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Although some countries and communities are working hard to find ways of preserving and improving their forests and make a living from them, there are further threats to forests world-wide.
Fire
In 1997/8, fire devastated huge areas of Brazil, Indonesia, Venezuela, Guyana,
Colombia, Mexico, Kenya, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei. Some
were accidental: poor logging management left open spaces with twigs, leaves
and small branches drying out in the hot sun, or fires set to clear land got
out of control. Others were probably deliberate: by plantation owners wanting
to drive out small farmers or local people acting in revenge for being kept
out of their traditional forests. The extreme weather conditions of those years
made the problem worse, but fire has been an increasing hazard for many years.
Cattle ranching
Large areas of tropical American rainforest have been cleared for cattle ranching;
the beef produced in Brazil is mostly for the domestic market, but much from
Central America goes to the USA. In the past, ranchers have been given Government
grants to convert forest to pasture. When the grass is planted, everything is
fine for a few years. However, the soil starts to dry out, the grass gets thinner,
non-edible weeds spread, and, without the rotting of leaves and twigs on the
ground, the nutrients in the soil are not replenished. Although some ranches
are being replanted with new grasses, many are abandoned and the ranchers move
on and cut down more forest. It is hard for the forest to regrow because the
abandoned areas are so large, seeds from the surrounding forest are not carried
there.
Minerals
Oil, natural gas and certain minerals are plentiful in some forest areas. They
might be used within a country or exported to gain foreign currency. However,
it is very difficult to extract them without environmental damage. In the Siberian
taiga forests, huge areas have been ruined by leaking oil pipelines; bauxite
mining in Guyana has left scars in the forest landscape and gold mining in the
Amazon has caused river pollution. Such projects often create disagreement in
the local communities: some (often the men) are in favour because of the jobs
created; others (often the women) are more concerned about the forest destruction.
Fuel
As well as the damage caused to woodlands by the hundreds of millions of ordinary
people who use wood as their day-to-day fuel, rainforest trees are sometimes
used for industry. In Brazil, huge areas of forest are being felled and not
replanted to provide fuel to smelt iron ore, which is then sold to the European
car industry.
Dams
Hydroelectric dams on rainforest rivers produce power for both industry and
domestic consumers. Although hydroelectricity can replace the burning of trees
as fuel, the dams themselves cause lakes which flood vast areas of forest. The
proposed Bakun Dam in Sarawak, Malaysia, will involve flooding an area the size
of Singapore.
picture of a Hydroelectric dam
The main site includes an activity called "who pays".
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This site is funded by DFID and has been produced by the World Land Trust.
