Tropical deforestation: rates and patterns
Norman Myers
Abstract
This chapter examines the present situation, considers some recent trends and patterns, offers a prognosis for the next few decades, and provides an analysis of the main sources of deforestation, with particular reference to the slash-and-burn cultivator. It concentrates on tropical moist forests, these being by far the richest forests in biological senses, the most complex in ecological senses, and the most valuable in commercial-timber senses. The chapter presents two main findings. First is that the deforestation rate in the humid tropics has expanded by 68 per cent during the 1980s; and this rapid increase in the deforestation rate looks likely to expand still further during the foreseeable future if only because of the phenomenon of the shifted cultivator. Secondly, most efforts to reduce deforestation thus far have concentrated on the commercial logger and the cattle rancher, who actually account for under 40 per cent of all current deforestation.