The Issue's Of Deforestation In Southern Africa

The Issue’s of Deforestation in Southern Africa

1. Introduction The environmental problem affecting the development of Southern Africa today is they suffers from deforestation but that’s not the only problem identified by many institutions in the environmental research matters about Africa. This hinders Southern African states from making progress with regard to economic development and socially. Despite other countries making progress the problem about Africa is economic trading to prove a point, socially, politically, historically and the fact that our geographical locations is far different from developed nations. Due to the facts provided above it seems like there is no full understood, many Southern Africans leaders have been delayed in solving the problems.

1.1. Definition Deforestation is the permanent destruction of indigenous forests and woodlands. The term does not include the removal of industrial forests such as plantations of gums or pines. Deforestation has resulted in the reduction of indigenous forests according to (Hugo, 2004) “is the clearing and destruction of forests to harvest wood for consumption, clear land for agricultural uses, and make way for expanding settlement frontiers”. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), forested land was transformed into agricultural land at increasing rates from 1981 to 1990. These changes made up twenty-five percent of the changes in forest cover during this time (Bogen, 2001).

2. Economics

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Industrialization and deforestation are different concepts, but are interrelated. Without deforestation, it would not be possible to facilitate industrialization and many scholars argue that in order for infrastructure and agricultural boost forest need to be sacrificed. The more people the earth is experiencing the better provision of food meaning forest need to be reduced for plantation. The main cause of forest trading is selective classification of commercially valuable trees. This has caused severe damage to many of the Africa's forests, especially in Southern Africa where the density of commercially valuable timber species is high. Other causes of forest degradation, is the excessive removal of non-timber forest products (Humphrey, 2006:20).

Macro-economic policies have widespread impact on the use of country’s resources as well as, economic crises; infrastructure development, local politics and local culture all play a part in determining individual national rates of deforestation. In Southern Africa, the profit to be gained from legal and illegal classification drives most deforestation. The rate of land clearing is similarly affected by prices for cash crops like coffee and oil palm. In Tanzania, most cleared forest has been converted to pastureland to satisfy an increasing demand for meat and dairy products. In South Africa and its trading partners, most forest is cleared for the cultivation of food crops (Ramachandra, 1983:64).

Fiscal, monetary, trade, investment, pricing and institutional policy shifts can greatly influence deforestation degradation. Macro-economic policies, whether successful or not it is the key generator of economic growth whether directly or indirectly impact the deforestation due to changes in income, public revenues and innovative capacity. This cultivation of forest is motivated by many factors. These include the outlook of generating greater income through farming, changes in land rights, tenure, subsidies, tax laws, resettlement projects, new or restored roads, population pressures and corruption. Given the extensive loss of forest in recent years, African governments are trying to address the problem.

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The SADC governments is planting trees and preserving vegetation that is natural to the area. Three million hectares have already been restored from land that was severely degraded in previous years and In Namibia, for example surveyors found between ten and twenty percent more trees in 2005 than were seen thirty years earlier in the same area ( Bogen, 2001:109). 3. Social The social factors affecting forests differ from country to country. In the Southern African societies hundreds of millions of people depend on forests for their livelihood. The society is experiencing a rapid population growth meaning more people will cut down trees for house or apartment development. Social responses have often focused on a reactive method of mitigating the impact on deforestation by people, rather than on a preventive method, which addresses issues ahead of a potential crisis. By providing information on possible future issues, as well as by promoting future-oriented thinking in Southern Africa's deforestation and protection efforts, we will enhance our ability to take proactive efforts to protect natural plants for the entire society not to be dry of trees and prevent any carbon diseases that may arise from deforestation (Hugo, 2004:60). Tremendous benefits can be derived from early efforts to prevent the occurrence or at least to minimize the adverse impacts of future problems, as well as to take advantage of future opportunities. The communities remain the first contributor to forest deforestation due to the fact that they do not have access to electricity and other sources of energy. in the developing countries mostly in Southern region it is becoming more difficult to allow people to participate in decision making regarding deforestation because of states mission to enhance government policies in trade rather than the well been of the people and the entire society (Bogen, 2001:90). The community leaders or people should be encouraged to explore a range of actions to be taken, identify options to mitigate problems and undertake efforts 3

and promoting the conservation of the forest they live in, but that’s not what is happening in this trading block of African states. The non government organisation demonstrate activities and project the communities can engage in order to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation by doing this it enhances forest carbon stocks due to sustainable management of forest. The better involvement of citizens in policy formation it seems, to create incentives for people to cast their look towards keeping forests healthy, integrated, and interdependent rather than focusing so much on power sharing regarding who say what to cultivate or takeover. We know that forests pose a series of complex social issues related to healthy environments and healthy economies, but at a simpler level, they also remind us of the limits of our own creative capacities. We can destroy forests, but we cannot make them but instead we can only plant trees (Humphrey, 2006:5). 4. Politics When outside actors like loggers or large companies are the key players threatening forest integrity, politicians turn to give communities the role in protecting their environment and it help because it gives local people direct control over the forests they inhabit. This may enable them to effectively protect the forests. Another strategy which is used by politicians or policy makers is to avoid marginalize non-government organizations in trying to promote extensive land uses, such as road expansion, resettlement projects and gasoline subsidies and in the end they promoting national interest before of inhabitants of a country (Ramachandra, 1983:61).

Loggers themselves can reduce their impact on forests. Avoiding clear felling and using reduced impact logging techniques can help ensure forests remain ecologically healthy and provide a long-term rather than short-term income. However, when local people are the driving force behind forest conversion, the strategies need to be more focused on helping people derive greater, sustainable

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income from forests. This may include making direct payments to local people for conserving their forests. Even if all efforts were mobilized to help people and governments make appropriate land-use decisions, some tropical forests would continue to disappear. But the pace and extent of the process could be controlled (Humphrey, 2006:16).

Deforestation is the greatest environmental challenges which pose a threat to poverty alleviation efforts in Southern Africa and the rest of the developing African countries and yet many delegates neglect this impact. This came out of a United Nations commission on sustainable development currently underway at the world body's headquarters in New York. Representatives of governments, business and civil society are gathered to examine strategies to mitigate the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Many political analysts gave several explanations for the problem of deforestation as a result of human activity that’s fair enough when considering social factors (Bogen, 2001:50).

One explanation is known as the "commons problem" suggesting that communal living and land tenure systems in Africa provide no incentives to individual investment or maintenance of the land. Followers of this notion say that the problem of land degradation may be combated by restructuring the ownership of land and the process of land reform in Southern Africa and the rest of Africa have been taking place. Policy-makers or campaigner suggested a shift from communal land tenure to individual ownership to provide security, encourage investment, and improve maintenance of the land. Developing countries are advised to modify existing land tenure laws to allow more individual private ownership. While this approach may seem logical to Westerners, there is much doubt about its effectiveness (Hugo, 2004:70)

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5. Conclusion Due to the national interest many Southern Africa countries are still going to face many problems regarding how to protect the environment. There are insufficient laws or policies on the issue of deforestation and that’s why people are not conscious when cutting down trees. Delegates are marginalizing the contribution of citizens when initiating policies as well as non government organizations are not invited to take measureable decisions to try and mitigate the problems.

Reference Bauer, J. 2008. UNECE-timber committee-FAO-European Forestry Commission. Accessed from (http://www.UNECE.org ). Accessed on 20 October 2008. Bogen, J. 2001. The issue of Deforestation: An Analysis. New York: Harpercollins. Hugo, ML. 2004. Environmental Management: an ecological guide to sustainable living in South Africa. Pretoria: Ecoplan. Humphreys, D. 2006. Public goods, Neoliberalism and the Crisis of Deforestation. London: Earthscan. Ramachandra, G. 1983. Colonialism, Capitalism and Deforestation. Social Scientist, 11(4):61-64.

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