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stop the uncontrolled devastation
of its forestlands, thanks in part
to the accessibility of timber from
northern Europe.
For how long are any forests of
the temporate zones safe? Many
may be "off limits" to developers
and still be wasted by man-made
forest fires, air pollution and acid
rain. The increased cost of fue! is
putting new pressure on them.
Search is underway for a practica!
way to convert woody cellulose
into sugars that could be fer–
mented into ethanol to power
automobiles. A new method of
making wood pellets promises to
do for many homes what coa!
once did- at the expense of the
forests.
Undoubtedly, the biggest fac–
tor now slowing the saw in the
temporate zone forestlands is the
availability of large imports of
timber from northern Europe, the
Soviet Union and especially the
tropical moist forests of the
world.
The Tropical Moist Forests
Al! the forests and jungles in the
world put together cover less than
one fourth of the earth's land sur–
face. The highest percentage of for–
ested land is in South America, fol–
lowed in order by Europe, North
America, Asia andAfrica.
Fifty percent of all forestland is
comprised of what is called "tropic
moist forests. " They are located
principally in the warm tropical belt
extending across Central and South
America, Africa and Asia. A chorus
of voices of alarm is being raised
about what is now taking place in
these areas. Here thechain saws and
bulldozers of commerce, combined
with the slash-and-burn agricultu–
ra! methods of local farmers , are
tearing away at earth's fragile skin .
1n the tropical forest regions,
at least 140 million persons sur–
vive by practicing slash-and-burn
agriculture. That is, they clear
away an area of forest by cutting
and burning. They cultivate the
land for a few years. And then
they move on. The reason they
move on is that tropical soil is
unable to sustain for more than a
short period the kind of cultiva–
tion being required of it.
26
The cycle is all too familiar.
The trees are burned or otherwise
taken out. Then too many people
try to farm too small an area,
making every effort to wring the
last bit of good from the soil.
Methods commonly used in more
prosperous parts of the world–
such as the utilization of fertiliz–
ers, pesticides and high-yielding
grains- are considered too expen–
sive. ( l t goes without saying that
truly beneficia! practices, such as
building up the soil with fertilizer
andjor compost and letting the
land rest periodically, are not fol–
lowed either.)
Finally, heavy tropical rains
pour down on the cleared land,
eroding away what good dirt
there is. And so the already deli–
cate tropical soil is quickly
depleted. The farmers leave
behind the worn-out land, ad–
vance into the forest, slashing and
burning anew, and the cycle
starts over.
The " Hamburger Connection"
Slash-and-burn farmers do an
estimated two thirds of the total
worldwide damage to tropical for–
ests. In South America, however,
the forests suffer more damage as
a result of commercial activity
than from farrners. In other tropi–
cal areas of the globe, commercial
interests play a lesser, but a grow–
ing, role.
Cattle raising is an important
factor, especially in Latín Ameri–
ca. The high price of beef in the
developed ·world has led to the
creation of huge cattle ranches
where trees once stood. " In one
case, a ... multinational [corpo–
ration] burnt down a million
acres of forest in the Amazon
, basin for a cattle ranch in one
s ingle vast conflagration. The
fire, which wiped out all wild life,
was so big that it was reported by
a weather satellite as an impend–
ing volcanic eruption" (October,
1980 "Report of the Food J ndus–
tries of South Africa").
Supplying rneat to the fast–
foods chains in North America–
hence the name "Hamburger
Connection"-leads to imrnedi–
ate high profits. But many
ranches become unprofitable
within 1
O
years because the man–
established pasture deteriorates
just like the plots of the forest
farmers. Then the rancher must
try to obtain another section of
forest.
Also gnawing away at the for–
ests of the tropics are other mul–
tinational corporations and lum–
ber companies. Ninety percent
of the timber in the tropical
moist forests is hardwood. These
hardwoods are much in demand
in the developing nations, since
the hardwoods of the temperate
zones are either depleted or not
accessible. With advanced tech–
nology it is possible to penetrate
deep into the tropical forests,
cut down and extract the choice
trees, leaving a path of destruc–
tion in the wake.
Compounding the overall
problem is the critica! need
three fourths of the world's
people have for cooking fue!.
(See the accompanying article.)
Other lesser factors are the
highways and the oil and gas
pipelines. Although they ta.o
have required the clearing of
millions of acres of tropical for-
est land.
·
An area of tropical forest the
size of Great Britain is being
destroyed every year. That may
not seem like such a big portion
of the globe, but it is a signifi–
cant part of the tropical forest
left.
Why Be Concerned?
What do al! these problems have to
do with you? For one thing there
are the economic factors. As the
trees disappear, the price of wood
products and derivatives-from
your daily newspaper to lumber–
will continue to escalate. Nontropi–
cal forests will fall victim to press–
ing worldwide needs.
Even more ominous is one
especially menacing effect of
deforestation: the altering of
worldwide weather patterns.
"The president of the Brazilian
Academy of Science warned that
Amazonian forest was being
destroyed at the rate of 2,700
metres an hour and would be
totally gone within 35 years, pos-
(Continued on page 44)
The
PLAIN TRUTH