LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Deforestation: Trees
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There is no cure for deforestation. Sure, many people talk of reforestation; ... that is just not a true solution. Although replanting the forests that have been destroyed seems like a good idea, it actually does no good. Often times the new trees are not the same species as the originals. Also, by the time the trees grow and mature, the soil has already lost much of the nutrients it once had. Old forests and new forests are not the same and it is the old forest that need to be protected.
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Logging is one of the major causes of deforestation. Over 80% of the world's ancient forests have been destroyed or degraded by logging (Figure 4; Greenpeace, 2001A). Many of the forests in Southeast Asia have existed since dinosaurs have walked the earth, roughly 70 million years ago (RIC, 2000A). The most commercially valuable trees are normally found in ancient forests, because they have some of the highest biodiverse ecosystems producing larger than average trees. In almost all substantial old-growth (ancient) forests, the primary cause of natural forest loss is certainly the timber industry (WWF, 2000).
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A key cause of deforestation in Heilongjiang province has been commercial lumber production. Heilongjiang is China's largest supplier of lumber for commercial use, producing 465 million m3 between 1949 and 1986. To produce this quantity of lumber the province required 734 million m3 of growing stock. However, lumber production for commercial use is not the sole contributor to deforestation in Heilongjiang. Of the 795,000 ha deforested since 1976, only 297,000 ha were actually used for the production of commercial lumber. Slash and burn farming accounts for an additional 62,000 ha, and unauthorized felling of trees accounts for 199,000 ha. Six thousand ha of Quercus Mongolica were destroyed for the culture of silkworms and edible fungi, and 125,000 ha were cleared for construction of railroads, highways, and high voltage lines.
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Forests have already disappeared in many parts of the world and deforestation rates worldwide during the 1980s were as high as 15 million hectares per year for tropical forests alone. In most parts of the world deforestation accelerated during the 1990s. It should be noted in this respect that deforestation rates tend to be obscured by the fact that there is no clear definition of forests. The latest definition given by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, formally the main body responsible for forests within the UN system, is so broad that most green urban areas can be considered major forest eco-systems. Thus, the replacement of valuable primary forest eco-systems by monoculture plantations - in many cases an alien species such as eucalyptus or pine trees - or by biologically poor forests is seldom taken into account. Europe, for example, lost most of its primary forests during the 19th century.
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Although for a long time the government of Ethiopia was not controlling deforestation, the current government is far more aware of the costs of environmental degradation. In rural areas, the government realized that if the deforestation continues the country will be in a worse shape. So the government began teaching the people about the benefits of forests and encouraging the people to plant more trees and to protect what they have by providing them alternative home and agricultural materials. The interesting thing what they doing is if any person cut a tree, he or she need to plant one to replace that. Basically, the current government and people are working hard together to make their country a better place.
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Thirdly, the sense of urgency concerning deforestation in the Amazon resulted largely from the publication of projections based on premises that proved incorrect. One such trend analysis, made in the early 1980's, indicated that the states of Pará, Mato Grosso, Maranhão, Goiás and Rondônia would be completely deforested by 1990. Data obtained from satellite imagery show that in Rondônia, the most deforested of Amazonian states, not more than 12.6% had been cleared in 1990. The basic flaw of these predictions seems to have been the assumption that certain behaviors that are responsible for deforestation would continue to grow, when in fact this has not happened.
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