Conservation, ecological justice and harm to nature - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 83

oil used as biofuel releases 30 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, ten
times as much as petroleum does' (Shiva, 2008: 79).
Key issues surrounding land use and management include soil
contamination and soil loss, agro-biodiversity, deforestation, habitat
damage, coastal erosion and wetlands conservation. Moreover, given the
focus of the UN mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation (REDD) on minimising carbon emissions
caused by the destruction of living forest biomass, there will be greater
pressures to convert or modify other ecosystems, especially savannahs
and wetlands, for food or biofuel (Sutherland et al, 2009).
Thirteen per cent of the world's total forest area is under formal
protection and almost 75 per cent of forests are covered by a national
forest programme. Yet, despite progress in the regulatory sphere, and
net gains in forest areas in Europe and Asia, total loss of forest cover
during the last decade still averaged around 13 million hectares per
year. Most deforestation is occurring in tropical forests, with substantial
biodiversity impacts: 'Although the global rate of net forest cover loss has
slowed, partly due to the expansion of plantations and to natural forest
restoration, forest biodiversity loss continues to occur disproportionately
since the highest levels of deforestation and of forest degradation are
reported for biodiversity-rich natural forests in developing countries
(UNEP, 2011: 48). Net losses are especially significant in South America
and Africa.
Factors affecting deforestation, and reduction in forest biodiversity,
include unsustainable harvesting of forest products for industrial use and
livelihood needs, deforestation for agriculture, and severe drought and
forest fires. Every year some 10 million hectares of forest are destroyed,
industrial timber exports total around US$150 billion per year, and
estimates are that illegal logging accounts for about 25 per cent of
removals worldwide (Setiono, 2007: 27). Deforestation is not only due
to logging. Land clearance is also due to agricultural exploitation, cattle
farming, mining, oil and gas installations, and hydroelectric dams (see
Boekhout van Solinge, 2008ab, 2010a, b; Khagram, 2004; Boekhout van
Solinge and Kuijpers, 2013). There is also the phenomenon of 'conflict
timber', associated with West Africa, for example, in which deforestation
is linked to the funding of civil wars and armed conflicts (Boekhout
van Solinge, 2008a). Vast amounts of forest are subject to destruction
in many different locations - from Peru and Brazil, Liberia and Sierra
Leone, to Indonesia and Australia. The purposes and motivations may
vary, depending upon the social context and industry interests, but the
result is further depletion of many different kinds of trees and variety
of forests.