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Lesson 2

Causes of deforestation

Terms and expressions

forest wealth	– лесное «богатство»
productivity of forests	– продуктивность лесов
immense resources	– огромные ресурсы
saplings	– молодые деревца
marginal soils	– малоплодородные почвы
smallholders	– владельцы небольших земельных участков
to clear land for crops	– расчищать земли для посева зерновых культур
peat bogs	– торфяные болота
elm pollen	– пыльца вяза
silting of ports	– заиливание портов
cattle farming	– скотоводство
collect firewood	– заготавливать дрова
secondary forests	– вторичные леса, сменившие коренные леса
commodity prices	– цены на товары широкого потребления
pulp companies	– предприятия, производящие целлюлозу
soil exhaustion	– истощение почвы
disposable products	– одноразовая продукция
cattle grazing	– выпас скота
acid rains	– кислотные дожди
building of dams	– строительство плотин
chop down an area	– вырубать лес на участке
economically valuable species	– экономически ценные породы
heavy machinery	– оборудование
road graders	– дорожный струг, грейдер
log skidders	– трелевочный трактор
chainsaw	– пильная цепь
to harvest the forest	– вырубать лес

Introductory exercises

1. Переведите устно (рекомендуется для зрительно-устного перевода и для устного перевода на слух):

Mythical "Forest Wealth" of Russia

Greenpeace Russia, Institute of Space Research RAS, Centre for Ecological Problems and Productivity of Forests RAS and Global Forest Watch presented a unique map "Forest Landscapes of Russia". This is the first since the USSR times and so far the only map that presents the current state of forest resources in our country. According to the information available, an image of Russia as a country with immense forest resources is too optimistic.

No country in the world is able to organize effective use and protection of their forests without detailed information about the state of forest landscapes. The previous map ("Forest landscapes of the USSR") issued in 1990, was based on quite old materials and represented the situation of 25-30 years old.

A new map "Forest Landscapes of Russia" has combined four existing maps chosen so that to provide most up-to-date and detailed data.

First of all, the new map demonstrates that most valuable in the industry coniferous forests were preserved only in sparsely populated and difficult of access regions of the European North and Siberia. While in the most fertile forest lands spruce and pine are replaced by the second growth, birch and aspen forests, which can't be used effectively in the forest industry. At present the territory with the second deciduous growth amounts to 31% of the total forest area in Russia.

The main reason of mass forest degradation is the extensive forest use that prevailed in our country in the last century. This includes large-scaled clear cutting, a low quality of reforestation works and not sufficient care about saplings.

"It's evident that potentialities of extensive logging in Russia are almost exhausted. - says Alexey Yaroshenko, Greenpeace Russia forest campaign coordinator. - Almost all suitable for logging forests are developed. The further growth of logging volumes of coniferous forests without considerable improvement of the forestry quality is environmentally dangerous and it will lead to further degradation of forest resources."

"To enable the forest industry to develop, the government has to pay much more attention to the forestry", - says Mr. Yaroshenko.

"The presented map is another evidence of how significant "the human trace" in Russian forests is. It presents not only territories, where economic activities caused the replacement of coniferous species by deciduous ones, but also vast areas, where forests are totally destroyed. Such deforested territories take about 15% of "potentially forested" landscapes of Russia.

    2. Найдите в тексте и переведите словосочетания:

    Market – driven forestry practices; livestock grazing; demand for farm land and full wood; to resettle people; slash-and-burn activity; fallow periods; an unproductive state; to modify the landscape; the advent of agriculture; decreased transpiration; the forestation; the forestation of upland peat bogs; to provide wood for industry; proper replanting; local wood supplies; to remain viable; tax payers; legal and fiscal conditions; an agricultural belt; to lack the original biodiversity; mature oaks; seasonal flooding; use of charcoal; ship timbers; untapped forests; to shot of wood; supply of wild game; agricultural expansion; to endanger forest areas; multinational pulp companies; to pay off debt obligations; the consequences of deforestation; to cause atmospheric pollution; to be used as pastures; to cut down the trees; the need for disposable products; to manipulate the forest resources; illegal logging; illegally logged wood; devasting forces; fast food chains; to seek cheap prices; an overgrazed land; harmful effects; to produce cash crops; to drive production in other countries.

     3. Переведите текст (рекомендуется для зрительно-письменного и зрительно-устного перевода):

Causes of deforestation

Present causes. While short-sighted, market-driven forestry practices are

often one of the leading causes of forest degradation, the principal human-related causes of deforestation are agriculture and livestock grazing, urban sprawl, and mining and petroleum extraction. Causes include demand for farm land and fuel wood. Underlining causes include poverty, lack of reform. The causes of deforestation are complex and often differ in each forest and country. Government policies, such as ones in Brazil, make it a priority to resettle some of the country's numerous landless people. The largest cause as of 2006 is slash-and-burn activity in tropical forests. Slash-and-burn is a method sometimes used by shifting cultivators to create short term yields from marginal soils. When practiced repeatedly, or without intervening fallow periods, the nutrient poor soils may be exhausted or eroded to an unproductive state. Slash-and-burn techniques are used by native populations of over 200 million people worldwide.

Theories of deforestation. Three schools of thought exist with regards to the causes of deforestation - the Impoverishment school, which believes that the major cause of deforestation is "the growing number of poor", the Neoclassical school which believes that the major cause is "open-access property rights" and the Political-ecology school which believes that the major cause of deforestation is that the "capitalist investors crowd out peasants". The Impoverishment school sees smallholders as the principal agents of deforestation, the Neoclassical school sees various agents, and the Political ecology school sees capitalist entrepreneurs as the major agents of deforestation. Actual data support the first two theories as widespread numerical impacts.

Historical causes

Prehistory. Deforestation has been practiced by humans since the beginnings of civilization. Fire was first tool that allowed humans to modify the landscape. The first evidence of deforestation shows up in the Mesolithic. Fire was probably used to drive game into more accessible areas. With the advent of agriculture fire became the prime tool to clear land for crops. In Europe there is little solid evidence before 7000 BC. Mesolithic foragers used fire to create openings for red deer and wild boar. On Great Britain shade tolerant species like oak and ash are replaced in the pollen record by hazels, brambles, grasses and nettles. Removal of the forests led to decreased transpiration resulting in the formation of upland peat bogs. Widespread decrease in elm pollen across Europe between 8400-8300 BC and 7200-7000 BC, starting in southern Europe and gradually moving north to Great Britain, may represent land clearing by fire at the onset of Neolithic agriculture.

Pre-industrial history. The historic silting of ports along the southern coasts of Asia Minor (e.g. Clarus, and the examples of Ephesus, Priene and Miletus, where harbors had to be abandoned because of the silt deposited by the Meander) and in coastal Syria during the last centuries BC, and the famous silting up of the harbor for Bruges, which moved port commerce to Antwerp, all follow periods of increased settlement growth (and apparently of deforestation) in the river basins of their hinterlands. In early medieval Riez in upper Provence, alluvial silt from two small rivers raised the riverbeds and widened the floodplain, which slowly buried the Roman settlement in alluvium and gradually moved new construction to higher ground; concurrently the headwater valleys above Riez were being opened to pasturage.

A typical progress trap is that cities were often built in a forested area providing wood for some industry (e.g. construction, shipbuilding, pottery). When deforestation occurs without proper replanting, local wood supplies become difficult to obtain near enough to remain competitive, leading to the city's abandonment, as happened repeatedly in Ancient Asia Minor. The combination of mining and metallurgy often went along this self-destructive path.

Meanwhile most of the population remaining active in (or indirectly dependent on) the agricultural sector, the main pressure in most areas remained land clearing for crop and cattle farming; fortunately enough wild green was usually left standing (and partially used, e.g. to collect firewood, timber and fruits, or to graze pigs) for wildlife to remain viable, and the hunting privileges of the elite (nobility and higher clergy) often protected significant woodlands.

Major parts in the spread  (and  thus  more  durable growth) of  the

population were played by monastical 'pioneering' (especially by the Benedictine and Cistercian orders) and some feudal lords actively attracting farmers to settle (and become tax payers) by offering relatively good legal and fiscal conditions — even when they did so to launch or encourage cities, there always was an agricultural belt around and even quite some within the walls. When on the other hand demography took a real blow by such causes as the Black Death or devastating warfare '(e.g. Genghis Khan's Mongol hords in eastern and central Europe, Thirty Years' War in Germany) this could lead to settlements being abandoned, leaving land to be reclaimed by nature, even though the secondary forests usually lacked the original biodiversity.

From 1100 to 1500 AD significant deforestation took place in Western Europe as a result of the expanding human population. The large-scale building of wooden sailing ships by European (coastal) naval owners since the 15th century for exploration, colonization, slave - and other trade on the high seas and (often related) naval warfare (the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1559 and the battle of Lepanto 1577 are early cases of huge waste of prime timber; each of Nelson's Royal navy war ships at Trafalgar had required 6000 mature oaks) and piracy meant that whole woody regions were over-harvested, as in Spain, were this contributed to the paradoxical weakening of the domestic economy since Columbus' discovery of America made the colonial activities (plundering, mining, cattle, plantations, trade...) predominant.

In Changes in the Land (1983), William Cronon collected 17th century New England Englishmen's reports of increased seasonal flooding during the time that the forests were initially cleared, though no connection was made at the time.

The massive use of charcoal on an industrial scale in Early Modern Europe was a new acceleration of the onslaught on western forests; even in Stuart England, the relatively primitive production of charcoal has already reached an impressive level. For ship timbers, Stuart England was so widely deforested that it depended on the Baltic trade and looked to the untapped forests of New England to supply the need. In France, Colbert planted oak forests to supply the French navy in the future; ironically, as the oak plantations matured in the mid-nineteenth century, the masts were no longer required.

Norman F. Cantor's summary of the effects of late medieval deforestation applies equally well to Early Modern Europe:

"Europeans had lived in the midst of vast forests throughout the earlier medieval centuries. After 1250 they became so skilled at deforestation that by 1500 AD they were running short of wood for heating and cooking. They were faced with a nutritional decline because of the elimination of the generous supply of wild game that had inhabited the now-disappearing forests, which throughout medieval times had provided the staple of their carnivorous high-protein diet. By 1500 Europe was on the edge of a fuel and nutritional disaster, [from] which it was saved in the sixteenth century only by the burning of soft coal and the cultivation of potatoes and maize." Specific parallels are seen in twentieth century deforestation occurring in many developing nations.

Deforestation today. Growing worldwide demand for wood to be used for fire wood or in construction, paper and furniture - as well as clearing land for commercial and industrial development (including road construction) have combined with growing local populations and their demands for agricultural expansion and wood fuel to endanger ever larger forest areas.

Agricultural development schemes in Mexico, 'Brazil and Indonesia moved large populations into the rainforest zone, further increasing deforestation rates. One fifth of the world's tropical rainforest was destroyed between 1960 and 1990. Estimates of deforestation of tropical forest for the 1990s range from ca. 55,630 km² to ca. 120,000 km² each year. At this rate, all tropical forests may be gone by the year 2090.

Brazil. In Brazil the rate of deforestation is apparently driven by commodity prices. Recent development of a new variety of soybean has lead to displacement of beef ranches and slash and burn farmers which in turn move further into the forest.

Indonesia. There are significantly large areas of forest in Indonesia that are being lost as native forest is cleared by large multinational pulp companies and being replaced by plantations. In Sumatra millions of acres of forest have been cleared often under the command of the central government in Jakarta who comply with multi national companies to remove the forest because of the need to pay off international debt obligations and to develop economically. In Kalimantan the consequences of deforestation have been profound and between 1997 and 1998 large areas of the forest were burned because of uncontrollable fire causing atmospheric pollution across South-East Asia.

United States. Upon arrival European-Americans began clearing large areas of forest for wood and agriculture. Beginning in about 1850 farm land began to be abandoned because of soil exhaustion and competition from the mid-west. Also, mechanization allowed land formerly used as pastures for horses to revert to forest. From 1850 to about 1920 the amount of forest land in the United States actually increased. Today the trend in forest cover increase has reversed as urban sprawl causes conversion of forest as the forest is transformed to suburbs.(Forest on the Edge Housing Development on American's Private Forest'(USFS)).

Logging and Deforestation. The small farmer plays a big role, but it is modern industry that too cuts down the trees. The logging industry is fueled by the need for disposable products. 11 million acres a year are cut for commercial and property industries. Peter Heller found that McDonalds needs 800 square miles of trees to make the amount of paper they need for a years supply of packaging, Entity Mission found that British Columbia manufactures 7, 500,000 pairs of chopsticks a day, and the demand for fuel wood is so high that predictions say that there will be a shortage by the year 2000. Logging does too have its repercussions. The logging industry not only tries to accomplish all this but it even indirectly helps the "shifted cultivators" and others to do more damage. The roads that the loggers build to access the forests and generate hydroelectric power create an easy way for many people to try to manipulate the forest resources. The amount of damage that this adds to the forests can not be measured nor can that of the illegal logging. Some importers may even be buying illegally logged wood and not even have known it.