Council of Entwives

Why do we need trees?

Trees are beneficial to the environment in a huge variety of ways. The most obvious is that they provide oxygen for us to breathe. That is rather essential. Woods provide us with a place for recreation and relaxation, and trees everywhere enhance our local landscapes. Thinking more broadly, trees effect both the way we live, and the way the world works:

A source of fuel, shelter, paper and much more

Half of the trees felled across the world are used for fuel. This may sound strange to us, who generally have more than enough energy available from fossil fuels. But in less developed countries it is often difficult to find alternative sources, particularly in rural areas. They often don't have the energy network that developed countries do, and for many people, trees are the easiest, cheapest and quickest source of fuel.

A way to conserve soils

Soil erosion is more of a problem that a lot of people realise – especially in developing countries. It reduces the levels of nutrients available for crops, and also decreases the diversity and abundance of soil organisms. Together, these two things can significantly affect how well anything grows in that soil, and therefore also affects food production. Trees help prevent soil erosion in several ways:
- tree roots hold soil in place,
- tree branches help lessen the impact of rain on the soil,
- fallen leaves help improve soil quality, and
- forests provide a form of natural flood control, stopping erosion due to water.

A way to conserve energy

Trees can be energy savers. Planting trees around homes and buildings reduces the need for air conditioning, thus saving energy. Energy conservation helps reduce global warming and also saves us money! Just 3 trees planted around your home can cut your air conditioning bill in half.

A way to reduce pollution

Trees help control air, water and noise pollution. They naturally absorb carbon dioxide, helping to control global warming, and also other pollutants, such as excess fertilisers and pesticides produced by farms. In doing this, trees can help reduce the levels of asthma in people who live near them.

A habitat for animals and plants

Trees provide a dwelling place for both animals and other plants. Forests are home to more than half the world's terrestrial species, including a huge number of endangered species.

Some scary facts

- To date 50% of the planet's forests have disappeared, and of the 50% left, 60% are significantly degraded.

- 26 million hectares of forests are lost every year.

- Somewhere between 50% and 90% of the planet's plants and animals rely in forests.

- 75% of the primal forests are located in three regions: the Amazon, Russia and Canada. 75% of these forests could disappear in the next decade if the current rate of deforestation persists.

- 50 million indigenous people live in primal forests and they face an uncertain future due to the destruction of their habitats by logging, agricultural and mining companies.

- One million hectares disappear in Russia every year.

Rainforest deforestation

For centuries, people have cut down trees to make use of wood and to clear land for houses and crops. This used to be managed in a sustainable manner, but now with the world's ever-increasing population and ever-increasing demand for energy and goods, deforestation is occurring at an ever-increasing rate. Around 1% of the world's forests are lost every year. If the current rate of deforestation continues, the world's rain forests will vanish within 100 years-causing unknown effects on global climate and eliminating the majority of plant and animal species on the planet.

There are many causes of deforestation. Some are global, some are restricted to a particular type of forest and a particular area of the world. One of the biggest, and less expected, is cattle ranching – especially in Central and South America. Ranchers burn the forests to provide pasture for their cattle, which are eventually slaughtered, and exported to industrialised countries – especially the US. It has been estimated that for every quarter pound hamburger made from rainforest cattle, 5 sq m of rainforest is cleared.

Commercial logging is another major form of deforestation, where trees are cut for sale as timber or pulp. Logging can occur selectively - where only the economically valuable species are cut, or by clear-cutting - where all the trees are cut whether they are used or not. Most logging operations also need to build their own infrastructure – e.g. roads, pipelines, even train tracks – and these all take out more of the forest.

The logging situation is particularly complex in developing countries. There, governments sell logging concessions to raise money for projects, to pay international debt, or to develop industry. As with many natural resources, their policy is to think for now – sustainable use of the forests in the future is no good to a government who urgently needs money to prop up a failing economy. The global trade in tropical timber is now worth in excess of Ł5 billion per year – and for a developing country to have access to even a small proportion of that is a big deal.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that 53,000 sq miles of tropical forests were destroyed each year during the 1980s. Of this, they estimated that 21,000 sq miles were in South America, mostly the Amazon Basin.

Satellite image of deforestation in the Amazon region, taken from the Brazilian state of Para on July 15, 1986. The dark areas are forest, the white is deforested areas, and the gray is re-growth. The pattern of deforestation spreading along roads is obvious in the lower half of the image. (Image from NASA Earth Observatory)

Impacts of deforestation

Carbon dioxide and global warming - Deforestation increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as when forests are burned to create pasture land, the carbon that each tree stores is released into the air, where it forms carbon dioxide. The plants and soil of tropical forests hold 460-575 billion metric tons of carbon worldwide with each acre of tropical forest storing about 180 metric tons of carbon.

Increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enhances the greenhouse effect, and could contribute to an increase in global temperatures.

Climate and the water cycle - Tropical deforestation affects local climate by reducing the evaporation of water from trees and plants. This increases the amount of the Sun's energy that is able to warm the earth and, consequently, the air above, leading to a rise in temperatures. Less trees also results in less rainfall in the immediate area.

Biodiversity - Tropical rain forests - covering only 7% of the total dry surface of the Earth – contain over half of the entire number of plant and animal species known in the world. Many of the rain forest plants and animals can only be found in small areas, because they require a special habitat in which to live. This makes them very vulnerable to deforestation. It has been estimated that up to 137 species disappear world-wide each day – the majority from rainforest habitats.

But why should we care about the loss of these species – after all, pretty much of all the species that disappear daily are unnamed bugs and grubs, which may appear to have very little to do with our lives. But these unknown bugs and grubs are the basis of the ecosystem which supports all the larger animals that are under threat – like the orang-utan in the rainforests of Borneo. Furthermore, more and more rainforest plants and animals are being found to contain substances that can be used in medicine.

The effect of deforestation also creeps outside the actual area of the rainforest. When trees are cut down, the streams and rivers of the rainforest basin become clogged with silt, and this can affect the fish populations from the rainforest all the way out to the sea.

Below are well-known animals under threat due to deforestation:

*Africa*

The elephant is dissappearing because of the destruction of the forest where they live between Senagal and Uganda. 85% of their natural forest habitat has disappeared as a consequence of tree felling.

*Amazonia*

Jaguars live in the Amazon jungle of Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. Their forests are at risk because of illegal felling.

*Asia-Pacific*

The orang-utans live in the tropical jungle of Indonesia, in Sumatra and Borneo. The greatest risks to their habitat are the logging industry, agriculture, road construction and forst burning to create agricultural land.

*Asiatic Russia*

Siberian Tigers live in the Asiatic Russia forests. One hundred years ago, there were 7000 Siberian tigers, but as a consequence of felling and illegal trade of wood currently there are only 400 of them.

*Europe*

We have only 6000 brown bears in Europe, and the most of them live in Scandinavia and the European area of Russia. These forests are the last primary forests in Europe and they are seriously threatened by the wood industry.

*North-America*

North-America wolves live in the forests between Newfoundland and Alaska, the warm Alaskan coastal forests and the West of Canada. The wolf is at risk because of the mass felling of the forests they live in.

The future for rainforests

"The deforestation of tropical rain forests is a threat to life worldwide. Deforestation may have profound effects on global climate and cause the extinction of thousands of species annually. Stopping deforestation in the tropics has become an international movement, seeking ways to stop the loss of rain forests." NASA Earth Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov)

Unfortunately, it is generally accepted that commercial use of the rainforests will not stop, so the key to managing the tropical forests of the world is sustainability and minimisation of impact on the environment.

Perhaps the most important step is to educate and inform those people whose actions, either directly or indirectly, pose a threat to the forests. Indigenous people can be helped by conservation organisations to make the very best use of their natural resources – while at the other end of the scale, consumers in developed countries must to made to understand that the products they buy are increasingly, and maybe even irreversibly, damaging the forests of the world.

A small thing – Christmas trees

Saving the rainforests may seem too big a task for any individual to help with. But there are much smaller things that we can all do to help the trees of our world. An example of this is Christmas trees. How many have plastic trees? And how many of you have real trees? And of those who have real trees – what do you do with the tree after Christmas is over? Have you ever wondered what effect both the natural and plastic Christmas tree industries have on the world?

And after reading about the deforestation of the rainforests – which would you automatically think is preferable? A real tree which will last only a few weeks? Or an artificial tree?

You would maybe be surprised to know that, in actual fact, having a real Christmas tree is likely to be more environmentally friendly. It goes back to sustainability and forest management.

Growing Christmas trees is now big business. They are grown in plantations that act as nature reserves to a wide variety of wild life and birds. They are grown as a crop to be harvested, and when one year's crop is harvested, they are replaced by others, so the numbers stay at a constant level. The trees are grown on poor quality soil that would not support other crops.

Each tree converts about 30lbs of carbon dioxide every year from the air into carbon and oxygen that the trees use to grow. In Europe alone, that would mean that nearly 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide are removed from the atmosphere every year. And that is certainly good news in trying to counteract the effects of global warming.

After Christmas, it is then possible to either plant out your real tree, or recycle it. In a survey in the USA, 69% of consumers who used a real Christmas tree said they recycled it afterwards (source: Anglo Trees). Christmas trees can be recycled for five main types of use:

- chipping (used for mulch and making paths)
- lake and river shoreline stabilization
- river sedimentation management
- beachfront erosion prevention
- fish habitats

Plastic Christmas trees, on the other hand, are made from chemicals – by-products of fossil fuels. Producing the trees uses a great deal of energy, and the transportation of the trees from factory to shop, shop to home does likewise. The average life span of an artificial tree is only six years, and when they come to the end of their life, they are not bio-degradable, and are thrown away into landfill sites. If burned they produce a dangerous combination of noxious gases.

Written by Annunagar and Atalante, Realm of Nienna, February 2004