October 28, 2005
Analyze the relationship between wood products sustainability and forest stewardship values using the 3 analyses and problem solving techniques. Specifically, link 2 out of 3 levels of individual, corporative, and government.
Interpretation/Problem Statement
A basic indicator of the planet’s health can be seen in the earth’s forest cover, and the forests have been on drastic declines.[1] These losses are due to individuals, corporations, and government, but there are strategies that can help protect the forests. These strategies are command and control, techno fixes, and education. Each of these strategies has their pros and cons, but they are all ways that may save the forests that are crucial to survival.
Analysis
According to the Oregon Board of Forestry, sustainable forest management will provide: healthy and diverse forest ecosystems that produce abundant timber and other forest products, habitats to support healthy populations of native plants and animals, productive soil, clean water, clean air, open space, and recreational opportunities, and healthy communities that contribute to a healthy state economy. The “forest resources across the landscape are used, developed, and protected.”[2]
Forest sustainability has been on the decline, and forests have been “shrinking at an accelerating rate. Although it expanded by 3 million hectares in the industrial world between 1990 and 2000, it shrank by 130 million hectares in the developing world.” This was a net loss of 96 million hectares in 10 years which “far exceeded that of any previous decade.”[3] The Student Atlas of World Politics states that “due to high population growth rates and economies limited primarily to farming have forced the increasing use of more marginal land.”[4] Due to increasing pressure for more farmland, countries that have more tropical forests (South America, Africa, and Asia) are also experiencing similar processes of deforestation or forest clearing, which destroys the soil, reduces the biological diversity of the forest regions, and “ultimately may have the capacity to alter the global climate by contributing to an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.[5]
By educating the developing worlds, they can be informed about the environmental impacts that logging and other industries have on them, and also understand the importance of keeping healthier forests and preserving the land. Although education works slowly, the end results will be almost permanent, and future generations can appreciate forests and help protect them.
Not only are forests being cleared for industrial and corporate materials and goods, they are also being cleared to pave roads. “Cars each year consume, in new roads, highways, and parking lots, roughly 1 million hectares of land – enough to feed 9 million people if it were all cropland. Within the United States, there are 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) of roads; this is enough to circle the earth at the equator 157 times.[6] The placement of roads and the land that is necessarily needed to be cleared are all decided at the government level, and this has a huge impact on forests and land use.
Creating laws and using the ‘command and control’ strategy is a way that forests can be saved and clear-cutting can be reduced. Conservation programs, such as the USDA, can help preserve and sustain roadless areas. They have a protection program called Roadless Area Conservation that has affected at least 58.5 million acres, 2% being US land bases, and 31% being forest service land bases.[7] The Roadless Area Conservation service is to honor the “roadless rule.” This rule was adopted on January 5, 2001 to protect “the remaining public forests in the United States that have not had roads built through them.[8] Conservation programs are a way to help protect forests, but like all command and control strategies, they can be easily overridden, and new laws can redefine the aspects and ideas of the program and its actions.
The roads that are paved after clearing forests are usually not even used by cars. Trucks use them to transport logs.[9] A techno fix, a fix using technology, would be beneficial for both forests and the environment. This techno fix would be an affective transportation system that was unmanned. This would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, manpower (energy exerted), and protect the forests. An even better techno fix would be the production of a material better than wood that was energy efficient in producing and did not harm the environment.
Forests can also be saved by how people address their everyday lives. By thinking and acting with the future in mind, there may be a future for forests. Being responsible for understanding the relationships between plants and animals and finding ways to protect those relationships while managing the forests will also help protect them.[10] This also relates to the strategy of education. The first step to solving a problem is to understand that there is a problem.
Conclusion/Inference
Forests around the world are endangered and on a constant decline. Logging also has great effects on the forests and its wildlife. In order to save the forests, strategies must be used: education, conservation programs (roadless rule – command and control), and techno fixes. With more education and a better understand of the environment, the forests may be saved, but something has to be done, and everyone can make a difference if they understood the problems.
Evaluation
The sources referred to in this paper are all academic sources used by the university, for educational purposes, or government sponsored, including the sited web pages. Learning really is the first step, and with the knowledge I’ve gained while writing this paper, I can begin to better understand one of the biggest problems that the world faces.
The state of Oregon is known for its “greenliness,” and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. The bias reflected in this report is also because I have always lived in Oregon and I love the outdoors. I hope that one day our environment will be restored, and everything will be beautiful again. Changes in my lifestyle, involvement in conservation programs, or just discussing the problems and understanding the current status of our earth is just the beginning.
[1] Brown, Lester B. Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 2003. p.97.
[2] Oregon Department of Forestry. Last updated: 2005. http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/BOARD/index.shtml last consulted: 27 October 2005.
[4] Allen, John L. and Elizabeth J. Leppman. Student Atlas of World Politics. McGraw-Hill: USA, 2004. p. 94.
[7] Roadless Area Conservation. Last updated: 2005. http://roadless.fs.fed.us/ last consulted: 27 October 2005
[8] Help Save Forest Wildlife: Roadless Areas at Risk. Last updated: 2005. http://www.saveforestwildlife.org/ last consulted: 27 October 2005.
[10] Forest Stewardship. Last updated: 2005. http://www.dof.virginia.gov/mgt/stewardship-index.shtml last consulted: 27 Ocotber 2005.
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