DEFORESTATION

IN JAMAICA

By: Kemone Jones

 What is deforestation?
The term deforestation is used to describe
the process of removing the trees in
forests and woodland and converting the
land to other use.
► Jamaica is experiencing one of the highest
rates of deforestation in the world, with
severe environmental consequences
attendant to the loss of its forests.
 Deforestation linked to mining, agriculture and
tourism
 At present, Jamaica’s lowlands have been
mostly cleared for agriculture, and overall
more than 75% of the original forest has been
lost. Remaining forest is largely secondary in
nature and only the mountain forest in the
most remote, inaccessible and steep part of the
island has survived undisturbed.
 The country has a sad record of local
deforestation speed, much of it due to the fast
growing tourism industry and agriculture
expansion, mainly coffee plantations. While the
tourism industry replaces beaches and forests
with newly built hotels and roads, inappropriate
agricultural practices on lands where forests
once grew have resulted in accelerated soil
erosion that cause downstream sedimentation
and flooding. Like a chain reaction, this has
caused the degradation of the coral reefs and
beaches that surround the island.
 Bauxite mining, the island’s second largest foreign
exchange earner after tourism, is considered to be the
single largest cause of deforestation in Jamaica. On
the one hand, this activity destroys large areas of
forest because bauxite is extracted by open cast
mining, which requires the complete removal of
vegetation and topsoil. But at the same time bauxite
mining is an indirect cause of deforestation through
the opening of access roads into forests. Once access
roads are cut, loggers, coal burners and yam stick
traders move in, taking the trees in and around the
designated mining areas. Mining is thus responsible
for extensive deforestation far beyond the mining
areas themselves.
 Environmental issues
The process of deforestation is often a complex
pattern of progressive fragmentation of the forests.
Mistakes of this sort could lead to forest destruction.
Along with this destruction is the
 heavy soil erosion
 greenhouse effect
 silting of rivers and dams
 flooding
 landslides
 extinction of many species
 denuded upland
 degraded watershed
 corals along the coast.
Environmental Issues caused by
Deforestation

 Trees absorb Carbon

Dioxide (CO2), helping
to reduce the amount of
carbon in the
atmosphere. Carbon is
one of the key causes
of global warming and
reducing these gases
will help to slow and
stop the greenhouse
effect.
 Trees are often cleared and burned; This is
referred to as slash and burn and means that the
wood from the trees is simply destroyed and not
put to any positive use. The burning of the wood
releases carbon into the atmosphere, releasing
harmful greenhouse gases, yet reducing the
number of trees that would have helped to
remove this from the atmosphere. Hence, fewer
forests means larger amounts of greenhouse
gases entering the atmosphere—and increased
speed and severity of global warming.
 Deforestation also drives climate change.
Forest soils are moist, but without
protection from sun-blocking tree cover
they quickly dry out. Trees also help
perpetuate the water cycle by returning
water vapor back into the atmosphere.
Without trees to fill these roles, many
former forest lands can quickly become
barren deserts.
• The forest provides us with many products
and important services. It stops soil
erosion, refreshes the air, and protect us
from typhoons and other calamities. But if
rampant deforestation is not controlled it
will result to several problems. In one way
or another, the denuded forests will back
fire and people will certainly lose to the
harmful effects of deforestation.
solutions
• The quickest solution to deforestation
would be to simply stop cutting down trees.
Though deforestation rates have slowed a
bit in recent years, financial realities make
this unlikely to occur.
• A more workable solution is to carefully
manage forest resources by eliminating
clear-cutting to make sure that forest
environments remain intact. The cutting
that does occur should be balanced by the
planting of enough young trees to replace
the older ones felled in any given forest.
A video presentation