Essay 1 – Human interventions in forest environments

Choose one of the following options – submissions must conform to the guidelines laid out in the essay instruction sheet. Respond to all parts of the question and support your statements with well-reasoned arguments and references.

Tropical deforestation is a result of a number of human activities: commercial logging, fuel wood collection, cattle ranching, large-scale development projects, and agriculture.

(i) Identify the most important types of activity that currently contribute to tropical rainforest deforestation and compare these factors on a regional basis.

(ii) Describe the environmental implications of deforestation.

(iii) Summarize economic and market mechanisms for reducing forest environment degradation.

Suggested sources:

Geist, H.J and E.F. Lambin (2002) Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioScience, 52(2), 143-150.

Kummer, D. and B. Turner (1994) The human causes of deforestation in Southeast Asia. BioScience, 44, 323-328.

Rudel, T.K., R. Defries, G.P. Asner, and W.F. Laurance (2009) Changing drivers of deforestation and new opportunities for conservation. Conservation Biology, 23, 1396-1405.

Skole, D.L., W.H. Chomentowski, W.A. Salas and A.D. Nobre (1994) Physical and human dimensions of deforestation in Amazonia. BioScience, 44, 314-322. (reading for lecture 6)

OR

The civilization of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) catastrophically collapsed over a short period of time.

(i) Was the collapse primarily caused by misuse of the environment (as argued by Wright), or was the collapse a response to other problems? Summarize each argument.

(ii) Describe the environmental degradation that occurred.

(iii) Suggest specific means by which the environmental devastation could have been avoided. Suggested sources:

Rainbird, P. (2002) A message for our future? The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Ecodisaster and Pacific Island Environments. World Archaeology, 33, 436-453.

Reuveny, R. and C. Decker (2000) Easter Island: Historical anecdote or warning for the future? Ecological Economics, 35, 271-287.

Rolett, B., and J. Diamond (2004) Environmental predictors of pre-European deforestation on pacific islands. Nature, 431, 443-446.

Wright, R. (2004) A Short History of Progress. The House of Anansi Press: 211 p.