About this site
Providing tropical forest news, statistics, photos, and information, rainforests.mongabay.com is the world's most popular rainforest site. [more]
Weekly Newsletter
Mongabay will never distribute your email address or send spam.
Share
Sections of rain forest cut for slash-and-burn agriculture. (Photo by R. Butler)
DESTRUCTION OF RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Deforestation can rob a country of potential renewable revenues while replacing valuable productive lands with
virtually useless scrub and grassland. Tropical forests provide important renewable resources that can significantly
contribute to national economic growth on a continuing basis.
In theory, logging can be a sustainable activity, generating an ongoing source of revenue without diminishing the resource base—especially in secondary forests and plantations. However, most rainforest logging is not sustainable in practice, diminishing the potential revenue for tropical countries in the long term. Timber is now a decreasingly important industry in many former wood-exporting countries in Southeast Asia and West Africa due to overexploitation. While several countries have moved to restrict logging, some face difficulties from illegal operations. The World Bank estimates that governments lose about US$5 billion in revenues annually as a result of illegal logging while overall losses to the national economies of timber-producing countries add up to an additional US$10 billion per year.
After logging, one of the largest "renewable resources" provided by tropical rainforests is ecotourism. The booming
market brings tens of billions of dollars annually to tropical countries around the world. Ecotourism suffers with
deforestation—few tourists, let alone ecotourists, want to travel in order to see polluted rivers, stumps of
former forests, barren wasteland, gorilla carcasses, and relics of recently assimilated forest dwellers. Recently,
the smog or haze created by the Indonesian forest fires caused tourist arrivals in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia
to drop significantly.
Forest products play a crucial role in the economy of developing countries. In 1994, exports of primary forest
products were US$114 billion, of which at least 10 percent were secondary, non-wood forest products. These figures do
not include the value of these products to local consumers, who use timber to build houses and collect nuts and
fruits from the forest for food. Short-term economic exploitation through deforestation is devastating to the long-term
economy of developing countries not only by annihilating vital ecosystems that afford important services, but also
by destroying potential forest products. Already, revenue from tropical hardwood exports is down 25 percent from 1980
levels and is expected to drop below 75 percent of 1980 levels by the turn of the century. As these countries develop
their economies, they will continue to deplete their forest stocks, and may, in the foreseeable future, have to
import wood from temperate regions like the former Soviet Union, Canada, and the United States. Malaysia has seen
a 60 percent decline in log exports, while the Philippines (a major exporter of logs during the early 1980s) has seen
a virtual cessation in log exports. In both cases, the declines are due to dwindling harvestable forest resources.
By 2000, only 10 of the 33 tropical countries that export timber will still be able to export. The new tropical
log exporters, at least until their reserves are exhausted, are Latin America, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands,
Cambodia, and parts of Africa including Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, and Congo.
Besides timber products, tropical countries lose potential earnings from renewable forest products like the nuts
from Brazil nut trees, durian fruit from Southeast Asia, and iguana farming from Belize. In 1996, the value of
non-wood forest products, accounting for the domestic consumption value and the international trade value, was
estimated at US$90 billion. Many rainforest products cannot exist without a fully functioning rainforest system.
Thus by deforestation, developing countries are jeopardizing their renewable forest resources and an important
part of their economic future.
NATURAL CONFLICTS WITH WILDLIFE
As their habitat dwindles, many animals are forced to forage outside their traditional forest range and move into
areas populated by humans. Fatal encounters with wild animals like elephants, venomous snakes, and big cats occur in and around degraded forest areas. Forest elephants have made news over the past few years with their deadly conflicts
(deadly for both humans and elephants) in Asia. Several countries have embarked on innovative plans to keep elephants
away from crops, while providing for their safety, though many farmers believe it easier to simply kill the offending
animals.
Fossil fuel subsidies "bringing us closer to irreversible climate change"
(11/06/2009) The Green Economy Coalition is urging G20 finance ministers to rapidly put an end to fossil fuel subsidies. In a letter to the ministers the coalition argues that these subsidies are contributing directly to climate change and making it difficult for the world to transition to a greener economy.
Governments, public failing to save world's species
(11/04/2009) According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2008 report, released yesterday, 36 percent of the total species evaluated by the organization are threatened with extinction. If one adds the species classified as Near Threatened, the percentage jumps to 44 percent—nearly half.
Gucci drops APP in pledge to save rainforests
(11/03/2009) One of the world's largest and most prestigious fashion brands has stated it will stop sourcing paper from Indonesian forests and will drop Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) as a supplier, which has become notorious for tropical deforestation. The move comes after pressure from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) on the fashion industry to stop sourcing paper from threatened rainforests for their shopping bags.
Will Ecuador's plan to raise money for not drilling oil in the Amazon succeed?
(10/27/2009) Ecuador's Yasuni National Park is full of wealth: it is one of the richest places on earth in terms of biodiversity; it is home to the indigenous Waorani people, as well as several uncontacted tribes; and the park's forest and soil provides a massive carbon sink. However, Yasuni National Park also sits on wealth of a different kind: one billion barrels of oil remain locked under the pristine rainforest.
"Money is not a problem," palm oil CEO tells conservationists during speech defending the industry
(10/26/2009) Earlier this month at a colloquium to implement wildlife corridors for orangutans in the Malaysian state of Sabah, Dr. Yusof Basiron, the CEO of Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), told conservationists and primate experts that the palm oil industry was ready to fund reforestation efforts in the corridors. "We can raise the money to replant [the corridors] and keep contributing as a subsidy in the replanting process of this corridor for connecting forests," Basiron said in response to a question on how the palm oil industry will contribute. "Money is not a problem. The commitment is already there, the pressure is already very strong for this to be done, so it's just trying to get the thing into motion."
