Deforestation is an complex problem. A recent study by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that during the decade from 1980 to 1990, the world's tropical forests were reduced by an average of 15.4 million hectares per year (0.8 percent annual rate of deforestation). The area of land cleared during the decade is equivalent to nearly three times the size of France. The phenomenon of deforestation is occurring globally, in different types of forests, and for different reasons.
At the end of 1990, Africa had an estimated 528 million hectares, or 30 percent of the world's tropical forests. In several Sub-Saharan African countries, the rate of deforestation exceeded the global annual average of 0.8 percent. While deforestation in other parts of the world is mainly caused by commercial logging or cattle ranching the leading causes in Africa are associated with human activity.
Developing countries rely heavily on wood fuel, the major energy source for cooking and heating. In Africa, the statistics are striking: an estimated 90 percent of the entire continent's population uses fuelwood for cooking, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, firewood and brush supply approximately 52 percent of all energy sources.
Land clearing by farmers may contribute as much as fuelwood gathering in the depletion of tree stocks. According to Porter and Brown, conversion of forests for subsistence and commercial agriculture may account for as much as 60 percent of world-wide deforestation.1 An estimated 20 to 25 percent of annual deforestation is thought to be due to commercial logging. The remaining 15 to 20 percent is attributed to other activities such as cattle ranching, cash crop plantations, and the construction of dams, roads, and mines. In Africa, governments invest substantially more in cash crops than in food crops as reflected in pricing and marketing policies. However, deforestation is primarily caused by the activities of the general population.
Proposed Solutions
While there is general agreement that deforestation is a problem, there is no consensus on its cause or on ways to develop a solution. Some of the proposed solutions include regulating the logging industry, developing forest protection schemes, and addressing human activities that promote deforestation.
Regulating the Logging Industry
Concerned mainly with commercial logging, this approach proposes the regulation of the worldwide industry in logging and other commercial uses of forests. For example, a global treaty on forestry could ban the cutting down of certain types of "endangered" trees (similar to the ban on ivory trade), or greatly decrease the harvesting of some trees (as was done with whaling), or agree to reduce deforestation by a certain percent each year. Regulating commercial logging can lead to sustainable management of forests. As such, countries can require a certain amount of tree replanting or creating tree plantations. Since much of logging is for the pulp and paper industry, that sector can be required to engage in more recycling of used paper products, rather than destroying more forests.
Commercial logging only accounts for at most one-quarter of the global deforestation problem, so focusing only on the logging industry is an inadequate solution. If a treaty on forestry is signed, it may have the unfortunate consequence of appearing to have resolved the problem without dealing with its underlying causes. This approach must be used in combination with others to treat this issue.
Forest Protection Schemes
This approach usually involves the creation of national parks or forest reserves. In developing countries, this may evolve out of pressure by the citizens and local environmental organizations, but the impetus usually comes from abroad. For example, donor countries and international NGOs may use "debt-for-nature" swaps to influence developing nations to set aside forest areas. The donor agencies effectively "buy" the forest area by paying off some of the target country's foreign debt in exchange for the promise not to develop the area. Such a deal has been successfully brokered between Norway and Costa Rica.
While trade regulations and protection of forests are frequently cited as solutions to the problem of deforestation, they are not enough. A recent review of various approaches towards regulating commercial logging concluded that by 1990 "there was general agreement that none of the approaches previously tried had been effective in slowing the rate of deforestation in tropical forests."2 Particularly for sub-Saharan Africa, these proposals do not address the underlying causes because fuelwood is the main source of energy in Africa, and most land clearing is for subsistence agriculture.
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