Deforestation in Africa (SS7G2)
Directions: You and your partner will be exploring the different causes of deforestation in Africa. You will work on one category at a time. Once you have finished the category, you will show the teacher and if it is correct you will be given information to begin another category. By the time this activity is finished, your graphic organizer will be completed.
Cause / EffectLogging
Mining
Cattle Raising and Overgrazing
Fires
War
Commercial Farming
What solutions can you and your partner think of to stop deforestation in Africa? (Be realistic)
Logging
Logging is a major issue in Africa. Most of it is done by large international companies, and not by local lumberjacks. These big companies take advantage of undeveloped countries; buy buying or renting huge tracts of land and deforesting it. These undeveloped nations make all attempts necessary to pay of their debts, even if it includes selling land and letting it be destroyed. In some cases however, the government itself is corrupt and it makes corrupt deals with the major logging companies, often times with no concern to the environment. Some corporations are a little more concerned about the environment than others are, but they are still logging companies. A good logging company is one that is bankrupt. Most of these corporations, cut down the trees in the least amount of time possible, destroy the topsoil with their machinery and burn down the remainders. They do not even care to replant new trees in the place of the cut down ones. Naturally, the logging companies do not want you to know what exactly they are doing in the logging areas, therefore they make sure that there is no access to these sites.
Almost all the time the large logging corporations make roads in an area they are cutting down the trees. These logging roads make even greater damage to the forest and most of all provide easy access to settlers. The places around these roads are quickly inhabited right after the logging is done.
War
War is a curse for the environment. On one hand it can force people to concentrate on other things and not on deforestation. But on the other hand it can force resource-low countries to chop down even more trees and cause even more harm to the environment. For example in1990 the former African state of Zaire, experienced a major decrease in forested areas, most of its national forest reserves were completely deforested. The cause of all this was rebels escaping from a country in chaos, and setting up refugee camps in the woods. They had to survive and heat their food, so they used just about every resource they could take from the forest. The refugees killed many animals for food and chopped down millions of acres of forests for personal and commercial purposes.
Sometimes in times of war, corrupt governments use a blanket of chaos to commence their deeds. When no one is looking over the forests and the environment in general, that’s when the worst can happen. War is perfect to distract people from the logging activities, and is often times very damaging
Cattle raising and Overgrazing
Often at a time of inflation in a country, it is more profitable to sell cleared land than forested land. This makes it especially difficult to preserve the forests. The cleared land is usually used for cattle grazing. Unfortunately, in most countries the land used for grazing was the most fertile land that the country has had. One hectare is required to sustain each animal; sadly, after between five to eight years that number increases to five hectares per animal as the land becomes more and more fallow each year that it has been grazed on. Naturally, farmers don’t raise one animal; they have hundreds, or perhaps thousands. It is easy to imagine how clearing forests for cattle raising becomes a vicious cycle that intensifies the need to clear even more land for cattle raising. This is especially true in undeveloped nations where people choose cattle herding over land preservation, as more and more farmers take this option, forests face even more peril.
One of many factors that contribute to deforestation is heavy overgrazing. Many Africans depend on livestock to provide them with food. However since the population is increasing more rapidly than the resources, Africa faces a major problem. As the farmers gain more livestock, more fields and grasslands are destroyed. Grass and tree roots in the fields are the only things that keep the soil moist and fertile, and if herds of farm animals destroy them, then soil degradation and erosion prevail. In some cases farmers run out of food for their animals, then they go to harvest the forest products in turn increasing deforestation even more.
Commercial agriculture
Unlike small farmers, commercial farmers destroy much more land using the slash and burn technique. Sometimes they don’t even clear the land for valuable lumber and just burn everything. If a small farmer burns 1-4 hectares of land, commercial farmers burn tens even hundred thousands of hectares of land. Once the land is cleared it supports a very large agricultural growth, mainly from the burnt top layer of soil. When trees and vegetation are burnt, many nutrients and minerals are released in the process, and the land therefore is able to support a very large harvest for 3-4 years. After that commercial farmers have to use overwhelming amounts of fertilizers to replenish the soil, in order for it to support at least a minimum amount of crops. Too much fertilizer can cause runoff and even more damage to the nearby wildlife and vegetation. If fore example, fertilizers get into nearby waterways, they increase the growth of algae (algae bloom). The massive amounts of algae use up all the oxygen in the water and in turn suffocate the fish and other wildlife. The cash crop that is most popular in these cleared regions is coca. Just for coca poppy alone, 600,000 hectares of forests are cleared annually.
Fires
Forest fires are most devastating of all factors for forest wildlife and vegetation. Most of these “accidental” fires are set by tenant farmers to clear small patches of land, but when they lose control, the fire spreads into larger areas and causes enormous damage. Sometimes fire is used to clear a cut down forest, because it is simply the fastest way to do that, without spending too much money. The small forest fires that occur at the lowest canopy do not really hurt the forest too much, but when a fire passes through again and there is no more lower canopy to stop it, that’s when it does the most damage. Forest fires do much more damage than just killing wildlife or destroying the vegetation, millions of tons of carbon monoxide are released into the air. Increased amounts of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere are causing global warming. The only thing that can clear the atmosphere of the excessive amounts of carbon and other harmful gases are trees and vegetation in general. However, if more and more forests are destroyed every year, than how can we expect to clean up our air?
Mining
Mining, believe it or not, is also a harmful process for the forests, wildlife and the nearby inhabitants. It is evident that many of the earth’s rainforests hold many useful resources and minerals underneath. Miners always try to take advantage of these mineral rich spots; they create roads and cut down all the trees in the area. By creating roads, they create easy access for other people to inhabit the region. As a result of that, even more land has to be cleared. Mining practices themselves are very harmful to the environment. To extract or purify certain precious minerals from earth, miners use minerals like mercury and cyanide. These harmful toxins are let into local waterways, and result in pollution. Other mining processes such as demolition and the use of explosives erode the soil and remove the most fertile top soil.