STOP, DON`T CUT IT DOWN: Deforestation.
Deforestation is the removal of trees or plants from a specific area or place without replacing them again. This often leaves the area desolate, arid and worse can lead to desertification. Most often, the trees are chopped down for commercial reasons. This include but is not limited to trees being used for making expensive household tools such as sofas, tables, cupboards and other goods. At times, people do also chop down trees for fuel consumption purposes for instance firewood, to build houses and to clear land for cultivation purposes. The fear doesn`t necessary lies in chopping down the trees, but the rate at which this is being done and the degree or extent to which these trees are allowed to recover and grow back at this places.
Its estimated that Namibia`s rosewood forests could disappear in the next 20 years if the large-scale timber harvesting continues at the current rate, environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has warned. Some of Namibia`s best forests are found in the Kavango west, Zambezi region and Kavango east, and its reported alone that about 68 000 rare trees were illegally chopped down in kavango east. According to the ministry of environment, he stressed that Namibia is an arid country and this makes our forestry and hardwood resources even more precious. Hence, we need to manage them properly and sustainably. Furthermore he said, Namibia is not like other tropical rainforest countries where you can undertake large-scale commercial timber harvesting.
In its entirety, deforestation can be devastating and can have a long and serious effects on our land, ecosystem and above all to our climates. What are the consequences of deforestation?
First and foremost, trees supplies us with oxygen. Plants make their own foods during the process of photosynthesis and during the process, oxygen is released as a byproduct. The more trees we cut down, the less will the availability of oxygen be available in the air and ironically there will be an increased amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere.
Lack of habitat
Trees plays a major role as they make up the habitat of birds, insects and other living organisms. Cutting them down without replacement will in one way or the other affect the animals and overall affect the ecosystem.
Trees or plants are unique, in such a sense that their roots plays a bigger role by enabling the soil to be held together. The trees anchor the soil with their roots, hence if they are chopped down; it will result in a widespread of erosion throughout those specific areas.
Whether it’s from logging, agricultural production and other economic activities, deforestation adds more atmospheric CO2 than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world`s roads. When trees are felled, they release the carbon they are storing into the atmosphere, where it mingles with greenhouse gases from other sources and contributes to global warming.
Deforestation is real and its effects and consequences are real too, hence let’s not be ignorant of the topic at hand but join hands and work together to ensure that we end deforestation.