CENTER OF DEFORESTATION

AWARENESS
Are mission is to raise the understanding of deforestation and the harmful effects
on humans and the environment.

Sandws Ahmady, Lysa Ortiz, Alaina Johnson

Capstone Project

Table of Content:

History of Deforestation

How deforestation developed

How deforestation was discovered
What others have done to solve deforestation
Laws/ Treaties on Deforestation

What Caused Deforestation

Consequences of Deforestation

Present Problems of Deforestation

Future Problems of Deforestation

The Solutions to Deforestation

The plan

Who opposes us?

Our rebuttal to the ones who oppose us?

Tables, Graphs, Charts, Pictures, Diagram, and Maps

Our resources

III.

Position
Our position is to stop the ongoing problem of deforestation. Deforestation is a

very serious issue. What deforestation means is the clearing of trees, transforming a
forest into cleared land. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), approximately 18 million acres of forest are lost each year
due to Deforestation.

IV. The History of Deforestation

i. How was Deforestation Discovered?
Deforestation was discovered when it started impacting the livelihoods and
threatening a wide range of a plant and animal species. It was concern to the
tropical rainforest. The rainforest is home to many of the worlds biodiversity.
Which is a major problem for our animals and plant life. We would like to keep our
animal and plant diversity as best as we can.

ii. What have other parties done to solve deforestation?

Many people have come up with ideas to solve deforestation but we will only be
speaking on two ways to stop or solve for deforestation. The first group is World
Wild Life or WWF are working on ways to reduce deforestation and working
with other companies to stop or solve for deforestation. For example, they are

stopping illegal logging, also keeping their eyes on the forest ( monitoring
natural forests), and creating protected areas for forests. Another party is the Eden
Projects. The Eden Projects is an organization that plant trees and saves lives. Eden
Project had projects in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Haiti, and Nepal. Each country has a
nursery, how many trees planted, and how many workdays they have created.
They have a donate area where you can donate to help their project continue
and start reforestation.

iii. What are relevant laws or treaties for Deforestation?

There are ten treaties between the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or
Desertification, particularly in Africa; Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
international Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat; Convention for the
Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage; Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; Vienna Convention for
the protection of the Ozone layer; Convention Concerning Indigenous and Tribal
People's in Independent Countries; International Tropical Timber Agreement; and
Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.

V. Causes of the problem

Deforestation occurs due to several reasons. Legal and illegal logging are major causes
of forest deforestation. Logging includes cutting down trees for sale as timber or pulp.
The timber can be used to build homes, furniture, etc. Logging occurs for many
economic reasons, such as agriculture, cattle-ranching, oil, mining, etc. Another reason
why deforestation occurs is mining. Mining is the extraction of metals and minerals from
earth. In order to mine, trees and vegetation are cleared and burned. The waste that
comes out from mining pollutes the environment and affects the nearby species.
Another point of deforestation is agricultural activities. Huge amount of tress are fell
down to grow crops and for cattle grazing, due to overgrowing demands of food
products.

VI. Consequences of the problem

When tress are deteriorated, they will set devastating occasions for humans
globally. One consequence that will occur in the future is soil erosion. Trees provide the
soil with shade to keep their moist. With the removal of tree cover, the soil is exposed to
the sun, making it dry. A result from deforestation in the present is flooding. With the
help of their roots when it rains, trees absorb and store large amount of water. However,

when trees are cut down, the flow of water is disrupted and eventually leads to flooding
in a few areas. According to National Geographic, 70% of the worlds plants and
animals live in forests, and they are losing their habitats due to deforestation. Loss of
habitat can lead to species extinction.

VII. Solutions to Deforestation

There have been many beneficial solutions made to help decrease deforestation.
Some of the simplest strategies like using recycled items or cutting back on palm oil can
help conserve the amount of forests located in the rest of the world. Below are some of
the steps one can take to maintain forests:

1.

Reforesting- Also known as reforestation, is the natural or intentional restocking

of existing forests and woodlands that have been depleted, usually through
deforestation. Reforestation is a necessity because huge areas of forest are being
damaged/destroyed around the world on a daily basis.
2.

Become an advocate- If you want to raise awareness of deforestation, then

advocate and learn how to spread the word.

3.

Go paperless- One can help stop deforestation is to go paperless or avoid using

paper if possible. We can save many trees by going paperless. Today, countless
universities, high schools and businesses are utilizing technology in pursuance of
avoiding overuse of paper.

4.

Purchase recycled items- Another strategy is to purchase recycled materials.

Producing goods from recycled paper, metal, plastic and glass uses less energy,
creates less waste.

Vlll. The position of those who oppose you

In recent studies, deforestation has been caused by cattle ranches, commercial
soybean production oil palm plantations in some cases timber cutting. For example, in
the Amazon, cattle ranching is the major reason for deforestation and large-scale
soybean is the second major reason. Cattle ranching is the practice of raising cattles.
Rainforest are cleared to make way for agriculture. Cattle ranching in the Amazon has
tremendously increased in the last decade, approximately by 200%. In that time an area
of forest the size of Italy was cleared. Half of the worlds forest are only found in only 7
countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Russia,
and the United States).
Soil erosion
When deforestation occurs top soil erosion increases because there are no roots to hold
the soil in place no vegetation to break the forcing of falling washes soil into nearby

waterways. Erosion of topsoil decreases soil fertility and hurts the very agriculture
efforts.
Habitat Destruction
Deforestation fractures forest habitat, without trees animals must find other places to
survive or they will perish. Animal population suffers dramatically when habitats are
altered.
(Ex: deforestation has threatened the habitat of howler monkeys.)
Biological Diversity
There are numerous amounts of species, home to a variety of plant species. Doctors
found that 1% of plants in tropical rainforest have been screened for potential medicinal
reason.
(Ex: medicine from wild periwinkles found in Madagascar are being used to treat
patients with leukemia.)
Carbon Dioxide
Trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere convert it into sugar
molecules and releases oxygen. When trees are cut down, the carbon dioxide that was
stored from that tree is released into the atmosphere According to the E.P.A,
(environmental protection agency), 17% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due to
deforestation.

IX. Tables, Charts, Graphs, Pictures, Diagrams, and Maps

X. Works Cited Page

http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation
http://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/stop-deforestation#.VylZDoQrJD8

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/forests/solutions-to-deforestation/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/deforestation_update3.php
http://upstreampolicy.org/issues/paper-forest-destruction/
http://world-portal.org/areas-of-research/deforestation/
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/
https://scholar.google.com/
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/deforestation/
http://www.pachamama.org/effects-of-deforestation
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2007/05/14/deforestation-hidden-cause-global-warming
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/indonesia/deforestationhuman-costs