MadSci Network: Environment/Ecology
Query:

Re: What are the pros of cutting down the rainforest?

Area: Environment/Ecology
Posted By: Keith McGuinness, Faculty Biology
Date: Wed Oct 8 23:59:05 1997
Area of science: Environment/Ecology
ID: 875499992.En
Message:

The Question

Lissa Keigwin:

What are the pros of cutting down the rainforest?

An Answer

By the "pros" Lissa means "the arguments in favour of cutting down the rainforest".

So what are "the arguments in favour of cutting down the rainforest"?

...um, well, I'm not sure I can think of any...

Well, yes I can, but I'm not too sure how convincing they are.

Let's think generally for a moment... You might cut down some rainforest because:

  1. You wanted to use the timber (or other product) for something; or
  2. You wanted to use the land for something else.

1. You wanted to use the timber (or other product) for something

The timber from some rainforest species is very valuable for building and furniture. Also we are discovering more and more compounds which can be obtained from rainforests which are of medicinal value (I think taxol, a drug used in treating cancer, is one). So some things we can get from rainforests are valuable for different purposes.

These products can be sustainably harvested if two things occur.

  1. They grow back, or are replenished, faster than we harvest them. If the products—for instance, trees—are harvested faster than they are replaced, then the supply will be depleted, the species may become extinct, and we may be damaging the ecosystem.
  2. We don't seriously disturb the rainforest while harvesting them. Regardless of whether or not we are harvesting too much, or too fast, if the harvesting process disturbs the forest then we may still damage the ecosystem.

If the ecosystem is damaged, then the harvesting activity is not ecological sustainable in the long-term and we are making a profit now at the expense of future generations. This is probably unethical.

Harvesting in rainforests does not necessarily have to be destructive and unsustainable, but much probably is.

2. You wanted to use the land for something else

If the land is going to be used for something else, then the rainforest is going to be damaged to a greater or lesser extent for some time, perhaps permanently. In this case the key question is: Do we get more than we lose?

What we lose is a unique, high diversity ecosystem, possibly containing undescribed and unknown species and resources.

What we gain depends on what we do with the land. It may be land for farming, for housing, for mining or some other activity. In some cases it may be possible to rehabilitate, or restore, the rainforest—for instance, after mining—although people argue about how successful this is (or can be).

Again, to be sure that we are acting ethically, we need to be sure that the gain in the long-term will exceed the loss.

There probably are situations in which the gain does outweigh the cost, but many past decisions have not been made on this basis.

So...

There may be arguments in favour of cutting down some rainforest in some places. Each case does, however, have to be examined on its own merits and alongside other cases. As the amount of rainforest—or any other habitat—diminishes it becomes harder and harder to justify disturbing the remaining bits.


Keith A. McGuinness
School of Biological & Environmental Sciences
Northern Territory University
Darwin, Australia



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