...Situation analysis Kenya’s forests are rapidly declining due to pressure from increased population and other land uses. With B of the country being arid and semi-arid, there is a lot of strain on the rest of the land since the economy is natural resource based. The productive area which forms about 20% of the country’s area falls in the medium and high potential agro-ecological zones and is under agriculture, forest and nature reserves. According to FAO Forest Resource Assessment 1990, Kenya is classified among the countries with low forest cover of less than 2% of the total land area. The dwindling forest cover has a severe effect on the climate, wildlife, streams, human population especially forest dwellers. Introduction. Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but swaths the size of Panama are lost each and every year. The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation. Reasons for cutting down the trees Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families.The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process...
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...Current Trends in Forest and Environmental Policies in Sri Lanka The article attempts to discuss the trends of forest policy in terms of the historical perspective, implementation strategies, and institutional development. In the introduction, the authors begin by stating about the current state rapid degradation of the environment in Sri Lanka. Since importance was given to high economic growth rates and employment creation for poverty alleviation, there wasn’t enough attention given to manage the forests. Then the authors follows by the consequences of these natures degradation and the importance of environmental management. They then discuss about conditions required to achieve sustainable development in environment management, Governments...
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...ground grow their plants. Sometime the fertilizer washes into the nearby stream. This affects the fishes and the other living things in the stream. Another issues is the cattle pastures that they put on the land is destroying the land. The movement of the castles over the land causes the soil to become dense. When the soil becomes dense it kills the root of the grass. Stewardship and Sustainability is very important for the Amazon Rainforest to survive. We all need to have someone direct us to what is needed to be done to keep the Amazon Rainforest from being destroyed by deforestation. We will all have to do what we can do to help with the sustainability of the Amazon by curving some of the deformation of the forest. We all got to remember that Amazon Rainforest’s forests absorb greenhouse gases, methane emissions, and nitrous oxide emissions. This helps to filter the air that we all needs to breathe. When mankind destroys the planet it hurts everything on the planet because deforestation destruction is permanent. The Amazon can be saved with a lot of planning. We all need to start using natural products. Natural products use help to keep many bad things out of the environment. Land reforms are another thing that might help. The government should put restrictions on the owners of the land. Works...
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...PHILIPPINE FOREST Under our constitution, a forest is legally defined as “that portion of the public domain characterized by a predominant growth of trees or wood species, including nipa, mangrove, and all lands of the public domain not classified as agricultural, industrial, commercial, residential, resettlement, minerals or grazing lands”. It is often said that life comes from the forest. It is an area of land where flora and fauna are present. Types of Philippine Forests: * Dipterocarp Forest Generally, dipterocarp forests are the major source of timber and other forest products. The dominant trees in this type are internationally known as “ Philippine Mahogany” the trade name of commercial woods which are light red to reddish brown in color. The apitong, guijo, lawan, mayapis, tangile and yakal. * Pine Forests Pine forests provide long fibers which are good in making strong material for cement bags, and also provide turpentine for paint manufacture. Pine forests are usually found in mountain region of high altitude, such as in Northern Luzon. * Molave (also called mulawin) They are highly valued for natural beauty and durability. Molave stands frequently in regions of distinct dry limestone ridges. Species that belong to this type are narra, ipil, tindalo, akle,and banuyo. * Mangroves (bakawan) These types of forests occur on tidal flats. They are found along the seacost extending along the streams where the water is brackish (mixed with...
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...Forests are the life root and the lungs of the world, it also supply us with oxygen, wood, biodiversity, the beauty of nature and many more. Humans rely on the forest even before our ancestors nomadic lifestyle ends and till this day humanity still depend on forests for their basic needs from raw materials such as lumber to its finished product that is furniture. Forests also prevents soil erosion, filters large amounts of air and water, and is the habitat for the wildlife that coexist with the floras in the forest. But lately, humanity has taken the forest for granted and never care about the consequences of their actions, cutting down trees and burning forests to make way for progress and development, removing chunks of forests for agricultural...
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...Chapter 1 1.0 Project Title: Assessment of forest disturbance caused by logging impacts in 2014 at Besul Tambahan Forest by using High Resolution satellite data 1.1 Background of Study Forest can be defined as a place which having a high density of trees, any area which is packed with tall and big vegetation are also considered as a forest. The trees in the forest are divided into two which are overstory or canopy, and the other one is the understory such as moss layer, moss layer and shrub layer. Generally, there are many types of forests such as Tropical Rainforests, Sub-tropical forest, Mediterranean Forests, Temperate Forests, Coniferous Forest, Montane Forests, and Plantation Forest. These type of forests are classified based on the...
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...Research Tropical Rain Forests. Do you think it is important to preserve these rainforests - and why? What is the best way we might go about doing this - especially considering we don't have any Tropical Rain Forests in this country? Yes, I think it is significant to preserve what few hot Rain forests that are remaining. Tropical rain forests are one of the most bio-diverse and biologically important areas on the planet. Much of their living thing and stand life is unique and unreproduced anywhere else. Classification and farming are the two largest influences on the rain forest, causing many thousands of acres to become either deforested or even unfruitful. Rain forests are the prime land-based stand systems for the water and carbon cycles in the mood and groundwater; removing more and more of the rain forest causes the carbon cycle to become disturbed, with not enough carbon dioxide converted back to oxygen. The undergrowth in some areas of a rainforest can be restricted by poor penetration of sunlight to ground level. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees, called a jungle. There are two types of rainforest, tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest. It is important to preserve what few Tropical Rain forests that are remaining. The Tropical Rain forests provide the world with so many important tools for our survival. The rain forest is home to a variety of different animal...
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...Sustainable forest management requires three major criteria which are the maintenance of ecological processes within the forest (soil formation, energy flow, biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nutrient and hydrological cycles), maintenance of biodiversity of forest, improving the net social benefits derived from the mixture of forest uses within the constraints by considering the future. Forest provides habitats for more than half of the fauna and flora on the Earth (SCBD, 2001). Forest biome plays an important role in mitigating climate change by serving as carbon sinks (Hassan et al., 2005). Forest land is the most fundamental natural resources which become reduced mainly due to anthropogenic pressures. For proper management of land, it is essential to have information about existing land cover and about the naturalness of the land. The increment in forest cover does not mean that...
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...cattle-ranching are the main forces that drive deforestation and heavily contribute to the resulting environmental issues. By developing sustainable methods of forest usage and eliminating excess deforestation efforts, the Earth’s tropical rainforests can continue to hold the treasures of wildlife. Forests make up thirty percent of the Earth’s land surface. Wildlife is abundant and plant life is so diverse that many species are still unknown. With forests areas the size of Panama being wiped away each year, in one hundred years the world’s rainforests could completely vanish (National Geographic). Countless trees are cut down every year by the logging industry, which supplies the world with paper and wood products. Its effects extend beyond the loss of trees. For example, several indigenous tribes of Papua, New Guinea have lost huge portions of their land to government-backed logging operations (Shearman, Phil, and Jane Bryan). For tribal peoples who subsist on the land, it is a major misfortune for them. Agriculture and cattle-ranching are the two additional forces behind massive deforestation. As a result of increased consumer demand, farmers cut forests to make room for crops and grazing livestock (Roberts, Michael). Cattle-ranching supports a huge industry. Fast food restaurants, for example, require tons of beef. Hundreds of acres of forest lands are invaded in...
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...and South-East Asia. Each region is facing varying degrees of serious deforestation. The result being widespread loss of humid tropical forest “Between 1990 and 1997, 5.8 ± 1.4 million hectares of humid tropical forest were lost each year, with a further 2.3 ± 0.7 million hectares of forest visibly degraded.” (Achard et al. 2002) The heart of the problem lies beneath a tangled mess of socio-economic growth resulting in massive deforestation chiefly for the land. Commercial farmers using the land for cattle, soybeans, palm oil and monoculture tree farms take advantage of loose government regulations. The most common tactic for land for forest removal is “slash and burn” where existing vegetation is cut down and burned for fertilizer. This technique has major impacts on multiple cycles key to forest health. Most notably the hydrological cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle. If this trend continues there will be major changes in precipitation and air quality, both locally and globally. This combined with already worsening global climate problems may spell catastrophe. Due to differing levels of importance placed on this issue by the various countries involved solutions would have to be fine-tuned at the local level. Every solution needs stricter governmental regulation and policies enforcing sustainability, this coupled with standard forest management will curb significant...
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...The State of Alaska is home to one the United States’ most disputed ecological areas to date. The Tongass National Forest has been the battle ground of the Alaskan logging industry and nature conservation groups for the last 40 years. One side advocating for industry, economic growth, and job security the other fighting for the long term ecological health and prosperity of the forest. This battle first began in the 1950’s in part to aid in Japanese recovery after world war two, the Forest Service set up long-term logging contracts with two pulp mills: the Ketchikan Pulp Company (KPC) and the Alaska Pulp Company. This deal gave the pulp companies full accesses to the Tongass it being the one area in Alaska that was economically viable...
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...ONE: INTRODUCTION Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) serves and represents a new pattern in forestry as forest areas need to be adequately managed. As Young (1982) stated a long time ago, management of the forest for multiple land use is now common. This is due to the encroachment of forest areas and illegal felling in the protected forest areas. This brings about the determination of the use of the forest, forest land and forest products to ensure that the benefits derived today are similarly obtained in the future. Adekunle et al (2013), indicated that since the knowledge of tree growth parameters plus yield is very essential for effective forest management; data for the growth/ yield parameters can be obtained through field inventory by recording diameters and height along the stem or bole of a tree (Tonolli et al, 2011)...
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...recreation are a growing part of the local economy. In fact the New Forest has more visitors per square kilometre than any other national park (7.5 visits/km2). Leisure and tourism is the world’s second largest industry in terms of income generated. In recent years there has been an explosion of tourism in the UK. This is due to: • Increase in personal incomes • Increase in leisure time • Paid holidays as part of employment contracts • Shorter working week • Earlier retirement • Increased mobility • Improved availability of information (especially through the internet) This fact sheet looks at the number of people who visit the New Forest and how they spend their time when they get here. For further information on how the New Forest National Park Authority aims to identify and manage both the positive and negative effects of the number of visitors and the level of recreation within the Park see the Tourism and Recreation: Managing the Impacts fact sheet. The following facts and figures come from a result of a number of surveys carried out by Tourism South East Research Services, September 2005. Volume and Value estimates The total visitor volumes using the New Forest Park is estimated at 13,555,400 visitor days (excluding business tourists and personal and social visits to friends and relatives). Total spending associated with leisure visits to the New Forest National Park is estimated at around £107.6 million. Taking into account...
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...working to increase the participation of Aboriginal peoples in the forest management process through the National Forest Strategy. The plan is to discuss how the forests of Canada will be managed over the next, 5-year term coordinated through the Canadian Forest Service. The discussions can include conservation of biological diversity; the maintenance and enhancement of forest ecosystem conditions and productivity; the conservation of soil and water resources; the forest ecosystem contributions to global ecological cycles, multiple benefits to society; and accepting society's responsibilities regarding sustainable development. About more than three-quarters of Canada’s indigenous communities reside in forested areas (Nair 2009). The forest products industry employs more than 17 000 indigenous people directly and indirectly; though many are still developing skills for the job. This is much more than what we would find in The United States since many are privately owned lands. “The forest industry does business with more than 1 4000 firms run by indigenous people and about 1 000 forestry operations are owned by indigenous people” (Nair 2009). Still, many forests hold important cultural and symbolic values whether or not how many indigenous people own a part of a land. The fact that forests are so important to our day-to-day lives and to the ongoing functioning of the global ecosystems is reflected in the importance forests and trees hold in virtually all cultures (Martin’s lecture 1...
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...when it comes to the story of forest fires is: What exactly is fire? This question can simply be answered that it is a chemical reaction involving fuel, oxygen and heat. The molecules of a combustible substance move around at an ever more rapid pace as the substance heats until it ultimately combusts totally. When this combustion takes place, the chemicals in whatever substance is being heated are broken down and combined with the oxygen present in the air, with the substance acting as the fuel. This combination causes two things to occur, heat and light, which is essentially fire. The intensity of fire is determined by the amount of fuel present, and as the heat increases, so does the rate of its spreading to other fuel sources. The next question to ponder is: What is the cause of forest fires? While the famous “Smokey the Bear” may tell us that only we can stop forest fires, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of forest fires are caused by lightning. There are other natural causes that can spark forest fires as well. Falling rocks can cause small sparks to be created, which in turn can light piles of dried out kindling such as twigs. Superheated lava from volcanoes can also engulf nearby forests, as can the superheated air caused by an eruption. However, as we all know humans can also cause forest fires. Sometimes these fires are started by accident, and sometimes on purpose. There is a myriad of different fuels that allow a forest fire to burn. The typical fuels...
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