Raja Ramesh 1/25/10 Pd 1 Deforestation in Angola Can you imagine a world devoid of trees?

The residents of Angola and surrounding countries such as Cameroon and other Sub-Saharan countries face a growing problem with deforestation. The people of these countries are heavily reliant on wood for fuel and fire. Ironically Angola has a huge supply of oil offshore. Only the inhabitants of Luanda, the capital of Angola, have access to this oil. Most of the citizens of Angola are peasants who live in rural areas. They are forced to use wood for their needs. Deforestation is one of the biggest problems Angola currently faces and needs to be solved immediately. Although deforestation has been going on for as long as anyone can remember, it intensified greatly in 1972 when Angolas civil war began. One and a half million people were displaced as a result of the civil war. These people were forced into using wood for all their needs. The war itself also destroyed a lot of land. Another factor that contributed to the deforestation of forests in Angola is because of lack of land ownership. This means that the people who are responsible for the land which is home to the trees are irresponsible with it and let it be cut down by greedy loggers and displaced people. As a result of trying to fix this problem some Sub-Saharan countries are trying to reform their governments. Since the governments are corrupt and give control of the land to loggers and not to local citizens. Before the overall political reform can take place communities are trying to

win women and other minorities rights. The deforestation in Angola has proved to be a catalyst for political and social reform. The corrupt governments of Sub-Saharan Africa sell contracts of the forests to industrial loggers. As a result of this the economy doesnt benefit from the sales of wood and the communitys cannot use the wood for their own purposes. The logging of the forests benefits only two groups: the corrupt government and the industrial loggers. The biggest and most obvious impact of deforestation in Angola is the negative impact on the environment. Many of the forests cut down are important rainforests, of comparable worth to the Amazon. As a result of the loss of forest cover increases land erosion. This is especially present in the central highlands of Angola where fertile soil uncovered by trees is washed away by rains during the rainy seasons. This decreases the already miniscule fertile land in Angola causing many to go hungry. Another hostile effect of deforestation is it contributes to Global Warming. There are four main solutions on the board for fixing the problem of deforestation in Angola and other Sub-Saharan countries. The first is to regulate the commercial logging

industry. This could be a global law that bans the foresting of certain rare trees, a complete ban on cutting down trees, an agreement to reduce deforestation by a certain amount each year, or regulation of the logging industry to recycle more and cut trees down less. Although this is a good solution it is not the best. The second is to protect forests. This could be done by creating national parks or forest reserves. An idea that has worked in the past is that a donor country pays off an amount of another countries debt in return for an agreement not to develop an area of forest.

The third is to correct the human involvement in the problem.

Countries could enable

individual ownership of land. This would mean individuals would want to take care of their land better because they get a personal benefit from maintaining their land. In addition countries could educate Angolan subsistence farmers about things like maintaining land, land erosion and provide them with fertilizer and machinery. Also fees could be imposed on fuel wood. This would make fuelwood less appealing thus decreasing its use. The final possible solution is slow the growth rate in Angola and other Sub-Saharan countries. One of the major reasons Angolas population growth rate is so high is because people have a lot of kids because they fear that their kids will die. Countries can fix this by educating women. Studies have shown that a womens health rate is directly proportional to her chance of fertility. Therefore by educating women in regard to their health, countries can improve their countries socially and improve the fertility rate. In the end both of these benefits would also lead to a decrease in deforestation and subsequent land erosion. This is by far the best solution because it helps make developing African countries self-sufficient and is a good long term solution to deforestation in Angola and other Sub-Saharan. Finding a solution to deforestation has many benefits. First and foremost, Global

Warming will decrease. Also it will help countries get rid of corruption. Finally, women and minorities will get the rights that they deserve.