Caution! Forests in Danger

Imagine walking into a forest where the trees are lush and green. Above and below you there are animals and plants that thrive off of the beauty that surrounds you. This forest is their home. It’s a place where they belong. It’s a place where many generations of their ancestors have depended upon for food, for shelter, and for everything that encompasses a successful life in which they were able to produce viable offspring. While these ancestors were able to thrive, their descendents are suffering. They’re suffering because the resources they have depended upon for years are slowly disappearing. Some are able to adapt to these changes. Others lead such restricted lifestyles that it is difficult to develop new behaviors that would adapt to those changes.

As you imagine yourself in this forest, imagine who the culprit is. Who or what do you see? Do you see farmers? An increasing human population? Their demands for sustainability? Large plots of land for housing, restaurants, and buildings? How about poachers, loggers, and hunters? Oh, my! All of them share a common ground. They involve people—us.

The forests that exist throughout the world contribute to a large percentage of Earth’s biodiversity. Many living species call these forests their home. As many of their ancestors have lived in these forests and nowhere else, many living species that reside in these forests are endemic and cannot be found anywhere else. The size of a habitat has a correlation with the size of a population of living things. As these forests continue to be destroyed, the populations of these living species decrease as well.

Rainforests such as those in the Amazon, Madagascar, and Congo have seen more than half of their original vegetation disappear through destructive methods such as logging and slash-and-burn. Although forests can be recovered by growing them back, the extinction of species cannot. Once these species are gone, they are gone forever.

These forests are exploited for the expansion of farms, the production of wood products, and the demands for more land for construction. All of these activities have increased over the years as a result of our increasing human population.

As our population grows bigger, we need enough food to eat. The plants we consume come from farms whose lands need to be expanded in order for the demands of the people to be met, and in order for the agricultural industry to be successful. Meat from animals such as cows will also be needed to meet the demands of a large global population.

Quality meat has to come from animals that are sufficiently fed. Cattle grazing, for example, has increased the need for land expansion. When farmers run out of land to use, they look towards the forests—land that has not been occupied by another human being for farming. This destruction of forests for profit creates an illusion. As farmers continue to see these forests as obstacles from an increase in monetary income, they become blindsided by their greed of the long term and damaging effects of the decimation of forests. They are short-sighted by the implications of their behavior. To clear these lands, farmers often use the slash-and-burn method which is also environmentally damaging.

The increasing human population also calls for an increase in construction and human encroachment of forests. The technological advancements that we take for granted expand the possibilities of the places we are able to live. A person from the United States is able to move to faraway India by flying on a plane and arriving there in less than a day—not several months. As heaters become more readily available, people are able to withstand the harsh freezing conditions that are present in places such as Alaska. Living in these places with freezing climates is becoming more of a possibility than a dream. As we adapt to the different climates that exist around the world, more construction and houses need to be built as the populations in the areas increase. Newly settled land then makes way for sprawling cities. Shopping centers are built to take advantage of the possibilities of capitalism. Hospitals are built to save lives more quickly and efficiently.
Houses are built to serve as shelters and private space. As people become wealthier, they are able to purchase bigger houses that occupy more land, and thus, more destruction of forests and habitats of the millions of living things that rely on them.

Animals whose lives are threatened by human encroachment include tigers and pandas who need forests in order to thrive. These lands need to be sufficient to meet their nutritional and reproductive demands. Without them, their already decreasing population sizes would only grow smaller.
Since trees are effective carbon storages, their destruction results in the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide. This release increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and further exacerbates the worsening effects that global warming already has on biodiversity.

Another impact that humans have on biodiversity of forests is the killing of animals that inhabit it. In Congo, gorillas often victim to poachers who rely on their flesh. In these countries, bushmeat is often seen as a primary source of protein and profit. Nowadays, gorilla populations have drastically decreased to the point where they might not be able to revive the size of their populations to a stable level.

It’s true: extinction is nothing new. Five other extinction events have occurred over the course of Earth’s history. The total amount of species that exists today make up less than 1% of all the species that has ever existed on Earth. In the Permian extinction that occurred over 250 million years ago, about 70% of all terrestrial animals and 96% of all marine species became extinct. The most recent extinction event was the Cretaceous event in which the dinosaurs that once roamed this Earth died off. Despite how drastic these extinction events are, there is one difference between those and the one we’re living in now: this current one is caused by us and our destructive behavior.

But why should it matter if mass extinctions have been recurring events that have occurred various times in the past? It’s because we’re living things. We are animals, too. We are part of an ecosystem in which we depend upon all the species around to make up for the expanding populations. We can’t produce our own food. As we continue to grow in numbers, we will need more resources to meet our needs and demands. We will need land to build houses, schools, and hospitals for our medicine. When one species dies off, another falls into the same demise, because of the interdependent relationships they have with each other. By continuing the same path we have put ourselves in, we are becoming more ignorant and negligent about the consequences of our behavior. We know that what is destroyed cannot be replaced. As the biodiversity of our planet decreases, it is difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

As the decimation of forests increase, the living things that once thrived there feel less and less at home. They no longer belong there. With nowhere else to go, they disappear and become impossible to replace.

Before the end of biodiversity becomes a reality for all of us, there needs to be solutions to help preserve it. The easiest thing a person can do is to spread awareness and concern over the issue of the destruction of forests. Awareness of this key issue promotes action to help promote the protection of the vulnerable and diverse species that inhabit the forested locations. Many of these forests are located in developing countries that are trying to gain financial stability. These biodiversity hotspots tend to disregard the concerns of the environment in order to bring about economic growth. Developed countries, such as the United States, can help shoulder the financial hardships they face in order to preserve the biodiversity that exist throughout those countries. These developing countries need to realize that destroying forests will not make them more financially stable. The cutting down of forests for the expansion of farms and other industries they rely on would not promote the kind of financial growth they need. This aid can help build international relationships between those countries that can amount to years.

Furthermore, our government should take measures on its own grounds to promote awareness to protect biodiversity through education and other techniques. Ignorance of this issue would only worsen the state that we have placed ourselves in. Now is not a time to continue with this ignorance. It is a time for awareness.