The rain forest of Central Africa is after the Amazon the second largest tropical forest area in the world. This Region and the adjacent forest in Africa’s “green belt” have become the destruction of areas of the new focal point of the global Forest. Since 2010, 3.9 million hectares of forest are lost every year in Africa, the most recent forest report by the UN food and agriculture organization, FAO, shows.
In their summary, the authors provide the “high rate of Deforestation” with the strong growth of the population in connection with the “need to preserve the livelihoods of small-scale agriculture”. Africa’s farmers for the dramatic losses of tropical rain forest are so responsible, because they always need to produce more food? Quite so simple it is not.
plantation economy instead of “smallholder agriculture”
not every form of Cultivation, which looks at first glance, is actually small-scale farming, says Jutta Kill. The biologist is an expert on forest use in the global South, and advises social networks, foundations and Non-government organisations.
“are Nowhere else in the palm oil and Rubber plantations expanded in the last few years as quickly as in West and Central Africa. Here there is the tendency that corporations employ many of the so-called “outgrowers”. The small farmers who produce exclusively for the company, as employees on their own Land. In the stats it shows up as a ‘deforestation caused by population pressure’, but it’s industrial use.”
for example, cocoa growing: According to the forest protection organization, 90 percent of the world’s cocoa is produced and operated long-Distance harvesting of Small or family. This is also the world’s leading cocoa-exporting nation Cote d’ivoire (ivory coast), explains Friedel Huetz-Adams, officer for West Africa at the Bonn and Südwind-Institute for Economics and Ecumenism.
chocolate hunger of the industrialized Nations destroyed the forest
At just 7 cents, the cost of cocoa is currently in a bar of milk chocolate. Four to five cents to come in for cocoa farmers in West Africa, expects the Huetz-Adams in the DW Interview. “Cocoa prices are so low that the farmers try as much as possible of the surfaces down, and if the soils are drained, you continue and clear the next area.”
The result is that There is hardly any rain forest in the country. Since 1960, the Côte d has lost’ivoire, according to information from District 80 percent of their forests. “A more sustainable management, such as the regeneration of existing land instead of further deforestation, can afford to the farmers only if they get more money for their products,” says of the South wind-speaker.
Only the rain forest-free products for the EU?
this is Julia Christian, the European Union, with its Green Deal in the duty. The lawyer is responsible for climate change and environmental issues in Distance in Brussels. The international organization wants to bring the protection of forests in the EU-policy.
“What is true in the case of tropical timber, must also apply to other products, such as cocoa, coffee, bananas, rubber or palm oil. If you rain forest are cleared, you should are not allowed to be imported into the EU,” urges Christian in an interview with DW. As the third largest consumer market in the world, the EU had a huge impact on the state of the environment worldwide.
Legal or illegal: of tropical wood remains a sought-after
Illegally logged rainforest wood to stay despite a number of import bans in the EU, it is a Problem, says Johannes Zahnen, a consultant for forest policy at the WWF Germany. Because, according to EU timber regulation EUTR, the legal origin has to be demonstrated only at the time of importation. It is not even in the EU, the timber is automatically considered legal. “The result is that traders introduce, especially about such EU countries of wood, where there are few controls in place,” criticized teething.
have explained several African governments in their forest to protect areas where large-scale deforestation are only possible to a limited extent. However, smallholder farming, the so-called “artisanal logging” is often allowed to continue. It’s a loophole for corporations, says Jutta Kill.
“young men from the surroundings of wood-dealers saws with chain and other equipment equipped. The felled wood is bought and the dealer will arrange transportation. Formally, the a’s, then deforestation due to increased population pressure ‘in the statistics. In fact, this is an industrial use.”
“corruption and deforestation go Hand-in-Hand”
And also officially companies felling rights in the rain forest. It was only in February of this year, Cameroon’s government, Logging, awarded Forest concessions for 150,000 hectares in the EEO.
The population had not been informed of their rights to their traditional lands, and to say had been ignored, criticized, Raoul Monsemboula, regional coordinator for West Africa at the environmental organization Greenpeace against the DW. This happens again and again, when the forests were state-owned. Governments took advantage of the forest again and again, to prove to political supporters Like.
“We must end the widespread corruption in Africa, and ensure that the forest comes into possession of the local population, so you can take care of him,” demands Monsemboula. “The world’s best protected forests are those managed by the local population,” confirmed Julia Christian from a Distance.
education, women’s rights, and fair prices against the population pressure
And, Yes, Africa’s rapidly growing population, the natural resources end of the continent is threatened. According to UN projections, Africa’s population will double by 2050, from today, well over a billion people, 2.2 billion people more than.
This could only change if women and girls were receiving better education and a greater say, says Raoul Monsemboula. “You need to know the methods of family planning and access to contraceptives have.”
in addition to more education, the fall in fertility rates, could be more emphasized Obed Owusu-Addai, co-founder of the environmental organization EcoCare in Ghana. “Poor farmers in Ghana need to have many children, to their country farm. This will change only if agriculture becomes more productive.” Only when the Building got higher prices for their products, you can make investments to generate more income.
in other words: For the conservation of the rainforest more than four or five cents per bar of chocolate must remain in Africa.
author: Jeannette Cwienk
climate activists in the Corona-crisis-PCP climate activists in the Corona-crisis
*The post “Dramatic deforestation: Why the disappearance of Africa’s forests?” published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
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