Deforestation In The Dominican Republic

On the island of Hispaniola, which borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean sea is home to the countries o the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Dominican Republic occupies about two/ thirds of the island and is home to roughly around 10.65 million people. The Dominican Republic has many mountains and valleys which divide the country into the three regions of the northern, the central, and the southwestern. The northern region borders the Atlantic Ocean and is made up of mountains or in Spanish as they call it “ The Cordillera Sepetentrional. Along the northern region of the country as well is the Cibao Valley which is Spanish means rocky land. The Cibao valley is the most populated region of the Dominican Republic. It is also a

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

Deforestation is defined as: “the clearing of virgin forests, or intentional destruction or removal of trees and other vegetation for agricultural, commercial, housing, or firewood use without replanting and without allowing time for the forest to regenerate itself” (SCRIBD). Deforestation has been a problem in Latin America since the early 1900s and the severity of the dilemma is increasing rapidly. Deforestation not only has consequences for the environment, but also, the indigenous people and the national economy. The logging industry in Latin America is often exploited by multinational companies that are not properly regulated. The land that has provided a home and cultivated indigenous development for centuries is being dissipated rapidly. Due to an exponentially growing global population, there is an increased demand for low priced goods--like timber, crops, and meat. Many Latin American countries value revenue from selling these goods over the health of their local ecosystems. The crisis of deforestation and habitat loss is shifting from a local to global problem. As deforestation continues, global warming escalates worldwide, impacting every country and person. About 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation, which is more than from all the world’s cars, trucks and buses combined (Schwartzman). Puerto Rico and Brazil provide contrasting examples of the impact of deforestation. Puerto Rico had an economic and environmental shift

Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious

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.

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

The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island Hispaniola, which it shares with Haiti. It is slightly larger than Denmark, or about twice the size of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The central mountain range, Cordillera Central, boasts the highest point in the Caribbean, Pico Duarte, at a little more than 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). The Cibao Valley lies in the heart of the country and is the major agricultural area.

The second-largest Caribbean country, the Dominican Republic is a place of rich and diverse culture, turbulent political history, and has produced a number of important literary works and prominent public figures known well in their home country and beyond. Like all countries, the Dominican Republic faces a myriad of issues today, including that of its schooling system, environmental issues, and the inherent ripple effects of its colonization history.

Other interesting theories suggest everything from alien encounters, warring neighbors and outsiders wiped out the Mayan population, to the entire food source disappearing, to massive human sacrifice to getting bored. Another source, authenticmaya.com, cites almost all of these possibilities, but it comes back to war with neighbors and outsiders, and the loss of rain and food sources. (authenticmaya.com)

From 1990 to 2005, deforestation, or the removal of trees, was happening at an average rate of 13 million hectares (32.11 million acres) per year (Hope 247). In many ways, deforestation has been the reason for great economic success which turns people on to the idea even more. Deforestation is an essential element in promoting and encouraging developmental growth. Some places around the world may feel obligated to resort to deforestation due to population increases around the world. The concept of deforestation may seem to have a positive impact on society, but many people fail to consider the importance of replanting the trees that were harvested and removed. Deforestation mainly affects North and South America, but because of the Transamazon

Deforestation of Haiti results in poverty. The role of deforestation in poverty is driven by the desperate search for fuel by these exceedingly poor people. In Haiti, poverty is rooted in a lack of resources and decades of bad social policies of dictatorial regimes. With every family constantly needing charcoal, charcoal production became a "job" almost anyone could have. Therefore, everyone scrounges for any wood that can be made into charcoal, either to sell or to

Have your eyes ever set on a barren land where even technology can’t reverse the damage we have caused? We care mostly for the present, but we must never forget to see to the future and in this case the deforestation of the Amazons. “Deforestation is considered the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere” (Song et al. 2). Each day we are wiping out miles of trees from one of our most diverse ecosystems in the planet, and one of our largest “lungs” in the world. At our rate of destruction of the rainforest, we would have inflicted in our future a great disservice, as the trees cut down would no longer give us clean air and more CO2 would pollute our air. CO2 can have a negative impact on our health. As we breathe in this air, it can lead to lung cancer and other diseases. By destroying the Amazon ecosystem we could drive many exclusive species that only live in the Amazon to extinction. Will we know the harm we have caused right away? Probably not, but we will definitely find out sooner rather than later. The cause of the Amazon deforestation is due to our need for wood to stay warm, and for developing countries to use it for fuel. Our top priority in conserving the Amazons is the unforeseen environmental impact that can be caused to our planet and to us. “Tropical deforestation also has other negative externalities, such as the loss of biodiversity, erosion, floods, and lowered water levels” (Jusys).

Much like the Indus River Valley Civilization, The Mayan Civilization is credited with spontaneously dying out. One theory includes a prolonged drought, aggravated by a rash deforestation. Putting this theory to the test, researchers from Arizona State University analyzed archaeological data, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results showed severe reductions in precipitation, accompanied by a rapid rate of deforestation.This being said, increased production of agriculture required more land, which in turn, lead The Mayans to chop down more trees. Furthermore, they also required an exorbitant amount of wood to fuel the fires that cooked the lime plaster for their elaborate constructions; experts estimate it

Rainforests have been declining rapidly over the last few decades. There are various factors responsible for this decline, resulting in serious impacts on the environment and the economy. Critically discuss the causes of deforestation and solutions to it.

Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be