Speech

Good evening to lecturers and my fellow friends. Before I begin my topic, let me
ask you all a question. Can you imagine that, how the world was over thousand and
even million years ago? The blue sky with fluffy white clouds, the land with the
dinosaurs running everywhere, the forest with the strange creatures… What a
wonderful world! But, we can’t even see this beautiful scenery anymore. We only can
see the tall reinforced concrete buildings at the side of streets, the cars are “running”
on the roads, the crowds of people walking on the streets, and the green is gone.
Where ‘s the green? I know some people might say like this: “Aiyo, just go into the
forest and you can see the green lo.” But, do you realise, our greens are disappeared
from this world, in a rate that makes us worry?

Well, I think some of you are already know what I’m going to say today. So, let’s
begin the topic. I’m sure that you all know what forest is right? But do you know, what
is deforestation? Yes, D-E-F-O-R-E-S-T-A-T-I-O-N, deforestation. Deforestation is a
process where large amount of trees is being destroyed and the land is thereafter
converted to a non-forest use. To put it simply, it is cut down all the trees and the
land is used for other purpose. Every year 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are
lost to deforestation, which is equal to 48 football fields of forest disappearing every
minute. According to Wikipedia, between 2000 and 2012, there were 2.3 million
square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down. As a result of
deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million
square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. Sounds very scary right?
Though this data, we can know that deforestation is a serious issue that we can’t
neglect it.

So why are those people cut down the trees? Okay, let me tell you. First of all,
logging is a common cause of deforestation. This is because the tree is cut down to
make our everyday materials such as papers that we use to write on and doing
assignments, desks, pencils, houses we live in and furniture. Next, agriculture is one
of the most significant causes of deforestation. The trees are being destroyed each
day to provide more land for agriculture production. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a
farming method that involves cutting and burning of plants in a forest. This can
increase the fertility of the soil and help the farmers to grow their crops very well.
Apart from that, cattle ranching has a massive impact on forests around the world.
Fast food companies such as McDonalds and Burger King need more land in order
to raise cattle for their burgers. So if you want to protect the forest, don’t eat too
much McDonalds okay? On the other hand, housing, also called “urban sprawl” is the
final major contributing cause of deforestation. Urban sprawl describes the expansion
of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density,
monofunctional and usually car-dependent communities. It is associated with the
environment problems such as land loss, habitat loss and subsequent reduction in
biodiversity.

Ladies and gentlemen, do you know that deforestation can cause many impacts
to the environment? One of the impact is the water cycle has been affected. When
trees are cut down in a forest, it eliminates or decreases the amount of transpiration,
which means that the amount of rainfall in that area will decrease. This can lead to
droughts in the area and affects the local crops. Apart from that, deforestation also
causes the loss of biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity has varied negative impacts
regarding the environment. Once a habitat is lost in a large scale, it can be very
difficult for local species to recover. Furthermore, deforestation can cause soil
erosion. When trees are cut down, the surrounding soil becomes loosened from the
ground and can be blown by wind or washed away by rain. This becomes an issue
for farmers who deforested the land to plant crops. Soil erosion can cause many
issues not only to the environment but also to the health and wellbeing of people who
live in the area.

Do you think it’s too late to rescue the forest? No, it won’t be too late. Let me
share some tips to rescue the forest. Firstly, the authorities should increase the area
of forest plantations by using vacant or unused lands and waste and marginal lands.
Planting trees outside the forest area will reduce pressure on forest for timber, fodder
and fuelwood demands. Moreover, the deforested area need to be reforested. Next,
they should practice eco-forestry too. Eco-forestry is a restorative method of forest
management, which is not based on economic productivity. In this practice, certain
trees are selectively harvested while causing minimal damage to the rest of the
forest. The long-term aim of this method is to systematically fell mature trees, while
leaving the forest ecosystem relatively unaffected. As public like us, we should raise
awareness to this issue. Major environmental problems such as deforestation often
continue to occur because of a lack of awareness and knowledge about the problem.
By educating people about the effects of their actions, such as palm oil consumption,
the amount of deforestation can be reduced. Tell your friends and family about steps
they can take to reduce global deforestation or show them this article. Furthermore,
we must reduce the use of papers and the wooden products. We should start to use
the recycled products or the alternative materials that are not made from wood. Once
the demand of the wood is reduced, the supply of the wood will be decreased too.
Thus, the forest will not be deforested anymore.

All in all, we can cut down the trees for daily use but need to control the quantity.
After cutting down the trees, we need to replant trees for the purpose of sustaining
the expanse of trees. So, we must say sorry to our Mother Earth. Sorry for harming
her in various ways. Sorry for destroying her beautifulness. Once the forest was gone
on this planet, not only the plants and animals will become extinct, as humans, we
also will disappear from this world due to the imbalance of the food chain. At last, I
would like to say, please. Please protect our forest, please protect our nature, and,
please protect this beautiful world for our future generations. Thank you.