Dear President, As you very well know, climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the current age. While few countries in the area are able to work on mitigation and adaption, The Republic of Congo has been diligent in passing laws that can further preserve our planet. I am writing this letter to talk about what positive impacts have come from the recent laws set in place, as well as advise a plan for furthering the mitigation of climate change in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two new laws have been passed stating that the removal of any natural resources from the rainforest, including trees and minerals, is permanently banned. Timber and mining companies may no longer operate in the rain forest. In addition, to decrease the poaching of animals and trees in the rainforest, a drastic increase in the penalties for poaching will be issued and the consequences are up to and including potential life in prison. Also a large increase in the funding of efforts to prevent poaching and capture poachers has been set in place. In retrospect to the new laws put into place, there will be pros and cons of the effect that the law has on the Ba’aka people, the logging and mining workers, the poachers of bushmeat and ivory, and congolese environmentalists. The Ba’aka peoples nomadic lifestyle is less damaging to the rainforest environment because it allows the group to move without over-exploiting the local game and forest resources. Most African forest people spend much of the year near a village where they trade bush meat and honey for manioc, produce, and other goods. In contrast when there was an allowance of poaching and removal of natural resources, the Ba’aka people ran low on the bushmeat and found the forest inhabitable due t... ... middle of paper ... ... due to the law, they can bring about a rich future and help teach the native people how to utilize their resources to the highest ability. The con that this law has on the environmentalists is now they have less funding from the government to support their research because more money is going into the prevention of poaching. This could harm the conservation process of environmentalists because they need funding in order to sustain the ecosystem. I am writing this letter today to ask for your consideration in the funding of environmental conservation in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Please consider the facts that I have laid out, together we have the ability to raise awareness within the community to help lessen the environmental impacts that ultimatley induce climate change. Thank you for your time and attention. Sincerely, Hayley Kievman
Wade Davis’ article, Among the Waorani, provides much of the content brought to light in Nomads of the Rainforest. His article delves deeper into their culture and motivations allowing one to more fully understand their beliefs, relationships, and savagery. Both the documentary and article attempt to create a picture of their close-knit relationships and their desire f...
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
Governments in these countries need to stop thinking of forests as a renewable resource. The rate at which they are harvesting these areas drives them beyond the boundaries of sustainability. The efforts required by reforestation may not initially be cost effective, but it will result in not only the survivability of the environment, but of the country’s economy. Widespread awareness of these ideas will help fight against the natural human tendency towards instant gratification and short-term goals. Different methods of logging can be utilized to allow the rainforests to survive and regrow naturally and at a sustainable
While the EIS corrects the leases, the major important point that was described in the article is the concern that the Oil and Gas companies that hold the leases are complying with the NEPA act, and are filing the EIS. With the EIS, the BLM can alter if needed the different terms and conditions of the leases held by the energy companies in order to ensure there are no large impacts to the environment. In this article there were also important organizations that worked alongside the government in order to ensure that the harvesting and the impact to the wildlife and valuable resources are not large and intrusive as well as keeping within the NEPA. (Snow 2014) The BLM also held a 30 day comment open house to get the public reaction to these companies’ leases as well as the EIS being conducted. I think in this instance of the NEPA and the use of the EIS in order to ensure that the current leases are not affecting the environment and the water streams, is effective land management as a start in order to limit the impact of natural resource
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
The amazon rainforest is in danger. In the past 40 years, the amazon has been reduced to 80% of what it was in the 70s. The amount cut down is roughly equivelant to the size of Chile. Everyday, loggers illegally cut down trees to sell and export them to the global market, illegal roads are built for further access to the amazon, trees are burned down and wasted to clear space for cattle pasture, housing, or farming. These people who want to make money off of the amazon’s land, do not care for the forest, they only want to invade the forest. The amazon produces half of its rainfall with the mouisture it releases into the atmosphere. if another 20% of trees are destroyed, it will begin to dry out and die. The amazon rainforest is a sacred and
‘’Rainforests are being destroyed for beef. The land is set on fire in order to get rid of the trees .The cleared land is then turned into grass pastured for cows’’. ‘’During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the amazon rain forest has been cut down. ’Humans are the main cause of rainforest destruction. We are cutting down rainforests for
There is still much work to be done in preventing deforestation in Africa, but with the help of African people, Non-Governmental Organizations, donor governments, and the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa must work together to combat the problem of deforestation in Africa. We believe deforestation can be significantly reduced in Africa with the support of external bodies that have a role to play in reducing population rates in Africa. In fact, all Non-Governmental Organizations and Western countries should be able to provide knowledge about the solution to the problem of deforestation, and methods on how to handle the problem with a specific technique. As a matter of fact, African countries must take the primary responsibility of their problem because ultimately their people are most affected by deforestation.
25 million hectares of rainforest trees are cut down each year, which is 250 billion square meters of rainforest trees lost per year. This dramatically threatens all three of the world's major rainforests, so should rainforest destruction really be allowed? By researching why rainforest destruction is important to humans, how rainforest destruction effects animals, and how rainforest destruction affects the environment, it is clear that rainforest destruction should be prohibited.
From the year 2001-2012 the amount of area affected by deforestation was believed to be 1.7 million hectares. However, deforestation poses more threat as it is one of the leading causes of carbon emissions. With numbers of factors already playing a role to climate change, deforestations will only influence the trends of climate change to reach at an alarming rate, therefore, actions must be taken. Climate change is caused by carbon emitted the air world wide, for this reason, to prevent climate change from worsening, it is crucial for carbon emission to be monitored. Fortunately, numerous amount of renewable energy have been invented. To reduce carbon emission, the world must convert to 100% renewable energy to have a massive decrease within climate change. On the other hand, deforestation is being tackled with policy changes within the Amazon. Reports form WWF suggest that the government is creating a plan “zero net deforestation’, to raise awareness of the effects of deforestation, moreover, they are also recognising the rights of the indigenous people and local communities in the Amazon. Another action is the facilitation of the rainforest through cross border dialogue, reducing rates and conservation areas on the Amazon. Stakeholders, In particular humans who take part in illegal logging are
Tropical forests provide important renewable resources that can contribute significantly to national economic growth on a continuing basis. Forests products like fruits and timber play a crucial role in the economy of developing countries. Deforestation by means such as logging and cattle ranching is also economically profitable and lucrative. The forest produce generates more than $120 billion, in reported income in the late 2000s, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Hence this shows that there are indeed benefits that rainforest can bring to the human
In recent decades, the pace of change has accelerated due to an increase in human population has negatively impacted the rainforest. The
In the nonfiction articles, “Sumatran Rainforest Will Mostly Disappear” by John Vidal and “Amazon Doomed Species Set to Pay Extinction Price” by Ian Sample explain deforestation and the costs of the situation. Both authors include strong points that give an idea of how the forests may end. Vidal gives many details about the consequences of deforestation, while Sample gives some details but not as many. Although Sample sets a good idea and generalization of deforestation in the Amazon, Vidal gives strong details that show the social conflicts, life-threatening effects, and future disadvantages and benefits of deforestation.
Katarere’s and Mrs. Schreckenberg’s articles are almost identical in their goals to ensure the preservation of the African rainforests. Both of them conclude that if the African people use more non-timber products, they can cease the amount of deforestation in the African rainforests. However, this is where the similarities end. While Mrs. Schreckenberg’s research was done in the field, Mrs. Katarere wrote her article based on other peoples’ work that she had read. Also, Mrs. Schreckenberg’s method of gathering data wasn’t entirely reliable, on account of the possibility that during her house-to-house survey her test subjects may have skewed her results by lying to her when she asked them to participate in the
Vallely, P. (2006, May 16). Climate Change will be Catastrophe for Africa. Retrieved December 8, 2009, from www.independent.co.uk/environment