Rainforest Destruction

Rainforests are being destroyed at a staggering rate. According to the National Academy of Science, at least 50 million acres a year are lost, an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland combined. These old growth forests are being cleared for “development”. The major purposes responsible for the destruction of rainforests are agriculture, cattle-grazing, logging, and drilling by oil companies. In many less developed countries, rainforests come under pressure from people suffering grinding poverty and desperate for any land that they can use for farming or cattle-grazing.

More than 50 percent of all types of living things—as many as five million species of plants, animals, and insects—live in tropical rainforests. Rainforest destruction poses a threat to each and every one of these species. It is estimated that 100 species become extinct every day due to tropical deforestation. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of tropical forest species will become extinct each decade during the next half-century. Current rates of species extinction are comparable to the five greatest mass extinctions in world history.

According to a report by Friends of the Earth, as much as 80 percent of global deforestation is caused by conversion of forests into agricultural land. In Brazil, which houses one third of the Earth's remaining rainforest, the expansion of the agricultural frontier is the main cause of deforestation. In addition to deforestation, large-scale agriculture can threaten worker health and safety, cause soil erosion, and cause contamination and sedimentation of streams. All the primary rainforests in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Haiti have been destroyed already. The Ivory Coast rainforests have been almost completely logged. The Philippines lost 55% of its forest between 1960 and 1985; Thailand lost 45% of its forest between 1961 and 1985.

Agricultural products responsible for the conversion of forests include meat, soy, palm oil, bananas, coca, and cacao, among others. In many tropical countries, poor peasants who have been forced off their land, move into rainforests via logging roads and begin small-scale subsistence farms. Products such as beef from cattle ranching, on the other hand, are largely produced to fill demand from wealthy northern countries and urban centers. An estimated fifty-five square feet of rainforest is cleared to make pasture for every quarter pound hamburger made from rainforest cattle.

Since the soil of the rainforest is low in nutrients (most rainforest nutrients are found in the biomass above), after a few years of growing grass or other crops, the soil cannot sustain life further and it becomes a barren wasteland. As a result, additional rainforest is cleared and converted into cattle pasture. Because the United States is the single largest consumer of Central American beef, one could say that Americans are literally eating the rainforest into extinction. One simple way to help save the rainforests is to eat less beef. If every American reduced their beef consumption by only half, there would be no need to destroy the rainforest for cattle pasture. Cattle ranching is a major cause of rainforest destruction in Central and South America. Ranchers slash and burn rainforests to grow grass pasture for cattle. Slash and burn is a technique where forests are deliberately burnt to clear land for farming.
Sources:
1. Myers, Norman. 1989. Deforestation Rates in Tropical Forests and Their Climatic Implications. Friends of the Earth, Underwood St., London
2. http://www.ran.org/info_center/factsheets/04b.html
3. http://www.rainforestweb.org

Summary
In the rainforests, logging, cattle ranching, mining, oil extraction, hydroelectric dams and subsistence farming are the leading causes of habitat destruction.
Indirectly, the leading threats to rainforests ecosystems are unbridled development, funded by international aid-lending institutions such as the World Bank, and the voracious consumer appetites of industrialized nations.
We're losing 33.8 million acres of tropical forest per year --
More than the total area of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware combined --
2.8 million acres lost per month...93,000 acres/day...3,800 acres/hour...64 acres/minute.
Brazil lost 91.4 million acres of tropical forest between 1980-1990 --
Almost the total area of North and South Dakota combined.
More than 50% of all living things make the rainforest their home and 100 species are lost everyday due to the destruction of rainforests.
(FYI: the following info is posted on the website, I’ll probably use it when I talk during the presentation.) http://www.ran.org/info_center/factsheets/04b.html

Questions:
1. For what purposes are the rainforests being destroyed?
2. How much of the rainforest are we losing every year/day/minute/second?
3. The rainforest is home to how many percent of the living things on earth?

Global Rates of Destruction (1)
2.4 acres (1 hectare) per second: equivalent to two U.S. football fields
149 acres (60 hectares) per minute
214,000 acres (86,000 hectares) per day: an area larger than New York City
78 million acres (31 million hectares) per year: an area larger than Poland

In Brazil
5.4 million acres per year (estimate averaged for period 1979-1990) (2)
6 - 9 million indigenous people inhabited the Brazilian rainforest in 1500 In 1992, less than 200,000 remain. (3)

Species Extinction
Distinguished scientists estimate an average of 137 species of life forms are driven into extinction every day; or 50,000 each year. (4)

Projected Economic Value of One Hectare in the Peruvian Amazon (5)
$6,820 per year if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and timber
$1,000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested)
$148 if used as cattle pasture

Tropical Moist Forests: Present status in select countries (6)