Title: Tropical deforestation and its impact on soil, environment, and agricultural productivity.

POPLINE Document Number: 128804

Author(s):

Lal R

Source citation:

In: Sustaining the future: economic, social, and environmental change in sub-Saharan Africa, edited by George Benneh, William B. Morgan, and Juha I. Uitto. Tokyo, Japan, United Nations University Press, 1996. :181-200.

Abstract:

The humid tropics comprise about 31% of all tropical biomes, 11% of the earth's total surface, 1.5 billion hectares of land area, and are home to about 2 billion people. 45% of the total humid tropical land area is in the Americas, 30% in Africa, and 25% in Asia and Oceania. Within the generic term tropical rain forest (TRF), there are the following main types of forest vegetation: lowland rain forest (80% of the humid tropical vegetation), premontane forest (10%), and lower montane and montane forests (10%). TRF ecosystems are characterized by constantly high temperatures and relative humidity, high annual precipitation, highly weathered and leached soils of low chemical fertility, and high total biomass. The natural vegetation of the TRF is characterized by a high degree of biodiversity. The TRF ecosystem has global importance in terms of soil and climatic interactions and its impact upon several processes. TRF and its conversion, soils of the TRF ecosystem, forest conversion and soil productivity, deforestation and the emission of radiatively active gases, deforestation and hydrological balance, sustainable use of the TRF ecosystem, and research needs are discussed.

Keywords:

Africa, Sub Saharan
Global
Deforestation
Soil Degradation
Environment
Agriculture
Productivity
Africa
Developing Countries
Environmental Degradation
Macroeconomic Factors
Economic Factors
Economic Development