The Forest Restoration Research Unit: FORRU

Why should we care about forest destruction?

(Taken from FORRU's latest book "How to Plant a Forest", which you can download from this website).

Ever since Humans first forged metal axes, forests have been cleared to make way for agriculture and towns and to provide timber, firewood and a host of other products. In ancient times, tree cutting rarely exceeded the natural capacity of forests to regenerate. Now, however, as the demands of an ever growing Human population have increased, forests and the wealth of species they support, are being devasted well beyond their capacity to recover.

This problem is particulary serious in the tropics. Tropical and sub-tropical forests cover only 16.8 percent of Earth's land area (FAO, 2001), yet they are home to more than half the planets plant and animal species (Wilson, 1988). Deforestation gradually reduces large forest tracts into tiny, isolated fragments, each of which is incapable of supporting viable populations of plant and animal species, especially large mammals and birds. As species start to disappear, the complex web of species interrelationships, vital for for the maintenance of tropical forest biodiversity, begins to unravel. Plants lose their pollinators or seed dispersers and cannot reproduce; herbivore populations, formerly held in check by predators, expand and threaten the survival of their food plants. As key species die out, a cascade of extinctions reduces the rich biodiversity of tropical forests to a few, common weedy species that dominate the landscape. Thus, devastion of Earth's tropical forests is causing the extinction of more species now than at any time during our planets history (Wilson, 1992).

The biodiversity of tropical forests provides a wealth of products to local communities, such as medicinal and edible plants, honey, bamboo, mushrooms and so on. Provided they are harvested sustainably, these goods can provide a valuable, long-term contribution towards the livelihoods of local people. However, because such subsistence products are not bought or sold in markets, their value is not included in indices of economic development (e.g. gross domestic product). Hence, their importance is largely ignored by policy makers, who sacrifice forest for conservation to other uses. Consequently, poverty worsens, when local people are forced to buy subsititutes for lost forest products with cash, whilst paradoxically, economic indices show a false increase in national prosperity.

Tropical forests also provide vital ecological services that maintain environmental stability. Predators that live in forests can control pests in surrounding farmland, whilst forest-dwelling bats and insets pollinate many crops, especially fruit trees. The huge quantities of leaf litter, produced by mature tropical forests, create deep organic-matter-rich soils, which store vast amounts or water per unit volume. These soils soak up water during the rainy season, preventing floods. Conversely, in the dry season, water slowly drains out of forest soils, maintaining stream flow and thus averting droughts. Furthermore, forests help to reduce global warming, by absorbing vast quantities of carbon dioxide into their canopies and converting it into wood.

All these products and ecological services represent a substantial conttibution to the quality of Human life, yet all are threatened by deforestation.