Deforestation in the African Rainforest Impacts Location Causes

Deforestation in the African Rainforest Impacts, Location, Causes, and Preventable Steps/Measures Taken By: Lauren Dicranian and Zach Nusbickel

Rainforests and Affected Regions • Guinea Forest Chain • 35000 Square Miles • Sierra Leone to Ghana, and Benin to Cameroon • Congo Basin • 80% of Africa's rainforests, 2/3 of Democratic Republic of the Congo • Also in Gabon, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea • 540, 000 Square Miles

Causes of Deforestation • Wood Fuel • Developing countries require great amounts as cheap fuel source because of high amounts of poverty; about half the illegally removed timber from these rainforests are used for fuelwood. • Illegal and Destructive Logging and Mining Practices • Because of vast amount of land, it becomes hard to enforce laws throughout, especially with the current government structure. • Government corruption stops termination because they are making money off of it • Land Tenure & Increasing Population • A need for more land & buildings as population grows • Agricultural Uses • Land cleared for growing of crops (mainly cash), land then becomes unfertile and completely without trees.

Data Deforestation Amounts in Africa Percentage of Rainforest and Protected Area in Each Country Map of Africa

General Effects of Deforestation: Economically, Politically, Environmentally and more • Increased Soil Erosion • Disruption of Water Cycles • Increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions • Desertification • Reduced Biodiversity • Promotes Illegal Harvesting of Trees/Fuelwood Harvesting • Destroys the habitats of indigenous peoples and ecosystems of the animals living there • Governments solely rely on trees in terms of exports for economic benefit, especially in areas of poverty or undeveloped countries

Measures Taken to Prevent Further Deforestation and its Effects World Rainforest Movement (WRM) - an international network of citizen groups with goals to secure both the livelihoods and lands of forests, especially for the natives there. Main campaign- the Tropical Forest Action Plan Rainforest Action Network (RAN)- nonprofit, volunteer conservation group who protects/preserves rain forests across the world, mainly by using direct citizen action, and also works to preserve cultures of indigenous peoples. Green Belt Movement- nonprofit, run primarily by women, mission aimed at combating deforestation, desertification, improving the economic activities of women, and promoting community development. Have already planted more than 20 million trees and provided employment for tens of thousands of women. Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD)- offer financial assistance to enable forests to be kept intact, mainly aimed at developers. World Wildlife Fund (WWF)- sustaining forests centered upon four key areas: • • • forest certification reforming exports combating illegal logging protecting forested areas. With forest management efforts, forests can be secured, but yet local economies can still benefit from their resources, like by replanting the trees harvested.

Overview: In the Amazon alone, about 17% of the forests have been lost in the last 50 years, mainly due to cattle ranching. • Guinea Forest Chain and • Measures taken to Congo Basin forests prevent deforestation affected • WRM (Tropical forest • Causes: action plan) • Wood fuel, illegal • RAN logging and mining, • Green Belt Movement land tenure and (Replanting) population, agriculture • Many Negative Effects • Soil erosion • Disruption of water cycle • Desertification