Desertification And Deforestation Essays -- Environment Environmental

Desertification And Deforestation The Amazon Rainforest is probably the closely important region that is threatened by deforestation. With over four million squared kilometers it is somewhat the size of the United States. The Amazon spreads across nine South American Countries and contains one-fifth of the Worlds fresh water and one-third of the known living species. The land is cornerstone to hundreds of indigenous groups and is considered by many to be the lungs of the planet. Most of the Amazon is still pristine, but the region is being destroyed at an alarming rate. over 8 million acres of the rainforest are lost every year. Between 1978 to 1996, 12.5 percent of the irreplacable rainforest was destroyed. Eighty-five percent of the trees that are being vamoose down are old ingathering. Old growth forests are forests that provide a crucial habitat for wildlife, cleanse toxins out of the air and water, are the theatre to the cultural heritage of many indi genous groups and are the source of many useful plants. Only twenty-two percent of the worlds old growth remains intact. In the United States, less than four percent of its old growth forests are still standing. Brazil contains 65 percent of the Amazon Basin. The deforestation rate in Brazil makes up 36.1 percent of the total biozone area lost each year. This is the highest in the world. Indonesia is second with 8.7 percent. This is the reason that Brazil is the focus of most political and social efforts to perserve primary tropical and sub-tropical biozones. One of the main causes of deforestation in the Amazon is the logging industry which produces plywood and mahagony products like toilet paper, rayon, tv camera film and cigerette filters. E... ...P., eds. World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century. Duke University Press. Durham and London 1988. Sponsel, Leslie E., Healdland, Thomas N., Bailey, Robert C. Tropical Deforestation The Human Dimension. Colombi a University Press. New York 1996. http//africalibrary.org/env__reading.html. The Africa depository library Internet article. http//africalibrary.org/env_reading2.html. The Africa Library (What is Desertification? Internet Article. http//www.reast.demon.co.uk/ch954.htmTARGET4. Conservation Habitat ED 1995. Internet Article. http//www.panda.org/resources/factsheets/general/57desert.html. DESERTIFICATION. Internet Article. http//grid2.cr.usgs.gov/des/uncedp1/htmlj. Part I Internet Article. http//www.iisd.ca/linkages/sd/analya/sdvol10no4e.html. Sustainable Developments Vol. 10 zero(prenominal) 4. Internet Article.