Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8-19
Natural capital
degradation:
each year large
areas of tropical forest in Brazil's
Amazon basin are burned to
make way for cattle ranches and
plantation crops. According to a
2003 study by NASA, the Amazon
is slowly getting drier due to this
practice. If this trend continues, it
will prevent the restoration of for-
est by secondary ecological suc-
cession and convert a large area
to tropical grasslands.
colonize tropical forests by giving them title to land
that they clear. This practice can help reduce poverty
but may lead to environmental degradation unless the
new settlers are taught how to use such forests more
sustainably, which is rarely done. In addition, interna-
tional lending agencies encourage developing coun-
tries to borrow huge sums of money from developed
Economics and Politics: Causes of Tropical
Deforestation and Degradation
The primary causes of tropical deforestation and
degradation are population growth, poverty,
environmentally harmful government subsidies, debts
owed to developed countries, and failure to value
their ecological services.
Tropical deforestation results from a number of inter-
connected primary and secondary causes (Figure 8-20).
Population growth and poverty combine to drive sub-
sistence farmers and the landless poor to tropical
forests, where they try to grow enough food to survive.
Government subsidies can accelerate deforestation by
making timber or other tropical forest resources
such as land for cattle grazing cheap, relative to
the economic value of the ecological services
the forests provide.
Governments in Indonesia, Mexico,
and Brazil also encourage the poor to
• Oil drilling
• Mining
• Flooding from dams
•Tree plantations
• Cattle ranching
• Cash crops
• Settler farming
• Fires
• Logging
• Roads
Secondary Causes
• Not valuing
ecological services
• Exports
• Government policies
• Poverty
• Population growth
Figure 8-20
Natural capital degradation:
major
interconnected causes of the destruction and
degradation of tropical forests. The importance of
specific secondary causes varies in different parts
of the world.
Basic Causes
