LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Deforestation: Regions
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[One] of the more devastating forces behind deforestation is cattle grazing. With the international growth of fast food chains this seems to be an evident factor in the clearing of trees today. Large corporations looking to buy beef for hamburger and even pet food seek cheap prices and are finding them with the growth of cattle grazing (Heller 3). In the Amazon region of South America alone there are 100,000 beef ranchers (Heller 3). As the burger giants of industrialized society are making high demands for more beef, more forests are being torn down. Statistics from less than a decade ago, 1989, indicate that 15,000 km squared of forests are used expressly for the purpose of cattle grazing (Myers 32).
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The Min River is an example of the affect of deforestation on moisture. The Min River, flowing out of the Min Mountains in Sichuan, is the largest tributary of the Yangzi River. During the Yuan Dynasty, the upper reaches of the Min River valley were 50 percent forested. However, by 1950 forest cover had declined to 30 percent, and by 1980 to only 18.8 percent. This decrease in forest cover produced a number of changes in the environment of this region. For example, in the 1970s the level of summer precipitation along the river's upper reaches declined by 8 to 20 percent.
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Frontier purchased the land to save it from potential deforestation by local loggers. The shade of the woodland ecosystem will now continue to protect a variety of wild medicinal herbs, with additional herbs cultivated for the purposes of research. Noted grower and researcher Tim Blakely has been retained as the manager of the Center to work on projects with professionals, university students, regional farmers, and volunteers. An existing house will be developed into a botanical education site and lab to facilitate research and information sessions.
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In 1984 Salati and Vose warned about the consequences of deforestation in regional climatic patterns, concluding that the present state of equilibrium could be broken. Thus augmenting the risk of natural forest fires in some areas, and increasing the frequency and degree of flooding in others, especially in the lower Amazon. They recommended against large-scale clearance for pastures or crops that would precipitate these regional climatic changes, and offered alternatives such as sustainable development of forest resources. Through managed forestry and agroforestry techniques, plantations of rubber, jacaranda, palm, cocoa and coffee under shade, would not diminish the canopy (Salati and Vose 1984).
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Accurate information on forest extent and the location and rates of deforestation, combined with socioeconomic information and an understanding of the processes of land cover change, are crucial to develop an understanding of the future of Central African forests. Establishing national and regional systems for tracking rates and distribution of forest transformation is important as a tool for land-use planning, and will be a requirement for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Global Climate Change if ratified. Currently, little technical and institutional capacity is available in the region to develop such estimates due to the lack of funding for training and infrastructure.
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Since 2004, the deforestation rate has fallen by 49%. In 2004-2005, the area deforested in the Amazon region was 18,793 square kilometres; fallling back in 2005-2006 to 14,039 square kilometres. Of the nine states that make up the Amazon region, seven have witnessed a reduction against last year (table,
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