Logging the Rainforest :: science

Logging the RainforestA recipe for local and worldwide disasterIndustrial logging is the main cause of forest wrong throughout the tropics. It is the starting point of a process stretching to the forests final exam destruction and substitution by agricultural crops, cattle raising or monoculture tree plantations. These ar well k at presentn facts supported by more than than sufficient evidence.Even more importantly, industrial logging destroys the livelihoods of forest and forest-dependent battalions who, deprived of the resources they depend on, become poor. Contrary to the official discourse, logging does not lead to development it results in impoverishment and social disintegration. Women are disproportionately moved(p) by logging activities, which provide them with no employment opportunities while depleting the resources they traditionally use and manage.In tropical countries, the process begins with the violation of the territorial rights of indigenous peoples and some other traditional communities, who are the righteous owners of the forest. As most people confronted with such situation would, they frequently resist the entry of logging companies to their territories, which in turn usually results in state repression to protect the companies legal rights.woodland destruction, human rights abuses, poverty creation is the local part of the equation. On the other side there is wealth creation for transnationals and local elites and an abundant put out of cheap --though very valuable-- raw material to provide rich consumers with neat toilet seats, sumptuous coffins and other equally important symbols of wealth.Some actors are crucial to make logging and end-consumers meet, among which the World Bank, the Inter American, African and Asian Development Banks and the International Monetary Fund. The banks provide the necessary funding for the driveway infrastructure needed to access the forest, while the IMF --as well as the banks-- burden tropical countries into increasing natural resources exports in order to ensure foreign debt payments. Being forests one of the main resources available, they are at the front crimp of exports and are later substituted by other export oriented crops self-aggrandising in place of the forest. Another very powerful player has now been added to ensure that transnational corporations make wood flow to the consumer markets the World betray Organization.The whole process leading to forest destruction is clearly at odds with the international communitys commitments to protect biodiversity and to counter climate change and desertification, concur upon in three legally-binding conventions. At the same time, it also violates human rights commitments, including the aegis of indigenous peoples rights, and the commitments agreed upon at the 1995 Social Summit and the 1995 Conference on Women.