deforestation

1. Deforestation and case study
Environmental Science
Ms.R.Krishnaveni

2. Deforestation and case study
Deforestation:
 It is putting our planet at risk, as the following case studies exemplify.
 It is responsible for at least 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas
emissions1 and wipes out 137 species of plants, animals and insects
every day.
 The deplorable practice degenerates soil, losing half of the world’s
topsoil over the past 150 years.
 Deforestation also leads to drought by reducing the amount of water
in the atmosphere.

3. Deforestation and case study
Deforestation case study:
 Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest – the largest
rainforest in the world – is within Brazil’s national borders.
 8 Any examination of deforestation case studies would be
incomplete without considering tree felling in Brazil.

4. Deforestation and case study
 Industrial activities and large-scale agriculture began to eat away the southern
and eastern fringes of the Amazon, from the 1950s onwards.
 Deforestation in Brazil received a significant boost in 1964 when a military
dictatorship took power and declared the jungle a security risk.
 By the 1970s, the government was running television ads encouraging land
conversion, provoking millions to migrate north into the forest.
 Settlements replaced trees, and infrastructure began to develop.
 Wealthy tycoons subsequently bought the land for cattle ranches or vast fields of
soy.

5. Deforestation and case study
 By the turn of the 21st century, more than 75 per cent of deforestation in
the Amazon was for cattle ranching.
 But, environmentalists and Indigenous groups drew international attention
to the devastation caused and succeeded in curtailing it by 2004.
 Between 2004 and the early 2010s, annual forest cover loss in Brazil
reduced by about 80 per cent.
 The decline is attributed to “increased law enforcement, satellite
monitoring, pressure from environmentalists, private and public sector
initiatives, new protected areas, and macroeconomic trends”.14

6. Deforestation and case study
Brazil’s deforestation of the Amazon rainforest since 2010
 Unfortunately, however, efforts to curtail deforestation in Brazil’s
Amazon have stalled since 2012.
 Tree felling and land conversion have been trending upwards ever
since.
 The economic incentive for chopping the rainforest down has
overcome the environmental benefits of leaving it standing.
 Political movements and lax government legislation have leveraged
this to their advantage.

7. Deforestation and case study
 However, there is still hope for the Amazon rainforest.
Bolsonaro’s principal international ally was US President Trump.
 Now that environmentally-conscious Joe Biden has replaced
him in the White House, international pressure regarding
deforestation will increase heavily.
 Biden has made this clear with a promise of USD $20 billion to
protect the Amazon.

8. Deforestation and case study
The impact of continued deforestation:
 For its three million plant and animal species and one million
Indigenous inhabitants, it is imperative that Amazonian deforestation
is massively and immediately reduced.
 As much as 17 per cent of the Amazon has been lost already.
 If this proportion increases to over 20 per cent, a tipping point will be
reached.
 This will irreversibly break the water cycle, and at least half of the
remaining forest will become savannah.24

9. Deforestation and case study
Impact on climate change:
 Losing the Amazon would also mean losing the fight against climate change.
 Despite the rampant deforestation in recent years, the remaining Amazon
rainforest still absorbs between 5 to 10 per cent of all human CO2 emissions.
 Cutting trees down increases anthropogenic emissions. When felled, burned
or left to rot, trees release sequestered carbon.
 A combination of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving existing
forests is crucial to preventing dangerous levels of global warming.

10. Deforestation and case study
Deforestation case study:
 The Congo Basin is the second-largest rainforest in the world.
 It has been described as the ‘second lungs’ of the Earth
because of how much carbon dioxide it absorbs and how much
oxygen it produces.
 But, just as the world’s first lungs – the Amazon – is being
destroyed by humans, the Congo’s rainforest is also suffering
heavy casualties.

11. Deforestation and case study
 60 per cent of the Congo Basin is located within the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC).
 The DRC is one of the world’s largest and poorest countries, though it has
immense economic resources.
 Natural resources have fuelled an ongoing war that has affected all the
neighbouring countries and claimed as many as six million lives.
 The resultant instability combined with corruption and poor governance have
led to an ever-increasing rate of deforestation within the DRC’s borders.

12. Deforestation and case study
 80 million people depend upon the Congo Basin for their
existence.
 It provides food, charcoal, firewood, medicinal plants, and
materials for building and other purposes.
 But, this rainforest also indirectly supports people across the
whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
 Like all forests, it is instrumental in regulating rainfall, which can
affect precipitation hundreds of miles away.