Costa Rica Deforestation

Tropical rainforests are the Earth?s oldest, richest, most productive, and most complex living ecosystems. They are located throughout many of the world?s continents including South America, Africa, and Asia and are defined by a few specific factors. Their location must be within the regions of the tropics and they must receive between 4-8 meters of rain per year (compared to about 1-2 meters in the United States). These forests also have no ?seasonality?, which means that they lack a definite dry or cold season of slowed growth.

Deforestation poses an alarming threat to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and it has been a serious concern for over 40 years. For thousands of years, the abundant, valuable resources in the Amazon were familiar only to the indigenous people of the region. In the 1500’s, before European colonization of Brazil, there were an estimated six to nine million individuals part of different cultures that made up a rich Amazonian society (“History”). Surrounded by the luxuriant rainforest and its natural resources, these indigenous tribes were able to thrive by utilizing the resources without destroying their habitat. After European emigration, the government of Brazil exploited the value of the Amazon’s resources in the twentieth century. In the 1970’s, the Brazilian government discovered the “untapped source of boundless potential” hiding in the Amazon and began using incentives to persuade settlers to develop its resources (Casey). Once economists realized the importance of the resources found within the rainforest, European pioneers set out to transform the Amazon into their home. By endorsing colonization, the government could not only boost the country’s economy, but also gain control over Brazil’s vast territory. The government supported migration to the rainforest and campaigned for the construction of infrastructure (“History”). In concurrence, the development of roads such as the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a 2,000 mile road built in 1972, granted people and machinery entrance to

Costa Rica is one of the countries that have had this problem in the last few years. One town that has particularly been affected with this problem is La Virgen. However, this little town in Costa Rica is one that is a success story when it comes to combating deforestation.

In Middle and South America, it is evident that human interactions affect the physical features. The human interaction that affects Middle and South America is deforestation. In 1970’s a period of deforestation began in Brazil with the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway; the road allowed migrant farmers to grow crops (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2012). Deforestation continued throughout Middle and South America. The use lodging of hardwoods, extracting minerals, oil, gas, stones and clearing off land for raising cattle, and growing crops has impacted most of the land in Middle and South America (Pulsipher & Pulsipher 2012). The human interaction of deforestation has led to many environmental issues, changes in physical features. There are loss

Just like other countries, Costa Rica was a victim to deforestation and other environmental degradation in the past. Now, however, Costa Rica is widely known for the preservation of its forests, wildlife, and the overall well-being of the environment of its pristine country. The government of Costa Rica realized the issues of the environmental degradation they had caused and pledged to never go back. Now, Costa Rica is one of the biggest leaders in the “green” movement. The governmental agency SETENA, has helped Costa Rica’s eco-preservation. SETENA is the Costa Rican National Environmental Office. SETENA stands for, “Secretaría Técnica Nacional Ambiental” which translates to “National Environmental Technical Secretariat”. The purpose of this agency is to address the environmental impacts from development and building.

Human activities in the two countries have contributed to environmental degradation and decline in biodiversity. While both Costa Rica and El Salvador have biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere suitable for plants and animals, the two countries face a great problem of environmental degradation putting their physical geography, plants, and animals at risk. Environmental Sustainability Challenges Costa Rica One of the environmental sustainability issues facing Costa Rica is deforestation. This involves the destruction of vast tracks of forest land through forestry practices that are not sustainable without replacement. The problem of deforestation arose because of the population explosion that necessitated for more space for agricultural

The practice of destroying the ecosystems by cutting down the tress has put at risk all the ecosystems around the world. Deforestation can lead to the extinction of many species that we know today and to the complete destruction of the world, lucky there are people and governments working to prevent this. Jack Ewing proposes in his essay “Deforestation, Reforestation and Regeneration” that the two main factors that help turn around the effects of deforestation on Costa Rica. First, he introduces us to how with the support of the government trough programs that provide cash incentives and tax exemptions for reforestation projects has helped to change the situation in Costa Rica. The second factor that Ewing shows is the introduction of the ecological truism in Costa Rica. This activity provided a far better and bigger income for the locals than farming and cattle ranching activities which were the principal causes of deforestation. (Ewing100). Ewing has shown us that we can coexist in harmony with the tress and still have an economical benefit out of

Costa Rica’s rainforests are some of the most beautiful natural attractions in the world today. Each and every year people travel to this country in Central America to see these vibrant rainforests. There are parts of the year that are more vibrant than others. During the rainy season, which falls from May to late October, the rainforests are more lively and colorful than ever. As you near November the colors start to fade; however, later months hold their own beauty in different ways than color. As the dry season begins the lively and bright colors slowly fade to a duller color.

18 million acres of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. Forests cover thirty percent of the earth. It is estimated that is one hundred years there will be no rainforests. The causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, logging for timber, and infrastructure building.

As a citizen and a customer, I ask of you to rethink about cutting down millions of trees in Brazil. Not only does it harm the environment, it may harm your business in the long run. The rainforest in South America is very important for the world outside of commercial use. If you continue to clear-cutting the rainforests, the whole world pays the cost.

The most appropriate way to address land conflict in the Amazon rainforest is to stop deforestation. Because rubber tappers aren’t hurting the environment. They also make money/ living off of collecting the resources. The tappers have been tapping trees for their whole life. Although the rubber tappers have to put cuts in the trees to get the rubber resources out it doesn’t hurt the trees.

On the surface, expanding agriculture into the rainforest seems to be a fast and simple way to alleviate hunger and malnutrition, but in reality, the resulting environmental damage--in addition to being intrinsically harmful--would actually worsen the hunger that the expansion is trying to solve. In 2014, Brazil was removed from the UN World Hunger Map, an accomplishment that Social Development Minister Tereza Campello credits to “a mix of public policies and an increased food supply” (“World Hunger Map”). Unsurprisingly, at least a significant portion of the “increased food supply” came from agricultural expansion in the Amazon Rainforest, which currently hosts approximately 200 million cows (“Cattle Ranching”). Unfortunately for Brazil, its accomplishment of ending famine within its borders may be soon reversed.

On February 6th 2016 Dr. Tim Parshall gave a presentation on some of his reforestation efforts in Costa Rica. He began his presentation with a glimpse into the 1830s where deforestation began to occur in the U.S primarily the New England area. Where 80% of land was cleared. However, in 1999 we began to see major improvement in natural forestation in the New England area. Furthermore we began to learn about Costa Rica, and how geographically it encompasses two types of ecosystems, one on the pacific side and the other on the Atlantic.

I really enjoyed looking at your presentation. There was a lot of informative information on both the Dominican Republic and the issue of deforestation that is going on there. If we keep this up sooner or later the world can end up without and natural resources, like the forest. Not only are humans destroying the natural environment, they are also destroying animal and plant species homes. I find it sad that one day our world can end up being destroyed/extincted by us

As you look at the earth today, you notice something different than what it looked like ten or twenty years ago. “The highest rates of deforestation have occurred during the last fifty years”. (Rainforest Alliance, 2017) Deforestation is causing a huge problem in our environment, many causes of this issue are agriculture, farming, logging industry, ranchers and fuelwood collection. Because of this deforestation, there is less trees, the environment is suffering, the habitat for many animals are lost and more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere. The rainforest is an important resource to humans and animals. There is little to no chance for the recovery of the rainforests after they are deforested. So, once they are gone, they more than likely will be gone forever. This is where a company called Rainforest Alliance stepped in. In 1987 when this company was founded they put in plan a way to conserve and protect the biodiversity of the land, stop deforestation and improve the livelihoods of the communities that depend on this land. Rainforest Alliance has designed a learning tool that would enable the farmers and business to learn how to preserve and maintain the land and still use the land for farming. They would certify using strict guidelines these farmers and farms so that they could farm and still be able to protect the forests from deforestation. So, they started this program in Central America and now they are in over seventy-eight countries.