Preventing Deforestation to Promote Sustainable Forest
Management
I. Introduction
Imagine a world without forests. A planet without the greens like
trees, which have been covering Earth for thousands of years. A
place with bad air and dirty water. This is the sad truth we would
have to face if we are not careful enough about how fast our
forests are disappearing. Deforestation, a silent but serious
problem, is taking away all that life of the planet.
II. Purpose of this Study
Forests are vital for regulating the global climate, producing
oxygen, and maintaining water cycles. Avoiding deforestation is
crucial for maintaining ecological balance. It can have a several
purposes, it's either in our environment, social, and even in
economic.
This concept paper will outline the purposes, for preventing
deforestation and promoting sustainable forest management.
Some of our local populations depends on forest for their
livelihoods such as those indigenous people. Cutting trees will
definitely affect their lives and their way of living. In order to
preserve traditional knowledge and cultural heritage, we need to
avoid deforestation!
Deforestation disrupts the processes in balancing our ecology
leading to devastating consequences. By avoiding deforestation,
we can preserve biodiversity and ecosystem balance, protect
water cycles, prevent soil erosion, and maintain oxygen
production and air quality.
By stopping the amount of cutting trees, our forest can
provide essential ecosystem services that we needed, ensuring
sustainable development, and safeguarding human well-being.
By understanding the purposes, goals, and strategies outlined
in this concept paper, we can work together to preserve the
lungs of the Earth and create a more sustainable future for all.
III. Research Description
Deforestation can be defined as the clearing of large portions
of forests for a purpose. The purposes can include agricultural
land development, infrastructure development, and even natural
resource extraction. The removal of trees and other vegetation
without any intent to replant becomes deforestation in this case,
where the formerly forested areas become like farms or ranches
or even urban development. Concern about the unprecedented
rate and scale of this deadly business of deforestation, which has
serious environmental, social, and economic implications,
exceeding from thousands of years old basic practice to the hilt
today.
Agricultural production is one of the major causes of
deforestation. Most agricultural expansion occurs for food
agriculture, including soy, palm oil, and other foodstuffs, along
with animal husbandry. Among common tropic farming practices,
there is slash-and-burn farming whereby forestland is cleared and
burnt to make it arable.
Logging is another major cause. Commercial logging of
timber, paper, and fuel wood, both legal and illegal, frequently
involves the harvesting of valuable tree species, causing large
areas of forest to degrade. Even the construction of roads for
logging leads to fragmentation.
Urbanization and infrastructure development also contribute
to deforestation. With the increase in population, more space is
needed for housing, road networks, and other infrastructural
facilities. Gross destruction of forests is due to mining and the
building of dams or energy facilities.
While it is true that most natural cases of forest fires are
caused by human activities, either by design or otherwise, an
overwhelming number is caused by human activities. These can
cause colossal clearing, particularly in dry seasons or where
logging and changes in land use have weakened the forests.
It is closely related to climate change. Increasing
temperatures and droughts amongst other climatic changes
increase the vulnerability of the forests to fires and pest attacks.
On the other hand, deforestation facilitates climate change by
releasing huge amounts of carbon held in the forests into the
atmosphere.
The consequences of losing forests are enormous. About 80%
of the world's terrestrial species of animals, plants, and insects
exist in the forests. Habitat destruction for thousands of species,
lowered and eventually narrower biodiversity, and extinction is
seen in a few cases due to loss of forests. The high biodiversity of
the tropical rain forests, such as the Amazon, face serious effects
when lost.
The second cause of climatic change is through deforestation.
Forests are natural carbon sinks because they absorb the
atmospheric CO2 in the process of regulating Earth's climate.
Whenever the trees are cut and burnt, carbon stored in trees
would lead to carbon emissions into the atmosphere; hence, it
becomes the most significant greenhouse gas causing global
warming by hastening the process of climatic change.
The removal of forests hampers the water cycle. Forestry
regulates the water cycle since it absorbs the rain and adds to
the atmosphere through transpiration. When the forests are
removed, the process is disrupted thus, having irregular patterns
of rainfall leading to droughts and desertification; hence, severely
affecting agriculture and access to water by local communities.
Forest cutting not only causes erosion but is also a cause of
destruction aside from soil degradation. In trees and plants, the
roots prevent soil from being carried away by the rains or eroded
away by the winds. Topsoil accompanies cut forests, making
lands not usable for farming and having reduced fertility. Soil
erosion also leads to the washing to rivers and streams of
sediments hence affecting the quality of water and aquatic life.
Deforestation also severely impacts the indigenous societies.
Most of the indigenous people in the world rely on forests to
provide food, shelter, and all other important cultural activities.
With such losses of forests, many indigenous people become
displace and are thrown out from their homes and livelihoods.
Loss of forests leads to the resultant conflicts over lands and
resources, and indigenous knowledge of sustainable ways to
manage the forests is lost in the process.
IV. Support
Deforestation is basically clearing up of the forest in other
words clearing of the jungles for agriculture, construction, or
logging purposes or any purpose. They cause damage to planet
earth because of:
Climate Change - Forests remove carbon dioxide, while
denuded forests add into the atmosphere excessive carbon,
adding to climate change. Loss of Biodiversity- Many animals and
plants depend on forests for their habitat. With the deforestation,
the vegetations are destroyed.
Soil Erosion - Deforestation exposes soil to wind and water
erosion, causes layers of soil to wash off.
Water Crises - Forests are natural moderating systems for
rainfall and water flow. With clear-cutting, ecological balance is
disturbed.
Displacement and Damage to the Community - Leaving lands
again degraded and persons uprooted from an economic base.
Moreover, few of its solutions:
Sustainable Forest Management - Properly addressing forests
for their purposes without destruction.
Protected Areas - Parks and reserves should be created to
maintain forests and wildlife.
Alternative Livelihoods - Giving jobs to people without
destroying forests.
Community Involvement - Gives local people a voice in
management of their forests.
Buy Sustainable Products - Prefer taking sustainably harvested
wood and resource products.
V. Contact Information
We are dedicated about sharing knowledge and encouraging
individuals to become supporters for forest protection. To learn
more and explore deeper into the challenging issue of
deforestation and discover how you can actively help to the
protection of our forests, we encourage you to stay
connected/contact us in our social media
accounts/emails/contact numbers.
Estelle Gwyneth L. Llanera
[email protected] 09303058391
Pauline Claire
[email protected]
09157381249
Edson Macario Jr.
[email protected] 09096391286
Janica May Palmares
[email protected] 09288260208
We are here to answer your questions and share our knowledge
on this important issue. Feel free to reach out to us through our
Email addresses, Phone numbers or Facebook accounts listed
above. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any
questions. Thank you.
