The Ecology Book

257

affected. Concern for the rain forest

was first raised in the 1970s when

activist Chico Mendes—who went

on to become a founding member of

Brazil’s National Council of Rubber

Tappers—called on the Brazilian

government to establish forest

reserves, from which local people

could extract natural products,

such as nuts, fruits, and fibers,

sustainably. Mendes’s campaign,

which eventually cost him his life,

highlighted the ecological damage

wreaked by forest clearance.

Human need

The human race has used trees from

its earliest days. In Neolithic times,

they were cut down for fuel and

to construct shelters and fencing.

Five-thousand-year-old stone axes

for chopping wood have been

found, as well as ax factories from

the same era in Europe and North

America. During the Middle Ages,

however, as human populations

expanded rapidly in western Europe

between 1100 and 1500, extensive

deforestation took place. Forests

were cleared to make way for

agriculture, and wood was used to

build homes and boats, and to make

bows, tools, and other implements.

Trees were cut down on an

industrial scale in central Europe

and England to produce charcoal,

which became an important fuel

(until replaced by coal) because

it burns at higher temperatures

than wood. An early example

of sustainable production was

practiced in England, where many

woods were managed as coppices

whose trees were partially cut

back and then allowed to regrow

to create a cyclical supply of

charcoal. Even so, by the 17th

century England had to import

wood for shipbuilding from the

Baltic nations and New England

in the US.

Primeval forest clearance

accelerated globally between 1850

and 1920, with the biggest losses in

North America, the Russian empire,

and South Asia. In the 20th century,

the focus shifted to the tropics,

especially to tropical rain forest,

half of which has been destroyed

since 1947, with the proportion of

the land that it covers having fallen

from 14 percent to 6 percent.

It is estimated that an area

equivalent to 27 soccer fields

is lost from forests globally each

minute. Some regions have been

hit harder than others. In the

Philippines, for instance, 93 percent

of tropical broadleaf forest

has been removed; 92 percent

of Atlantic forest in Brazil has gone;

92 percent of temperate coniferous

forest in southwest China has

disappeared; and 90 percent of dry

broadleaf forest in California has

been cleared.

Effects on biodiversity

Recent estimates suggest that

almost half of all forest clearance

is carried out by subsistence ❯❯

THE HUMAN FACTOR

Chico Mendes

Born in 1944, the son of one

of the 50,000-strong “Rubber

Army” who tapped rubber for

use in the Allied war effort in

World War II, Mendes started

work as a rubber tapper at the

age of nine. Influenced by

priests from the progressive

Liberation Theology

movement, he helped found a

branch of the Workers’ Party

and became leader of the

Rubber Tappers’ Union.

As large areas of Brazil’s

rain forest were cleared to

make way for cattle ranches,

Mendes publicized the

tappers’ fight to save the

forest. He went to

Washington, D.C., to persuade

Congress and the World Bank

that cattle-ranching projects

should not be funded. Instead,

hr proposed that forest areas

be protected as “extractive

reserves”—public land

managed by local communities

with the right to harvest forest

products sustainably. Cattle

ranchers saw his movement as

a threat, and one, Darcy Alves,

shot him dead in 1988. After

his death, the first of many

such reserves was established,

covering 2.5 million acres

(1 million hectares) of forest

around Xapuri.

See also: Biodiversity and ecosystem function 156–157 ■ Climate and vegetation

168–169 ■ Global warming 202–203 ■ A holistic view of Earth 210–211

We are unable to

remain silent in the face

of so much injustice.

Chico Mendes

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