Deforestation is a problem that is more of an issue and its effects are much more obvious now than ever before. Deforestation is the act of the mass cutting down of trees without the intent of replanting.

 

The human body cannot live without its lungs and the Rainforests are the Earth’s lungs. Rainforests are native to millions of people as well as the vast amount of the world’s plant and animal species. Most of deforestation is done in order to clear land for agriculture but a lot of it is also used for resource extraction and space for roads.

 

Over 60% of the Amazon is situated in Brazil over 9 countries. Deforestation was at an all time low until 2018 when the new president Jair Bolsonaro was elected. Ever since him being elected into office the old laws and legislations that reduce logging in the Amazon. This is leading to the mass deforestation of the Rainforest restarting. If the rain forest is logged and deforested like this for much longer it will be far from repairable. If this was to happen in all of the rainforests in the world it was cause bad and permanent and negative effect on the planet.

 

Yet the current situation in Brazil is not the same as in other rainforest. For example in Costa Rica the government are trying to preserve the Rainforest. This is done in several ways: Reserves, Ecotourism, selective logging and agroforestry.

 

The Costa Rican rainforest has large land of reserves, which helps to keep biodiversity of the rainforest alive and healthy as while Costa Rica has 0.03 percent of land it has 6 percent of the planets Biodiversity. Having areas that cant be deforested help with the income of Costa Rica as it helps with carbon emissions and so they can bye carbon credits from places such as The States. Reserves can also bring in money through ecotourism. The reserve can be used as a tourism destination for a small amount of people. The money income from ecotourism helps locals due to the fact it opens up jobs while also helping the countries economy. This also means deforestation isn’t needed to receive money and so the rainforest does not need to be deforested.

 

Selective logging is also a good way to help reserve the rainforests. This is where only an area of the area is cut down but the trees are replanted. One of the reasons this is so effective is if trees are cut down then they cannot regrow naturally due to the poor quality of he soil. Replanting also helps the biodiversity. Finally it also increases the carbon store of the rainforest and so over all helps the world with global warming. Agroforestry is similar to this. Agroforestry is the cultivation and use of trees and shrubs with crops and livestock in agricultural systems. Agroforestry seeks positive interactions between its components, aiming to achieve a more ecologically diverse and socially productive output from the land than is possible through conventional agriculture. This also helps the farmers as trees help reduce the effects of leeching which is so prominent in rainforest.

 

It is not just in Costa Rica that these are used to help maintain the rainforest but they all help to stop deforestation. But if they did not take place and the rainforest was completely deforested them the effects on the planet would be catastrophic.

 

If the trees were all removed from the rainforest them a lot of water and rain that the planet receives would be gone. This is as a large tree can push 150 tonnes of water into the atmosphere each year, this them falls down as rain for the forests. Without it the land would dry up and dead tree would lead to large forest fires. A lot of the oxygen productions would be gone and instead there would be carbon released into the atmosphere that would lead to climate change to speed up.

 

While deforestation can lead to terrible consequences and possibly even extinction of the human race it is all not lost. Places such, as the Costa Rican Rain Forest is currently being environmentally and economically being sustained. Other rainforests such as the Malaysian Rainforest is also being managed in a similar way. Unfortunately places such as the amazon are constantly being deforested and there is no stopping the loggers without new laws and legislations being added. Overall the maintenance of rainforest is going up as we now see the large negative effects that deforestation will cause if we carry on as we are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

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