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Source: ESPN
Hazards of Deforestation
Shishir Reza :
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from the natural processes of affecting the earth. A disaster may be natural or man-made (or technological) hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be ostensibly defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions. It is a phenomenon that can cause damage to life, property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people.
Thus disasters are two types – natural and man-made. Human vulnerability and lack of appropriate emergency management leads to financial, environmental, or human impact. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster: their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: “disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability”. A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability such as floods, tsunami, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, heat waves and droughts, wild fires, landslides, blizzards, ice storms.
Man-made disasters are the consequence of technological or human hazards. War and deliberate attacks may also be put in this category. Man-made disasters are examples of specific cases where man-made hazards have become reality in an event. Examples include fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, oil spills and nuclear explosions/radiation, solid waste effects, global warming, sea level rising, deforestation, climate change etc.
According to Environmental Science, 25% of a country’s land area should be covered with forests for a balanced ecology. Bangladesh, however, has only 6% that is forested. 50% of the country’s forests have been destroyed in the last 20 years. This is known as deforestation. Some 30 years ago, the forest area in Tangail was 2,000 acres; today it is down to 1,000 acres. Similarly, the forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been over-exploited by the tribal people, mainly for Jhum cultivation. The increasing demand of land for agriculture, homes and industries caused by a population explosion has taken a heavy toll on the country’s forests since the early 20th Century.
The cutting down of trees for lumber that is used for building materials, furniture, and paper products. Forests are also cleared in order to accommodate expanding urban areas. Forests are also cut down in order to clear land for growing crops. Forests are also cut down in order to create land for grazing cattle. Trees are cut down in developing countries to be used as firewood or turned into charcoal, which are used for cooking and heating purposes. Forests are being clearing for oil and mining exploitation and to make highways and burn farming techniques, wildfires and acid rain.
Forests are home to many exotic species of plants and animals. These species lose their habitat, and this is a great loss to the ecology and the scientific community; Climatic change is perhaps the most devastating effect of deforestation. This has effects all over the world. It is a major reason for global warming. Soil erosion in the immediate area has secondary effects as the soil ultimately washes down to rivers and causes floods. Reduction of rainfall results from the lack of evaporation from leaves, as none remain, and from the reduction in the absorptive capacity of the ground.
(Shishir Reza, Environmental Analyst and Associate Member, Bangladesh Economic Association)
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from the natural processes of affecting the earth. A disaster may be natural or man-made (or technological) hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be ostensibly defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions. It is a phenomenon that can cause damage to life, property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people.
Thus disasters are two types – natural and man-made. Human vulnerability and lack of appropriate emergency management leads to financial, environmental, or human impact. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster: their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: “disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability”. A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability such as floods, tsunami, tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, heat waves and droughts, wild fires, landslides, blizzards, ice storms.
Man-made disasters are the consequence of technological or human hazards. War and deliberate attacks may also be put in this category. Man-made disasters are examples of specific cases where man-made hazards have become reality in an event. Examples include fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, oil spills and nuclear explosions/radiation, solid waste effects, global warming, sea level rising, deforestation, climate change etc.
According to Environmental Science, 25% of a country’s land area should be covered with forests for a balanced ecology. Bangladesh, however, has only 6% that is forested. 50% of the country’s forests have been destroyed in the last 20 years. This is known as deforestation. Some 30 years ago, the forest area in Tangail was 2,000 acres; today it is down to 1,000 acres. Similarly, the forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been over-exploited by the tribal people, mainly for Jhum cultivation. The increasing demand of land for agriculture, homes and industries caused by a population explosion has taken a heavy toll on the country’s forests since the early 20th Century.
The cutting down of trees for lumber that is used for building materials, furniture, and paper products. Forests are also cleared in order to accommodate expanding urban areas. Forests are also cut down in order to clear land for growing crops. Forests are also cut down in order to create land for grazing cattle. Trees are cut down in developing countries to be used as firewood or turned into charcoal, which are used for cooking and heating purposes. Forests are being clearing for oil and mining exploitation and to make highways and burn farming techniques, wildfires and acid rain.
Forests are home to many exotic species of plants and animals. These species lose their habitat, and this is a great loss to the ecology and the scientific community; Climatic change is perhaps the most devastating effect of deforestation. This has effects all over the world. It is a major reason for global warming. Soil erosion in the immediate area has secondary effects as the soil ultimately washes down to rivers and causes floods. Reduction of rainfall results from the lack of evaporation from leaves, as none remain, and from the reduction in the absorptive capacity of the ground.
(Shishir Reza, Environmental Analyst and Associate Member, Bangladesh Economic Association)
