Page 155 - Encyclopedia Of World History

deforestation 505

Forest worker felling tree at Ellakanda
plantation block, a trial cable-logging site at
Bandarawela, Sri Lanka.

During these centuries deforestation was also well
underway in Europe itself, which was being colonized
internally. This was particularly true in the mixed-forest
zone of central European Russia, where over 67,000
square kilometers were cleared between around 1700
and 1914.
The insatiable demand in all societies for new land to
grow crops and settle agriculturalists has been matched The most publicized deforestation—the deforestation
by a rising demand for the products of the forest them- everyone thinks of when the word is mentioned—
selves. For example, the European quest for strategic occurred after 1950. Since then the temperate coniferous
naval stores (masts, pitch, tar, turpentine) and ships’ tim- softwood forests have about kept up with the demands of
bers made major inroads into the forests of the Baltic lit- industrial societies for supplies of timber and pulp. But
toral from the fifteenth century onward and those of the the focus of deforestation has shifted firmly to the tropi-
southern United States after about 1700. Alternative cal world. Here, better health and nutrition have resulted
construction timbers like teak and mahogany were uti- in a population explosion and an additional 3.5–4.0 bil-
lized from the tropical hardwood forests since the begin- lion people. These are often landless people who have
ning of the eighteenth century. moved deeper into the remaining forests and farther up
steep forested slopes.They have no stake in the land and
The Last Hundred Years therefore little commitment to sustainable management.
The pace of transformation increased during the first half In addition chain saws and trucks have moved felling
of the twentieth century. In the Western world demands from the province of the large firm to the enterprising
for timber accelerated. New uses (pulp, paper, packaging, individual. Since 1950 about 5.5 million square kilome-
plywood, chipboard) and relatively little substitution of ters of tropical forests have disappeared, Central and
other materials boosted use, while traditional uses in Latin America being classic examples. In addition, the
energy production, construction, and industry continued tropical hardwood forests are being logged out for con-
to loom large. The indispensable and crucial nature of structional timber at a great rate, while wood is cut for
timber in many Western economies gave it a strategic domestic fuel in prodigious quantities in Africa, India,
value akin to that of petroleum in economies today. In the and Latin America. Globally fuel wood–cutting now
tropical world the massive expansion of population by roughly equals saw timber extraction—about 1.8 billion
more than half a billion on a base of 1.1 billion resulted cubic meters annually compared to 1.9 billion cubic
in extensive clearing for subsistence, accompanied by an meters. Cutting wood for fuel is forecast to rise rapidly in
expansion of commercial plantation agriculture. In all line with world population increase.
perhaps 2.35 million square kilometers of tropical forest
were lost between 1920 and 1949.The only encouraging The Future
feature in the global picture during these years was the The history of deforestation is long and complex, and is
reversion of farmland to forest. This had begun in the a significant portion of world history. It is one of the main
eastern United States with the abandonment of “difficult” causes of terrestrial transformation, whereby humankind
and hard-to-farm lands in New England in favor of has modified the world’s surface, a process that is now
easier-to-farm open grasslands, and continued with the reaching critical proportions. One thing is certain: with
abandonment of some cotton and tobacco growing lands an ever-increasing world population (another 2–3 billion
in the southern States. A similar story unfolded in north- by 2020), many will want to exploit resources and the
ern Europe with “marginal” farms. process of deforestation will not end. Others will want to