazon rainforest had reached a record high. Currently, the Asian logging company is now cutting trees in the Amazon with such fast speed that the government estimated that if the Asian logging company continued cutting trees in the currently rate, the Amazon rainforest will be totally destroyed within a decade. Many of the companies were fined $1 million for illegal logging last year. For this particular Asian logging industry the Brazilian government had put it on hold because of illegal logging and refusing the pay fines. (McKeever Institute, Economic Policy Analysis. http://www.mkeever.com/brazil.html) The Brazilian government has implemented various anti-logging policies to protect the endangered environment of the Amazon rainforest. It is really difficult to keep protecting the natural resources while at the same time trying to improve their economic debt problem. Despite of this the government is trying to satisfy both economic and forest protection. There are currently three places that are under the Brazilian government protection. One of the places is the Atlantic rainforest which, is one of the most endangered ecosystems in Brazil. Now, only 4 to 7 percent of the Atlantic rainforest remain, because of the human destruction like settlement and agriculture. The government has approved the policy that the remaining forest will be protected and stay untouched. The Southern inland forest covers a larger area than the Altantic rainforest. Within the southern forest landowner are required to put 20 percent of their land undeveloped. Another area that is also under the government control is the Amazon region, which is the largest area in Brazil. The government’s policy allows the privately owned industries or company to have 50 percent of the land for development. However, the Brazilian government also limits a maximum of 20 percent within the 50 percent to be clear-cut. (McKeever Institute, Economic Policy Analysis. http://www.mkeever.com/brazil.html) The ant-logging campaigns are more successful than the anti-ranching programs. However, because of weak national economic status, these environmental-friendly polices still face widespread protests from owners of wood products businesses. These protests have certainly delayed the expansion of the reforestation efforts. Both the Brazilian public and the Brazilian government are fully aware of the necessity to devise policies and strategies to save the Amazon from continual deforestation. However, the economics in Brazil are being intimately related to the ranching, logging, and pulp mill business which, prevents or delaying the Brazilians from taking the necessary actions. The Amazon government is now facing a dilemma that is they need money to reduce their current international debts, and the citizens need money to support their families. This will continue the destruction in the Amazon rainforest. This can only be solve if the Amazon government decided to stop the logging and cattle ranching programs but then there will not be enough capital to pay their debts. Solutions must be found in these endanger rainforest. One of the possible solutions that can be organized and implemented in the future is to start expanding the rubber tapper business. If one is educated to become a professional rubber tapper then the trees will not be destroyed and the forest will be saved because one will learn how to obtain rubber from trees with out abusing them. The improvement of dollar per acre will also take place because taking rubbers from trees wouldn’t destroy them. Conversely, the logging of trees by industries can not be regenerate to its original state. Therefore, once the forest is gone, their main source of income is gone. More importantly, in order to save the Amazon rainforest, each and everyone mush take a part in this solution by helping to reduce the destruction of the rainforest by purchasing renewable and sustainable rainforest products.