6.2(Summer 1982) Deforestation: The Human Costs

EDITOR'S NOTE - 6.2

There is a growing awareness of both the destruction of the earth's forests and their importance for all people on the planet. Most attention to date, however, has been focused on the destruction of the forest - its scope and causes - and the genetic and biotic value of the tropical forests. The demise of indigenous people is mentioned in passing, usually without reference to specific groups, although the discovery of the Tasaday is sometimes cited as an example of how totally isolated peoples can still be discovered in the rainforests.

Deforestation: The Human Costs

INTRODUCTION

"Of all the environmental impacts of the study projections, deforestation probably poses the most serious problems for the world, particularly for the developing world."

Global 2000

"It has been predicted that within the next 25-30 years, most of the humid tropical forest as we know it, will be transformed into unproductive land, and the deterioration of the savannah into desert will continue at ever-increasing speed."

As you read this sentence, 50 to 100 acres of primary tropical forests will be eliminated, disrupted, degraded or impoverished.

Bora Indian Agroforestry: An Alternative to Deforestation

Native cultivators in the Amazon have developed efficient and ecologically sound methods for making the tropical forest yield useful products. Their principal form of agriculture - shifting cultivation - has evolved into a system of land management with features worthy of careful study.

Shifting cultivation essentially involves the cutting and burning of the forest to prepare a temporary agricultural field. Once yields decline after several seasons of harvests, the field is abandoned to secondary regrowth of the forest.

Time Running Out for Mexico's Last Tropical Forest

Over half of the 13,000 square kilometer Lacandón Forest has been destroyed in the past 15 years by spontaneous and planned agricultural colonization, lumbering and cattle raising. If present trends continue, in as little as ten years the entire area will be deforested.

The Effects of Logging on the Batek of Malaysia

The Batek De' (a Semang group, or Malayan Negritos) numbered about 300 persons in 1981. They have lived in the watershed of the Lebir River in southeastern Kelantan since at least 1874, when they were encountered by the Russian naturalist and explorer Nicolas Miklucho-Maclay. They probably had inhabited the area for hundreds of years already.

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