Forest Conservation - Essay Example

What is the ideal definition of forest conservation? What has been the meaning and idea behind calls for conservation of forests in Canada? Do we need to move towards sustainable harvest or is the protection of natural resources and wild species more important? Are conservation of natural resources like timber and wild species contradictory with sustainable development of well being of the common mass? In this context, what can we say about the Boreal Forest? Forest conservation can be defined as an integrated, well developed process of protection, preservation, management and restoration of forest. Time demands a shift from the visual way of defining forest as any land use with sustainable tree cover because it fails to encapsulate the irreplaceable value additive role it plays since the dawn of civilization. So the concept of Conservation of forest should be augmented with the concept of possible continuation of human civilization in order to emphasize its true importance. So the conservation of forest can be said to be a result generating collection of principles, processes and practices to ensure the maintenance of the existing forests by minimizing anthropogenic (human inducted) effects, restoration of the lost ones and immune it from the poison of human greed in order to ascertain human existence. Canada is a vast country with one of the lowest population per unit area in the world. This big country has got the nature’s bounty in almost every sense, from minerals to forestry. Many of these recourses are yet to be commercially extracted. Hostile climate is playing a role of ‘blessing in disguise’ at some parts of the country to ward off such venture as it is not commercially viable to do so at the existing level of technological prowess. The rest of the country is susceptible to gradually increasing human needs and more truly human greed. Canada, being a moderately populated country, its internal need for resources may not demand full exploitation of its natural resources but the changing global scenario puts pressure to do so in the context of globalization. The natural resources of country A is no longer seen from the context of its internal demand but from international demand. This internationalization of demand is virtually pushing Canadian forests to the brink of extinction. (Loo, 2007) Forest plays multidimensional nurturing role in nature. Forest plays roles of carbon trapping (formally known as carbon sequestration), supply of wood, and from natural kidney to sedimentation reduction. (Markels and Barber, 2002) Forest plays a vital role beyond its aesthetic appeal and bio diversity. (Forests Canada 2008) Canadian forests are under threat due to commercial exploration of oils and minerals. Most of the probable exploitable areas lie within the forests and the choice between them has become binary. (Forests Canada 2008) The choice between forest and other natural resources has become mutually exclusive. Moreover, most of the Canadian forests are not under the legal arm of ‘reserve’ forest. This makes Canadian forest more vulnerable .The importance of forest at the time of global warming, water quality and resource management problem does not need any introduction. Reduction in Forest will aggravate global warming and its associated problems. Problems associated with drinking water shortage, increase in frequency of floods will become more prevalent. Canadian forests does not play only regional role in the aforesaid areas but also in a global domain. The contribution in carbon sequestering by the Canadian forest to the world climate is highly considerable and any depletion is bound to affect global climate as a whole. GEMCO (Greenhouse Emissions Management Consortium) is found to manage and monitor the forest and environmental quality. It is very important to note that forest is also associated with the wellbeing of other species and human wellbeing in long term cannot exclude the wellbeing of others. So for a sustainable growth i.e. growth that can be maintained in a healthy manner and on a long term basis, depends on the success of forest conservation. Forest are an inexorable part of ecosystem and human being, irrespective of its so-called advancement can never (and should not!) able to develop a mutual exclusion with nature. So it is perhaps more than rational to consolidate the mutual dependence. The Canadian forests with their own subtle characteristics, volumetic coverage deserves more than enough attention in this time of ecological transition. Economic growth is conventionally considered to be negatively correlated to environmental well being. The continuation of some so called economically productive activities is sometimes immanent due to increase in population and human need as a whole. (Forest Canada, 2008) This concept is acceptable only up to a certain time and this concept of time frame is very important in economic or any other decision making scenario. Since it is already well established that human beings are inseparably a part of nature, any adverse effects on nature that destroys the equilibrium of the ecological system is bound to bounce back with same or most of the times with more negative impact. So it is vital to determine the times up to which this trade off is practicable. Nature is already showing the red signal in numerous ways like increase in frequency of natural disasters, gradual increase in global temperature level and associated side effects like melting of polar ice caps. As a result there is a rise in water level. So this is definitely the time to ponder over the consequences of our activity. It is the time to think about the rationally behind the word human need. The so called need that is simply ascertaining inoperable future disaster, itself needs a more reflective analysis about its true nature. Since the dawn of civilization human beings give too much importance about its self interest at a cost of being oblivious about the well being of others. The time has arrived to reverse the way of thinking in order to prove its self imposed superiority over others.Top of Form 15Bottom of FoTop of Form 17 The long term growth of civilization depends on optimum level of exploration and management of resources. This optimum level is determined subject to various associated benefit and cost. Conventionally this BCA (i.e. benefit cost analysis) does not include the newly evolved environmental cost. At the starting the environment was in its pristine state and human induced changed was not so affective to the environment .so for all practical cases it was not considered even in the past few decades ago. The tendency to omit this cost at the present context of environmental impact can be catastropic. When the environmental cost is augmented with conventional decision making tools the true picture can be clear. The well being of the common mass should not be emphasized only from a hedonistic standpoint i.e. the more we consume the more we develop. The fundamental fallacy of this is even very clearly reflected in the present mortgage crisis in the US. Any consumption that does not assimilate is bound to give negative results. Conventional concepts like mutually opposite relationship between economic growth and environmental quality should be analyzed from a modern viewpoint. It is true that a certain level of environmental degradation is almost unavoidable. The challenge lies in possible minimization of this level with the best possible use of technological, legal and economic framework. Well being of the mass faces the maximum obstacle due to age old deprivation of the resources already explored. So the sordid condition of the commoner is a distributional problem not a scarcity driven one. At a cost of being more non diplomatic, projecting the environmental quality management as a barrier to mass welfare is a cunning approach to put human greed in the envelope of development. As mentioned earlier welfare of the masses is a problem of access not of availability. It is true that when supply will increase the probable accessibility should also increase, but the question lies, in what proportion? So here also the problem of skewed distribution comes. Since there will be differentiated input of factors of production, there will be differentiated level of sharing the fruits of development among the providers of these factors. This is the story of most of the developmental work. This analysis gives an intra-group self-conflicting image of development. The next analysis will include the well known negative impacts of environmental degradation. The continuation of environmental degradation will more than surely ensure the extinction of human civilization. There is no doubt that existence is the necessary condition of any real system. Human society being a social system its basic existence is necessary condition at any case. Probably there is no sufficiency condition for any complex social system like human civilization. If we consider development (even an unskewed, equitable) a condition for stability it is definitely fall in the domain of sufficiency. Necessity is the prerequisite of sufficiency. This basic logical analysis throws light on the immediate steps toward environmental quality control even at a cost of development. Once the environmental degradation will be under control, the trade off between the nature and human can be re started with due care. At this moment human beings are paying the due for the misdeed they have done to the mother earth. Indiscriminate industrialization, urbanization, deforestation have resulted the present state of pollution. It would not be so precarious if we would have started the environmental awareness with due care at an earlier state. It is true that in practical point of view rate of development may suffer due to stringent environmental regulation but it is unavoidable considering the future of the civilization. This decline of growth should not be treated just from the angle of cost but that of the future benefit we can get from it. In this context, the future of Boreal forest is of utmost importance to mankind. (Nature Canada, n.d.) It has ascertained how the unmatched biodiversity, vast presence and associated irreplaceable environmental role play by this forest talks about itself and about the importance of preserving it. Industrialization will bring unavoidable regional fragmentation of the forest. This fragmentation will fragment the natural habitat. This will adversely affect the subtle ecosystem. All the related vital environmental impact will affect the entire area with a combined and multiplicative way due to diverse ‘developmental’ activities. So the environmental quality will fall sharply. Boreal forests being one of the vital sources of oxygen on the earth, kidney to the entire urban Canada, its fragmentation will adversely affect not only the entire region but also the world climate. The negative impact of global warming is already known to us and its gradual rise will be a matter of concern. Environmental research suggests that a lot of harm has already been done to the nature and anything more will place it on the non reversible side (i.e. future recovery or remedial measure will fail to address the problem properly) So the importance of the Boreal forest is not only relevant to the Canada or its contiguous area but also to the world. It is basically a global problem. It deserves and demands global attention, policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and control. Considering the forests, huge environmental impact, no market based instruments should be allowed to use because even an alternative forestry is incapable to replenish the negative environmental impact generated by its depletion. Stringent policy instruments together with conciousness, limited participatory forest management by the aboriginals can ensure a feasible solution. Boreal forest must be preserved in its pristine form irrespective of the projected commercial aspects of its embedded resources simply because our sustainabity depends on that of its. Exploration that curtails the duration of existence is more than exploitation and must be stopped at any cost. References 1. Forests Canada (2008), Information for Action, available at: http://www.informaction.org/cgi-bin/gPage.pl?menu=menua.txt&main=forcan_intro.txt&s=Forests/Canada (accessed on March 19, 2009) 2. Loo, J. (2007) Forest conservation in Canada, Natural Resources Canada, available at: http://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/index/conservation (accessed on March 19, 2009) 3. Markels, M. and R.T. Barber (2002) "Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide by Ocean Fertilization", Environmental Challenges and Greenhouse Gas Control for Fossil Fuel Utilization in the 21st Century. Edited by M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer et al., Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pg 122. 4. Nature Canada, (n.d.), Parks and Protected Areas, available at: http://www.naturecanada.ca/parks_borealforest.asp (accessed on March 19, 2009) Read More