Cause Of Deforestation

The latest issue about massive deforestation that is happening globally has been debated among the environmentalist around the world. Deforestation is the clearing of a forest in order to use the land for other activities. As the rain forest has been under siege, people may be effected whether now or in the future because we are all connected in the web of life which is mean people worldwide depend on the healthy forest (Cassriel and Ter-Mate-Martinsen, 2010, p.38). If this kind of destruction continues, more than a half of the rainforest may disappear. Therefore, to deal with this and ensure sustainability of the rainforest; it is vital to analyze the causes and the effects of the deforestation before it reaches the crisis point.

The first main cause of rainforest destruction is the rapid population growth. To support a huge number of populations, expand the agriculture activities are needed. For such type of expansion, more money is required for the process and the only way to ensure that the consumption is enough is to use an alternative method that uses less money. The slash-and-burn cultivation technique requires little capital cost since it is cheaper and quicker, thus

As more trees are being cut down on hillsides because of an extreme destruction such as logging, the soil becomes exposed to the wind and rain. There is nothing could hold on the soil since the trees are being destroyed and this contributed to soil erosion. In addition, economic project such as large dams project also led to soil erosion. The rain-washed down a huge amount of silt into streams and rivers resulting to catastrophic flood and mudslides of lowland. This phenomenon had brought an unexpected incident for instance, flood at the Philippines cause about 6,000 people killed on Leyte and swept 24 people to their death (Golden and Miller 1994, p.14). The rainforest becomes vulnerable that cause soil erosion to