The Importance of Forests: From Green Belt Movement to Ecological Services and Threats

• Describe the Green Belt Movement founded by Wangari Maathai

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The Green Belt Movement is a movement that organizes poor women in rural Kenya to plant and protect millions of trees in order to combat deforestation.

• Distinguish among an old-growth forest, a second growth forest, and a tree plantation.

An old-growth forest is an uncut or regenerated forest that has not been seriously disturbed by human activities or natural disasters for several hundred years or more. Second growth forests are stands of trees resulting from secondary ecological succession.

A tree plantation is a managed forest containing only one or two species of trees that are all of the same ages.

• What major ecological and economic benefits do forests provide?

Forests, through photosynthesis remove C02 from the air and convert it into oxygen. Traditional medicines used by 80% of the world's population are derived mostly from plant species that are native to forests.

• Describe the efforts of scientists and economists to put a price tag on the major ecological services provided by forests and other ecosystems.

Scientist have attempted to put a price tag on the major ecological services by determining the alue of each depending on our usage of it. They arrived at an estimated $33. 2 Trillion dollars per year.

• Describe the harm caused by building roads into previously inaccessible forests.

Building roads in these once untouched areas of forest result in, increased erosion and sediment runoff into waterways, habitat fragmentation, and loss of biodiversity.

• Distinguish among selective cutting, clear-cutting, and strip cutting in the harvesting of trees.

Selective cutting is when intermediate-aged or mature trees in a forest are cut singly or in small groups. Clear-cutting is when loggers remove all rees in a certain area. Strip cutting is when loggers clear cut a strip of trees along the on contour of the land within a corridor narrow enough to allow natural forest regeneration within a few years.

• What are the major advantages and disadvantages of clear-cutting forests?

Some advantages of clear-cutting include higher timber yields, maximum profits in shortest time, can reforest with fast growing trees, and is good for tree species needing full or moderate sunlight. Some disadvantages of clear cutting include, the reduction of biodiversity, destruction and fragmentation of wildlife habitats, and increase in water ollution, flooding, and erosion on steep slopes, as well as the elimination of most recreational value.

• What are two types of forest fires?

Two types of forest fires are surface fires and crown fires.

• What are some ecological benefits of occasional surface fires?

The benefit of surface fires is that it burns up leaf litter, clearing the way for other plants to grow in that area.

• What are four ways to reduce the harmful impacts of diseases and insects on forests?

Four ways to reduce the harmful impacts of diseases and insects on forests is to ban imported timber, remove or clear cut infected forests, develop trees that are enetically resistant to common tree diseases, as well as apply conventional pesticides.

• What effects might projected climate change have on forests?

The projected climate change could result in trees such as the maple tree dying, for they need cold weather in order to produce their sap.

• What is deforestation and what parts of the world are experiencing the greatest forest losses?

Deforestation is the temporary or permanent removal of large expanses of forest for agriculture, settlements, or other uses. This is being used in less-developed countries, such as Latin America, Indonesia, and Africa.

• List some major harmful environmental effects of deforestation.

Deforestation harms the environment through the loss of biodiversity as well as the loss of C02 absorption.

• Describe the encouraging news about deforestation in the United States.

The U. S. 's forests are steadily re-growing, occupying more land than they did in the 1920's.

• How serious is tropical deforestation?

Tropical deforestation is very serious because they hold more than half of the world's known species and also absorb the most C02 from the atmosphere.

• What are the major underlying and direct causes of tropical deforestation?

The major underlying and direct causes of tropical deforestation are farming and settlement.

• Describe four ways to manage forests more sustainably.

ldentify and protect forest areas with high biodiversity, rely more on selective cutting and strip cutting, stop clear-cutting steep slopes, as well as stop logging in old-growth forests.

• What are four ways to reduce the harm to forests and to people caused by forest fires?

Set small contained fires to remove flammable small tress and underbrush, llow some fires to burn no public land, protect houses and other buildings in fire- prone areas, and thin forest areas vulnerable to fire.

• What is a prescribed fire?

A prescribed fire is one that is carefully monitored and planned.

• What are three ways to reduce the need to harvest trees?

lmprove the efficiency of wood use, non-tree fibers, and not using trees as fuel for fires.

• Describe the fuelwood crisis and list three ways to reduce it severity.

About half of the wood harvested globally each year, and three-fourths of the wood harvested in less-developed countries, is used for fuel. To reduce the severity is to establish small lantations of fast-growing fuelwood trees and shrubs, switch to burning garden plant wastes, and the use of stoves and running methane.

• What are five ways to protect tropical forests and use them more sustainably?

We can protect the forests and use them more sustainably by protecting large areas of forest, initiating debt-for-nature swaps, provision of assistance to neighboring farmers, paying companies to keep these forests active, and individuals planting trees.

• Distinguish between rangelands and pastures.

A rangeland is an unfenced grasslands in temperate and tropical climates that upply forage, whereas pastures are fenced meadows usually planted with domesticated grasses or other forge crops

• What is overgrazing and what are its harmful environmental effects?

Overgrazing occurs when too many animals graze for too long, which damages the grasses, eventually turning the area into an almost desert.

• Describe efforts to reduce overgrazing in the Malpai Borderlands.

These efforts are the restoration of natural grasslands and making sure not too many animals graze at one time.

• What are three ways to reduce overgrazing and use rangelands more sustainably?

Fencing off overgrazed areas until they can regenerate, rangeland management, and replanting severely degraded areas with a native grass.

• Describe the contlict among ranching, biodiversity protection, and urban development in the American West.

Each group wants something that will make the other impossible, ranching for food, biodiversity protection to save the earth, and urban development for people to have places to live.

• What major environmental threats affect national parks in the world and in the United States?

The parks are too small to sustain many large animal species, as well s people coming into parks in search for food, wood, cropland, and other natural products.

• How could national parks in the United States be used more sustainably?

These parks could be used more sustainably by keeping them away from urban areas, not allowing polluting vehicles, and not destroying areas of it to create paths.

• Describe some of the ecological effects of reintroducing the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park in the United States.

By reintroducing gray wolves into Yellowstone, the populations of the wolfs natural prey declined, setting things back into natural order.

• What percentage of the world's land has been set aside and protected as nature reserves, and what percentage do conservation biologists believe should be protected?

About 13% is protected, but at least 20% should be set aside.

• How should nature reserves be designed and connected?

These reserves should be designed in such a way that they have a buffer zone between them and human life, so that they get the full effect of the protection, and connected to create large areas of protected land, increasing biodiversity.

• Describe what Costa Rica has done to establish nature reserves.

Costa Rica has ivided much of its land into megareserves, saving much of the forests, as well as creating a large economy based around tourism and ecotourism.

• What is wilderness and why is it important?

Wilderness is land officially designated as an area where natural communities have not been seriously disturbed by humans and where human activities are limited by law. It is important because they contain much of the world's species.

• Describe the controversy over protecting wilderness in the United States.

This controversy is to protect forests or to develop the land for our own purposes.

• Describe a four-point strategy for protecting ecosystems.

This four-point system includes the mapping of the world's terrestrial ecosystems, locating and protecting most endangered ecosystems and species, seeking to restore degraded ecosystems, and making development biodiversity-friendly. a s a biodiversity hotspot and why is it important to protect such areas?

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