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The Link Between Deforestation and Poverty

Deforestation and Poverty
Deforestation throughout the world has been increasing over the past decades. Forests contribute to 90 percent of the livelihood of those that live in extreme poverty. Once people cut down and remove these resources, it takes years to replace them, which puts people deeper into poverty. Deforestation and poverty connect because of what the forest can provide for people living in poverty.

Reasons for Deforestation

There are several reasons that deforestation is so much a part of developing nations. One of the most prominent reasons is logging or cutting down trees for processing. While logging does provide temporary relief from poverty once loggers cut down the trees, it takes years for them to grow back.

Indonesia has the worst problem with illegal logging with 80 percent of its logging exports being illegal. Agriculture is necessary for a country to become self-sufficient and rely on itself to feed its people. Hence, to clear land for crops, farmers cut down large sections of forests. Indonesia also has the worst problem with clearing forest for agriculture; the country states that it is necessary to make way for the trees for palm oil, one of its major exports, in order to reduce poverty.

In Brazil, clearing forests to make way for grazing livestock is the reason for deforestation. Brazil is a top beef exporter having exported over $5 billion worth of beef in 2018 and beef is a significant contributor to its economy.

The Benefits and Harm of Deforestation

The three countries that have the most deforestation are Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. These countries all have access to the Amazon rainforest and they use its resources to help alleviate the strain of poverty. Deforestation has devastated all three of these countries, as each has cut down millions of acres of rainforest.

Since 1978, Brazilian loggers, cattle rangers and farmers have cut down 289,000 square miles of rainforest. One of Brazil’s top crops is soybeans that farmers use to feed its growing cattle population. Massive sections of forest require cutting to make way for both soybean production and cattle and this impacts the indigenous people of Brazil the most. Their entire livelihood is dependent on the forest and when the trees disappear, they suffer extreme poverty.

Peru has recently increased its efforts to control deforestation due to mining. Gold is a large part of the economy of Peru along with logging. These efforts have worked for the people of Peru who were able to cut their poverty rate from 48.5 percent to 25.8 percent in less than 10 years. However, experts believe that this relief, while significant, could only be temporary because the rate of deforestation will have a profound impact on climate change that will, in turn, harm the forests and economy of the country.

The GDP per capita of Bolivia is currently at $2559.51. This makes it one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. To help the poor people of the country, the government has doubled the amount of deforestation that occurs in the country to make way for cattle, agriculture and infrastructure.

With the increase of deforestation, the benefits can seem like relief for those that are deeply immersed in poverty. While these countries’ removal of whole forests can help those living in poor conditions, the help is only temporary and in the long run can harm their well being as much as help. Deforestation and poverty are linked and to save the forests, it is essential to help those living in and around the forests.

– Samuel Bostwick
Photo: Flickr

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On Deforestation and Poverty

Deforestation and PovertyDeforestation and poverty have had a close relationship to one another for a very long time. Individuals around the world have used wood either as a fuel for fire, shelter or weapons for hundreds of thousands of years. Nowadays, communities around the world that are not prosperous enough to survive begin to rely on selling wood and clearing forests in order to survive.

Much of the deforestation today is illegal. However, there are still communities that continue to subsist on illegally-felled wood. In fact, a World Bank report estimated that “illegal loggers cut down an area of forest the size of a football field every two seconds.” This cannot continue. Forests are vital to sustaining the worldwide ecosystem.

Currently, the top three countries involved in deforestation are Russia (mostly in the east), Brazil and the United States of America, which still has plenty of woodland. The U.S. is prosperous enough that it can afford to put resources into sustainable practices, such as replanting trees and improving enforcement of the law.

However, most other countries cannot afford these things. Most of the illegal logging comes from Russia, Brazil and China, attributing to 16.9 percent, 16.0 percent and 12.3 percent of all illegal logging worldwide, respectively.

It is unknown, though, whether the communities which do the illegal felling are in fact severely poor. Because people who are committing this crime do not want to expose themselves, there are few to no statistics on the exact portion of deforestation that is due to poverty. All three countries have relatively low GDP per capita’s though (between $8,000-$9,000 U.S. Dollars) as well as high GINI indices of above 41, which suggest that many of the communities in those countries survive on deforestation, are very poor.

However, we must be careful to not generalize this for all illegal deforestation. In fact, according to Forests News, big corporations are responsible for fueling this industry, as they can gain profits from agricultural land. Putting pressure on these businesses, such as McDonalds or Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), will likely lessen the effect of deforestation. However, it won’t help the poor become more prosperous, and it will likely make them even poorer.

Thus, what can be done against deforestation and poverty and poverty diminished by deforestation, for the sake of the environment, for the sake of the lives at risk and environmentalism?

Deforestation is vital for farmers who want to expand their farms to create more food for the world’s hungry. Unfortunately, solutions to the problem require worldwide participation against unsustainable practices and, of course, general poverty.

Even if we as a humankind were, in theory, to halt deforestation completely, it would mean that millions of people would potentially go hungry and disrupt the world economy. Therefore, the solutions must be carefully implemented over time.

Brazil has a great record of reducing poverty in previous years, reducing poverty from 24.7 percent in 2001 to 7.4 percent in 2014, according to the World Bank. It has also decreased deforestation from 21,000 square kilometers annually to only 8,000 square kilometers. What has the country done to battle deforestation and poverty?

For deforestation, it has invested more money into protecting the forest: 10 percent of the Amazon is now a protected area. For poverty, it created a slew of social programs, such the updating infrastructure, paid school attendance across the country and, most importantly, created “first global center for poverty reduction” called “Mundo Sem Pobreza.” Together, the two programs have worked in tandem to make the country the next big leader in fighting poverty and deforestation.

If Russia and China can learn from Brazil and focus on these issues in their respective nations, humanity will make great strides in battling both world poverty and climate change.

– Michal Burgunder

Photo: Flickr

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The Struggle of Indigenous People in Latin America

Indigenous-People-In-Latin-America

As the world became increasingly globalized and populated, many companies struggled to keep up with the demand for their goods. When they came upon the abundance of resources and land that lay within the Amazon rainforest, those struggles seemed to melt away; however, this marked the beginning of many issues for the people living within this tropical wonderland.

The Amazon rainforest has one of the largest collections of plant and animal species in the entire world. There are countless organisms within its realm that have not even been discovered yet. However, many creatures, insects, flora and more will remain undiscovered and unknown to us because their habitats are being destroyed by large corporations clearing land for factories and plantations.

However, the flora and fauna are not the only ones in danger. Several of the indigenous tribes in the Amazon have lost their homes and sources of income and food. These individuals had learned to live off of the land sustainably and had carried on living this way for thousands of years, but are now left to find alternate methods of work and shelter with little to no time at all.

Since many of the indigenous people have gone most of their lives without a strong education, corporations are hiring them to work in the very factories for which their homes were destroyed. In these factories, workers receive meager wages and are forced to work in tough conditions; many report illnesses from the pesticides and chemicals used in the preparation of the goods that they are producing.

In most countries, the government could begin to take action against big companies coming in and destroying the environment. With the amazing profit that is being generated, however, it is no wonder that many Latin American governments are not taking the steps to prevent this movement. While this—working in factories located on land cleared in the Amazon rainforest—is the case for some, high concentrations of indigenous people can be found in urban areas. These individuals have come here to get work and perhaps to adapt themselves to a different way of life. Many of the indigenous people feel targeted as more and more laws are made to rip them from their land, forcing them into lives of submission. For many, this is not tolerable, and thus many guerrilla, anti-government militant factions gain support. However, some NGOs are ready to turn all of this around.

One NGO called Escuela Nueva is doing wonderful work to shift the focus of the classroom from the teachers to the students. This Colombian-based organization has expanded to include over 14 Latin American countries and strives to promote a new, innovative and interactive classroom style. This gives the children the feeling that they are in control of their own futures and provides them with a chance to rise up. Since 1993, several studies have shown that the techniques used in Escuela Nueva have raised grades and self-esteem, promoted gender equality and increased cooperation. This model has been recognized as one of the top education reforms in the world and has been implemented in several other developing countries.

It is hard to imagine a life without a home and without great promise of a future, but somewhere deep within the Amazon rainforest, hope is growing among a people who are not yet ready to give up.

– Sumita Tellakat

Sources: IR Online, IWGIA
Photo: Mexika Resistance