Background Information: Deforestation
Like the rest of the world, the Pacific region is experiencing rapid deforestation and its related problems. Research has confirmed the global importance of forests and the need to preserve them.
It has been estimated that the original area covered by forests was about 6 billion hectares. According to a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the total area presently covered by forests amounts to some 4 billion hectares. Half of this is accounted for by the tropical forests, one-third is covered by northern forests, and about one-sixth represents temperate forests. The total amount of carbon stored in these forests is equal to that presently contained in the atmosphere, i.e., about 700 billion tons.
Clearing and burning of forests can cause irreparable damage to the soil, environment, and can affect the climate. Deforestation increases the atmospheric carbon dioxide by removing the source of carbon dioxide uptake. Commercial logging, establishment of new agricultural plantations, shifting agriculture, cyclones, fire, land and road developments, all contribute to deforestation. Forests are important not only for their role in maintaining biological diversity, but also because of their role in global climate. The forests absorb carbon dioxide carbon dioxide generated by human activities. The present massive destruction of tropical forests at a rate of 17 million hectares per year (11.3 million in 1980) could lead to a greater buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This would contribute to the global warming effect.
Deforestation also affects the soil and local climate. It reduces the evaporative cooling that takes place both from soil and from plant life. This can result in increased soil erosion and runoff of rainfall, flooding, and sedimentation of rivers, lagoons, and reefs. In fact, the total ambient near surface humidity is drastically modified. Rainfall is no longer intercepted by the forest foliage to be recirculated to the atmosphere, but falls immediately to the ground to be transported, perhaps directly, to the ocean in runoff or else rapidly made inaccessible in the short term by it being contributed to the underground water table. Moreover, there are no longer the deep roots of the former forest trees to return it by transpiration to the atmosphere. Again the landscape is changed, usually permanently. The albedo, or reflective capacity of the surface, is greatly increased with all that such a change can be inferred for the local climate. Uncontrolled and poorly managed clearing of forests can have devastating effects on the climate, both regionally and globally.
