vanishing trees

Only 8.8% of the planet's land surface remains covered in dense forest according to the latest study employing advanced satellite imaging. Less than 20% of the original forests remain in large tracts of undisturbed forest. More than 3/4 of those are in three countries, Russia, Canada, and Brazil. When it comes to biodiversity, intact tracts are more important than the same numbers of trees in small patches. That is because many animals and plants require large tracts to survive. Fragmentation, even as simple as cutting a few roads through the forest, is the main factor threatening plants and animals with extinction.

Forest devastation is especially pronounced in easily accessible and inhabitable regions. Temperate broadleaf forests are down to less than 4% of what they were a few centuries ago. Boreal forests in Russia, Canada, and Alaska are among the best preserved mainly because they are the hardest to reach and exploit. Not so with tropical forests. While these are still substantial today, they are shrinking incredibly fast. One estimate says tropical forests will last less than 50 years if present trends continue. One and a half acres disappear every second. Along with 137 species per day.

Just fourteen countries control over 90% of the world's remaining intact forest landscapes. Apart from Russia, Canada, and Brazil, nearly all of these are poor countries with weak or puppet governments that are easily persuaded to wreck havoc with resources in return for some hard cash. And the pressure is very high. Big multi-national corporations control the forest trade. Conservation is not on their agenda. Their CEOs are more worried about their oversized pay and retirement packages and the daily fluctuations of the stock price than about some patch of forest in a far away land.

But there would be no business without demand. Many areas are wiped out to make room for agriculture and cattle farming, read cheap fast food hamburgers. Others are removed to facilitate mining and drilling operations. Yet others are stripped for their exotic hardwoods used to decorate overstuffed McMansions. It is ironic to see how many people grossly overextended themselves to spruce up their homes and buy gadgets they could ill afford using cheap mortgages. Many of these are now about to lose their homes in foreclosures.

But the trouble is a world wide phenomenon. The new economies of China of India are bottomless pits that swallow everything whole. China for example, cuts down 25 million trees a year just for disposable chopsticks in restaurants. The country uses 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks each and every year. In the 1980s China became the second largest importer of forest products in the world. Earlier it exported wood but now it is so far down on its own resources that importing is easier.

Russia is its main supplier now, followed by Malaysia. Nearly 40% comes from Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other South East Asian nations. 40% of imports are hardwood logs and another 25% are conifer logs. And what does China do with all this wood? It manufactures items for rich countries.

China exports wood products to the US, Japan, Hongkong and South Korea. Nearly all exports are processed wood. A large share is veneers and plywood, but the majority is items such as door, frames, carving products, wood toys and tools, etc. China's export trade is slightly larger than its imports but both have grown from less than $1B in the nineties to over $7B today. And there is no end in sight. As long as people insist on building more and larger homes, demand will continue. For another 50 years or so that is. Because then, there won't be anything left.