Introduction
Doug Boucher
Why are tropical forests
disappearing? Why is deforestation
happening? Who is clearing tropical
forests, and why? These are the questions
that this report seeks to answer.
Deforestation and Forest Degradation
Humans have been cutting down forests for thousands
of years, practically since they invented agriculture.
In many parts of the world, crops could not
grow or livestock graze unless the forest was first cleared
away. Agriculture requires removal of the trees and
shrubs as well as continued weeding. Although the
forest could continue being a source of many kinds
of foods and useful products, fundamentally the
forest and agriculture were in conflict (Rolett and
Diamond 2004).