Posted by admin | Posted in trees,shrubs | Posted on 07-12-2010
Tags: beech trees height
LUNGS OF THE EARTH
All of us are familiar that colour green symbolizes newness and life. As soon as we say green we remember forests. But forests symbolize more than that, the totality of life on the earth. We associate forests usually with thousands of thick and huge trees, lush green canopy, wild beasts and dangerous reptiles. For some forest is just another place to mint money. We fail to realize that forests are much more than what we think or look at. Forest in itself is life, and also contains life. She shelters, nurtures and cares. Her motherly expression is remarkable. Busy people don’t stop to notice and recognize this reality. Forests are thought to have existed for some 15,000 years as the Ice Age came to an end. Gradually as the last great ice sheet trundled up towards the North Pole, the soil in Europe began to heat up again and plants and trees began to flourish.
The first trees to establish themselves in forests were the particularly hardy ones such as alders, birches, pines and spruces. Then the oak, beech and ash trees started to establish themselves. Forests evolved naturally because where the conditions are right for one tree to grow, other trees will also survive, so over time the area becomes a forest.
Why do we need to worry about Forests?
God’s Signature
Forests are the fruit of God’s creative action. It is His own signature of love for the world He created and as a special love for the human kind. He put in the forests everything that would support human beings and help him/her to be always grateful, loving and serving God. Forests symbolize God’s unconditional and overwhelming generosity. Its lush green colour symbolizes His continuous presence in every creature. He is a God who continuously labours in the world and in every creature.
Ecological Services
The services rendered by forests are termed as ecological services. It is so enormous that if we calculate the amount to be paid to the forests for the services that they render per annum it would surprise us. $33 Trillion / yr worth of services is provided by the forests.
Service $/ha/yr
- Nutrient storage 361
- Climate regulation 141
- Erosion control 96
- Recreation 66
- Others 305
This statistic was provided by the Nature magazine in 1997, after a research.
Forest systems provide services that, in their absence, would require huge capital or hinder human well-being. Some services to be mentioned are
• The regulation of water regimes by intercepting rainfall and regulating its flow through the hydrological system;
• The maintenance of soil quality and the provision of organic materials through leaf and branch fall;
• The limiting of erosion and protection of soil from the direct impact of rainfall;
• modulating climate; and
• being key components of biodiversity both in themselves and as a habitat for other species.
Economic services
Clearly, forests form the basis of a variety of industries including timber, processed wood and paper, rubber, and fruits. It supplies raw materials for the forest based industries. However, they also contain products that are necessary to rural agricultural communities.
Grazing occurs within forests, and local woodlands are used to satisfy basic needs. Rural people also grow crops on temporary plots within the forest, often on a rotational basis. These forest products contribute to a diverse rural economy and security when times are difficult. Therefore, the loss of these resources undermines the viability of agricultural practices in the developing world.
Socio-cultural services
For millennia, humanity has had a social and cultural basis for protecting nature. Forests are home to millions of people world-wide, and many of these people are dependent on the forests for their survival. In addition, many people have strong cultural and spiritual attachments to the forests. Therefore, forest destruction undermines the capacities of these people to survive economically, culturally and spiritually.
The issue of indigenous knowledge is also important. Many local people understand how to conserve and use forest resources. Spirituality is important as well. The Hindu viewpoint on nature, for example, is based on recognition that nature and its orders of life (such as trees, forests and animals) are all bound to each other. Thus we can understand services of forests within the Hindu cosmology to include religious values. Other indigenous cosmologies involve a highly-important role for forests and other components of the natural world. Thus, indigenous belief systems have a major protective role in a culture’s relationships with the natural world, and in nature’s relationship with a culture.
Scenic and landscape services and values
This more general set of services highlights ideas of aesthetics and beauty as components of services of forests. For example, the Himalayas provide a service within this context, and one within which ecotourism operates. From a tourist’s perspective, these values may be high on their decision making priorities, which would indicate protection of these services are important for ecotourism. Scenic and landscape values also may be important for residents.
Biodiversity
The other aspect for us to enjoy or wonder at the forests is because of its rich diversity of both flora and fauna. Biodiversity (biological diversity) reflects the number, variety and variability of living organisms and how these change from one location to another and over time. Biodiversity includes diversity within species (genetic diversity), between species (species diversity), and between ecosystems (ecosystem diversity). Is it possible for us to create new specie, or give life to something that can live? Human beings have not reached that height. We cannot bring back the species of plants and animals which have become extinct. We don’t realize the beauty of it when we have them. We repent after we lose. Forests are home for thousands of plants and animals they live harmoniously. This is the gift of only this planet.
About 1.75 million species of plants, animals and microbes have been examined named, and classified, but many more species have not yet been found or catalogued. Australian taxonomist Stork believes that there are 13 million species as yet undiscovered. Destruction of forests means destruction of so many lives.
Home of medicines
Living organisms provide us with many useful drugs and medicines. More than half of all prescriptions contain some natural products. The United Nations Development programme estimates the value of pharmaceutical products derived from developing world plants, animals and microbes to be more than $30 billion per year. For thousands of years the indigenous people of the island of Madagascar used an obscure plant, the rosy periwinkle, in their folk medicine, now one of the best known healers of leukemia.
How does it matter us?
Forest provides multiple benefits to environment, people, and animals. The list of benefits is as follows
• Forest cool air temperature by release of water vapor into the air.
• At day time trees generate oxygen and store carbon dioxide, which helps to clean air.
• Forest attracts wild life and offer food and protection to them.
• Forests offer privacy, reduce light reflection, offer a sound barrier and help guide wind direction and speed.
• Trees offer artistic functions such as creating a background, framing a view, complementing architecture, and so on.
• Well managed forests supply higher quality water with less impurity than water from other resources.
• Some forests raise total water stream, but this is not true for all forests
• Forests help in controlling the level floods.
• Forest provides different kind of wood which are used for different purposes like making of furniture, paper, and pencils and so on.
• Forest help in giving the direction of wind and its speed.
• Forest helps in keeping environment healthy and beautiful.
• Forests also minimize noise pollution.
• Forest helps the scientist to invent new medicine as forest has different kind or plants and herb.
Present Conditions of the World’s Forests
Forest areas cover approximately 3.95 billion ha, accounting for 30.2% of the total land area of the world. But the global forest area continues to diminish by 7.317 million ha annually (average from 2000 to 2005).
The most seriously affected areas are the tropical forests of South America, Africa and South-East Asia. But some temperate forests, especially in China, have increased their area. The contraction and expansion of forest areas vary widely between regions.
Brazil and Indonesia have experienced the largest losses by far. The rich tropical forests in these countries are rapidly disappearing. Next most badly affected are Sudan and Myanmar. The causes are deforestation and Illegal Logging, Over-harvesting of fuel wood, Non-Traditional Slash-and-Burn Farming, Forest fires.
Issues in Maintenance of Services of Forests
The wide range in services of forests highlights the diversity of forest “uses,” and reinforces the idea that, for many people, forests have more than economic value. Thus, we are sometimes left with the tension between diverse forest uses, which is intertwined with priorities and the way forests are valued.
The immediate value of forests for timber continues to dominate considerations of forest management by individuals, corporate owners and even governments that represent the public trust. The reasons are many, and include tax policies, ownership of land, tenure issues, economic exigencies, greed, and corruption. Some of the major issues related to services of forests are geopolitical
In conclusion I invite you to reflect on the questions how much would you pay to save a tropical rain forest? How much would your neighbor pay? You and your neighbor may not agree about what’s important in that forest. It’s not easy to put a price tag on a forest and every forest probably has a different value. It’s important, however, to understand the value of a natural resource if it’s to be preserved, continue functioning and effectively providing ecological services. If one starts understanding this then he or she would have an AH! Experience.
About the Author
Author:Lumnesh Swaroop SJ
He’s a student of environmental Science.
He is also an environmentalist in the making.
Visit;www.ksjwriters.co.cc
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