INDUSTRIAL FOREST
Large areas of the Amazon andother rain forests have been cut down to make way for cattle ranches.
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| Industrial Forests |
At first glance it is not obvious to see why eating meat might be connected with forest destruction. But in Central America cattle ranching is thought to have caused the loss of two thirds of the region’s forests. Between 1975 and 1995, 90 per cent of the beef from animals raised on previously forested land went to the USA, mainly for use in hamburgers. The trade was encouraged because beef could be produced at between a quarter and half the cost of producing it in North America. Brazil is another country in which landowners have been subsidized by their government to cut down or burn forest to create cattle ranches with disastrous effects.
Developing forest:- There are other, less obvious, ways in which forests in developing countries are being destroyed because of the international meat industry. European Union (EU) agricultural policies are part of the problem. A good example is the demand by European countries for cheap pig food, supported by the EU. In Thailand cassava is grown as a cash crop by farmers mainly in the north east of the country. The area under cultivation has increased from 100,000 ha in 1965 to more than a million hectares today because of the demand for pig food. The Netherlands alone imports around 40 million tones of tapioca each year.
UNFAIR SHARES:- Probably the largest cause of deforestation overall is the unequal distribution of wealth and power. The current world economic system encourages individuals and businesses to become as wealthy as they can in as short a time as possible. This means that the rules developed by local communities over very long periods of time in order to protect and manage their environments are now being broken. For example, powerful companies controlled only by a handful of people are able to cause enormous damage to forests and to push out local people, without really being challenged.
Disappearing forests:- Sweden and Finland are two countries that are thought by many to be models of good forest management. Sweden has 58 per cent of its land covered in forests whilst Finland has nearly 70 per cent. In both countries forest cover is rising. However, this has hidden the fact that a wildlife crisis has developed in Scandinavia.
