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Chapter II - Sources of environmental degradation
Land clearance or land "reclamation"
The sources of land clearance
A case study in tropical deforestation: the "push-pull" effect in Dumoga Bone, Indonesia
Land clearance or land "reclamation"
Land Clearance or Land "Reclamation" is the first and perhaps the most irreversible form of environmental degradation. Once the bio-mass is stripped off, especially in the tropics, economic and social con sequences are severe and usually immediate. Loss of habitat can lead to the extinction of species and the disappearance of indigenous groups dependent upon forest resources for the survival of their culture and livelihood. Exposed soils, especially in the tropics, erode rapidly, and, in many cases, are subject to declining fertility and desertification; they also degrade the water quality of downstream communities, often contributing to flooding and silting of rivers and dams. Land clearance often extends to the coastal regions and into the sea itself. In Sri Lanka, for example, state sponsored development projects such as harbours and sea walls are reported to interfere with natural forces. Extensive damage has arisen from coral and sand mining and the exploitation of dugong for meat and turtles for meat and eggs, while coastal swamps have been destroyed for firewood by the local population.
The seriousness of the environmental degradation arising from land clearance can be seen from the fact that the developing countries already have lost approximately one half of their forests in this century. Worldwide, some 11 million hectares of tropical forests (moist and dry) were being cleared annually in the 1980's. By -the 1990's, satellite observations suggest that the annual clearance rate had risen to around 17-20 million hectares per year, of which about 2.0 million hectares were in Asia. 5 The total forest inventory of Asia and the Pacific area is about 800 million hectares. If present estimates are correct, the clearance rate is about 2.5% per year or 25% per decade.
5 World Bank, Forest Policy Paper, June 1991.
The consequence of these clearances in human terms is, according to the still controversial Gaia Theory, that:
By early next century, we could have destroyed 70 per cent of the forests and the remaining 30 per cent would not be enough to sustain the ecosystem. It would go to desert and there would be a refugee and famine problem the like of which we have never seen. 6
6 James Lovelock, Financial Times (London), August 17/18, p. 14.
The Sources of Land Clearance and subsequent deforestation are not simply driven by the profit motive. While it is in someone's financial interest to clear or "reclaim" land, it must also be understood that there are often a number of socio-economic factors that are influential in the process. In some cases, it is population pressure that drives people off marginal lands and onto forested areas. This shift is frequently aggravated by declining opportunities to earn a living on existing agricultural lands, because of diminishing fertility arising from misuse of the land or because cyclical or depressed tropical commodity prices force farmers to seek other income producing opportunities on newly cleared land. All too frequently, demand in- the developed countries for the products of the tropical forests creates new markets that attract loggers, farmers and ranchers to the forests. Thus, local peoples are both pushed into the forest by the expanding population and the contraction of opportunities to earn a living in the traditional way and pulled by new markets for forest products, frequently in developed countries.
Forest encroachment has often inadvertently been encouraged by infrastructural developments, especially roads, which have opened the forest frontier. These are promoted by government sponsored settlements involving land grants (Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka) or unrealistic government policies that under-price logging concessions. By setting very low stumpage fees or agreements that do not require environ mental remediation, such as reforestation, profit margins are increased and harvesting activities further encouraged. Both the laying down of roads and the logging of areas encourages subsequent settlement by farmers and therefore the conversion of forest land to farm land.
Sri Lanka provides a concrete example of population pressure, export oriented economic growth, and poorly thought out government policy which drives this deforestation. G. M. P. de Silva argues convincingly that forest clearances in Sri Lanka arise from poverty, monocultures of tea, rubber, and coconuts, most of which is exported, and development with little regard for the environment. He further reports that the rate of deforestation is accelerating. Sri Lankan forests covered about 70% of the 64,000 square km. surface in 1900. The population that year was estimated at 3.5 million. By 1953, the forest cover was reduced to 50% and the population had risen to 8.1 million. In 1982, only 25% of the surface was left in forests while the population had nearly doubled to 15 million.
Thus, from these figures, one can determine that between 1900 and 1953 the population increased by 4.6 million while the forested area shrank at an average annual rate of about 24,000 hectares per year from some 4.48 million hectares ( 70% of the 64,000 Sq. Km. or 6.4 million Ha.) to 3.2 million Ha. Between 1953 and 1982, the forested area declined from 50% to 25% of the surface at an annual average clearance rate of about 55,170 hectares per year. The targeted annual rate of reforestation is only 8,000 hectares, producing net forest losses in excess of 47,000 Ha per year. 7
7 G.M.P. de Silva "Lending Policies Geared to Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry - Case Study of Sri Lanka," Paper prepared for FAO, Rome, 1991.
In Thailand, the situation is equally stark. In the early part of this century, forests covered about 70% of the country's surface. By the 1960s, the portion under forest had fallen to 5060% and to about 40% in the mid-1970s. Today, only about 30% of the forests remain. Initially, Thai forests were clear felled in order to be able to export teak wood. In the decades following 1910, most of the deforestation was brought about by population pressure. The increasing population slashed off forests in order to be able to engage in subsistence agriculture.
"Forest depletion in Thailand occurred because it was privately profitable. Private return to land clearing for commercial and/or subsistence production was sufficient to underwrite a large expansion in the area under cultivation. The expansion was, of course, in part fueled by rapid rates of population growth. Private returns drove clearing in both lowland and upland areas, both for settled and shifting cultivation. Growth in domestic and foreign demand (decreasingly important over time) made timber cutting and the harvesting of forest products privately profitable, especially when public forest resources could be exploited for only nominal fees.... These processes were facilitated by [lax] law enforcement of existing legislation, the exemptions and provisions in the legislation itself [as well as inefficient] administration of forest lands in Thailand."8
8 David Feeny, "Agricultural Expansion and Forest Depletion in Thailand, 1900-1975" in John E. Richards and Richard P Tucker, World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century, Duke University Press, 1988, p. 127.
A case study in tropical deforestation: the "push-pull" effect in Dumoga Bone, Indonesia
| A Case Study in Tropical
Deforestation: The "Push-Pull" Effect in Dumoga
Bone, Indonesia The dynamic interaction between the economic forces that "push" people into forests and those that "pull" them and government policy can best be understood within-the context of an example from Indonesia. While there are literally hundreds of such projects, this one was selected because it clearly illustrates how the three factors interact and cumulatively can produce major environmental impacts and unanticipated human consequences within the framework of a policy that pursued laudable goals of improving the lot of rural people, but that failed to assess the damage that it could produce to the environment. The Dumoga Valley is in the northern: part of the island of Sulawesi. It has until recently not been subjected to population pressures due to isolation and the high incidence of malaria in the surrounding swamps. The heavy forest cover on the steep hills framing the valley has been able to absorb the monsoon rains, slowly releasing them into streams. Farming in the valley was based mostly on small plots of rain fed rice. In the 1970s, a government program to create a "pole of growth" in this formerly remote area was launched. A settlement project with a new road and irrigation system was constructed. This was coupled with a government resettlement program to move people from more densely populated regions to this less densely populated valley. This resulted in massive land clearances, not only on the valley floor, but also on the hillsides. The irrigation scheme sponsored by an international bank resulted in the speculative clearing of additional lands in anticipation of higher land prices. The result of these policies was that, within a decade, a substantial part of the forests was cleared, most being burned in situ to open the land to agriculture, principally rice production. These clearances threatened both flooding and water shortages for the irrigation system if they were not halted. With the land clearances came the inevitable damage to the endemic flora and fauna of the region. The Royal Entomological Society expedition discovered hundreds of previously unknown species. As a result of a policy providing economic incentives to leave heavily populated areas-deeded land to those who cleared it and government services-this new economic opportunity "pulled" new settlers into the formerly forested region. Many of the original inhabitants however were "pushed" out of the valley and onto the steep hillsides. Some former residents were persuaded to sell their land when a speculative boom in anticipation of further growth dramatically increased the price of land served by the irrigation project. Finally, when the government intervened to prevent the complete deforestation and destruction of this uniquely biologically rich valley, many of these original inhabitants, already marginalized, were finally evicted as part of a program to protect the remaining biological resources in a newly created park. |
The footnote below relates to the material in the above case study. 9
9 This account is largely based upon Judith Gradwohl and Russell Greenberg, Saving the Tropical Forests, The Island Press, Washington, D.C. 1988.