Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the cycle has declined from fifty to around eight
years and, arguably, the fallowing process has
become less effective (Haigh 1990; 1985).
However, the share of responsibility for
deforestation given to the forest's traditional
cultivators is easily exaggerated (Angelen 1995).
Few in number, not usually politically powerful,
often belonging to minority nationalities, often on
the socio-economic margins of a society, forest
peoples make easy scapegoats. It may be
convenient for governments to overestimate the
impact of shifting cultivation in order to
smokescreen other deforestation agencies (
cf
.
Brothers 1997; Kustudia 1998).
In truth, most deforestation is externally driven.
This is true even within the communities of
shifting cultivators. In Colombia, primary
montane rain forests are threatened by the illegal
cultivation of narcotics such as poppies for opium,
morphine and heroin. The area that has already
been deforested for this crop may be 50,000 ha,
and the deforestation rate associated with opium
is around 0.5 per cent per year. In Sumatra,
increased rubber planting and expansion into
primary forest occurs in response to increased
rubber profitability and expected land scarcity
(Bulte and van Soest 1996). The local people seek
to establish property rights in the face of
government land claims and thus become
embroiled in a self-reinforcing land race.
The situation leads Bulte and van Soest to
argue that encroachment by shifting cultivators
may have beneficial effects for the conservation of
primary forests. The threat of encroachment acts
as a natural brake on the pace at which
governments allow concessionaires to open up
primary forest areas. Hence, the ecological
damages of encroachment are restricted to
secondary forest areas. Once again, the example
shows how deforestation is driven by government
policies and by external commercial elites (Dove
1993).
back by the rising tide of population growth (
cf
.
Myers 1993). Population pressure, the lack of
economic opportunity, dispossession, war, famine,
landlessness and fuelwood dependency also foster
forest encroachment (Tole 1998;
cf
. McNeil
1982). Murali and Hegde (1997) analyse the
relative contribution of demographic and
economic factors to deforestation, using 1990
data on the total geographical area, forest area,
population density, the export of forest products
and population growth rate of 141 countries.
They agree that population pressure does not
correlate with greater levels of deforestation
globally, but it may in some of the nations of
Africa and Asia. Here too other factors intervene.
In Africa, small countries had higher
deforestation rates than larger countries, perhaps
owing to a proportionately greater need to
export natural resources to generate foreign
exchange. Forests produce more than 10 per cent
of the GDP of eighteen African nations
(Department for International Development
1998). By contrast, Europe has high population
densities, but preserves low deforestation rates
through its ability to import from tropical
countries instead of using its own resources
(Murali and Hegde 1997).
Fuelwood scarcity
Forests provide cooking fuel for 2000 million
people. Several hundred millions rely on forests for
other products, ranging from timber to medicine
(Department for International Development
1998; Dudley
et al
. 1995). However, the role of
fuel scarcity in deforestation is often overstated.
Indeed, the topic has a mythological status equal
to that of the 'population pressure' and 'slash-and-
burn' agriculture theories of deforestation.
Certainly, fuelwood and charcoal remain the
major energy sources of much of the developing
world. However, wood extraction is mainly
achieved through forest degradation. It involves
lopping and thinning more than wholesale forest
clearing (Haigh 1994).
Nevertheless, in Magu District, Tanzania,
Ishengoma
et al
. (1995) found a 5 per cent annual
Population pressure
Another traditional explanation for tropical
deforestation is that the forests are being swept
