Presentation for Deforestation project By: Ming Chun, Shang Wen, Chloe and Amanda

Causes Good without them

Mining Coal mining Land is cleared for coal mining Metal mining Land is also cleared for metal mining. To separate gold from ore, mercury is used. The mercury get absorbed by the plants and kills them.

More causes (brief)  Poor management of forests  Local poverty  Timber  Forest fires (first caused by company “Itzi”)  Jealousy of locals on big companies (they cannot log while the big companies can. Thus, this cause the locals to log illegally)

Palm oil (general)  Land is cleared for palm oil plantations  Great use of palm oil  Made into biofuel (substitute of fossil fuels!!) Looking at the two reasons (palm oil and mining), need for land is a serious cause. Elaboration

What is palm oil?  It is a red liquid at room temperature but lighter coloured after boiling  Comes from the African Oil Palm  First commercially cultivated in 1911 on Sumatra island Palm oil(Liquid) Oil palm Solid Palm oil block

Uses  Ingredient in food  Cheap substitute for bread  Make biodiesel  Make bread, cereal, sweets and soaps  Cooking oil  Make chocolate Fun Fact: In World War 2, Palm oil combined with Naphtha to produce Napalm!

Why do people want to buy palm oil?  It is cheap  Has a high stability when frying

Countries with large palm oil production  Indonesia -More than 20.9 million tons  Malaysia million tons -Uses 4,500,000 hectares of land -Employ more than 570,000 people  Nigeria -More than 2.5 million hectares of land used  Columbia -Uses 1,000,000 hectares of land -35% made into biofuel

Why does palm oil cause all this? Can only be cultivated in rainforests Orangutans live there Orangutans run away from the fire Orangutans fled from their habitats Eat farmers crops Get shot down by them

Current measures How to stop deforestation?

1.Conservationists groups Have them to promote conservation Why not working?? Factories: Less land for plantations Less people with jobs Population decrease!! What is Indonesia?

2.Signing of regulation  President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a regulation on an implementation of a national inventory of greenhouse gases. There was a program called "Moving Towards a Green Indonesia" which helped conservationists groups and also deal with deforestation.  Why EPIC FAIL: Deforestation is not fully banned even though the carbon usage is thought to be able to decrease by 26%. Fun fact: Duta Palma, one of the palm oil producing companies in Indonesia argued to BBC news arrogantly after BBC meant that Duta Palma done illegal logging.

3. Pressure from conservationist groups’ fans  Supporters of Greenpeace pressured companies like Nestle and Unilever to change their palm oil sourcing policies to stop deforestation as the forests are cleared mostly for palm oil. This helped as companies (which were providing palm oil to the buyers) used less land for palm oil plantations as they need less palm oil. Why EPIC fail  Still a lot of other companies using palm oil and thus the problems are not solved.  Fun fact (not really fun after all): Unilever is one of the biggest buyers of palm oil from Indonesia but it buys only 3% of the palm oil bought all the companies!

Punishment  Currently  10 years of imprisonment  They are discussing death penalty  Since they are pinpoint the exact person who actually set the fires, they are having great difficulty trying to catch them. THINK~~~ If you don’t enforce certain laws, nobody will care about those rules anymore. Eg. The school forbids anyone to wear below ankle-length socks. If they don’t carry out frequent checks, everybody will think that they can get away with it. Thus, many people will still continue wearing below ankle- length socks.

Summary of current measures 1. Enforcement of laws 2. Military raids 3. Pressure from conservationist groups’ fans 4. Signing of regulation(s) 5. Conservationists groups 6. Jail

Stakeholders People involved

Who they are and how they uses it  Tribes-They use it for home and shelter  Eco-tour Operators-they use the rainforest as a tool for education and for them to show people the beauty of the rainforest  Factories- They use the rainforest as a source of income  Animals-They use the rainforest as a home and for protection  Scientists- They use the rainforest as a way of discovering things (like new plants for medication) that can benefit others  Government-They try to protect the rainforest and stop things that help destroy it  Conservationists-They use the rainforest as a tool for education and they try to protect it  Schools- They educate people just like eco-tour operators

Their job and what they do Tribes-  They help spread around the seeds of eaten fruit  They eat the fruit then let the animals carry around the seeds, planting more of that species Eco-Tour Operators-  They tell people how the rainforest is being threatened and what they can do to help stop this  They take tour groups around and show them the rainforest and how wonderful it is so they can appreciate it

Their job and what they do (cont.) Factories-  Cut down trees for plantations Animals-  Spread around seeds and “plants” them  Make trees and plants grow as well as fruits that tribes in the rainforest can live off Scientists-  To go into the rainforests and try to find good uses for new plant specimens  They find new plant species then use them in experiments to see if they can be used for medicine

Linking Charts

Linking Charts (cont.)

Other country involvement and consequences on other countries Lending a helping hand

Consequences WHAT DOES HAZE LEAD TO? 1 st effect – Economic losses WHY?  1. Tourist income  Some countries, especially Singapore, rely a lot on tourists to survive.  With the haze, they will avoid coming, and thus we will lose a lot.  2. Trade income  With the haze absorbing and scattering light, there were a lot of visual problems.  This heavily affected land, sea and air transport, causing late arrival of goods, and thus cause heavy losses. For example, in the 1997 haze, both Singapore and Malaysia lost US$0.4b.

Consequences (cont.) 2 nd effect – More illnesses WHY? 1. Lack of protective measures  Many Asian countries did not have the financial means to supply protective measures like respiratory masks. In turn, this caused more people to be ill. 2. Poor environment Haze causes asthma diseases and respiratory problems. In 2006, there was a 20% increase of patients in areas west of Singapore. Although the west of Singapore usually has the highest PSI levels, it is only by several points. NEA denied speculation that the construction sites in Tuas and Jurong contributed to the haze, although it is hard to tell.  Crowded environment  While some people opted to stay in their homes, others decided to spend time in shopping malls. As there are more crowds in public areas, the chances of spreading and getting diseases are higher.  Increase of ozone  With haze, the amount of air purifiers to purify the air in the house will soar. However, many of these purifiers release ozone, which in turn causes people to suffer similar diseases as to the haze.

What are other countries doing?  Singapore – Provide equipment to view fire spots  Malaysia – Provide firemen and equipment  Norway – Signed contract and made a system to stop corruption  Brunei – Import orang utans to their own forests  America – Import orang utans to artificial environments, spend money ($1.5m) to save them and wrote of debts in exchange for forest protection

What are organisations doing?  United Nations – Encourage rich countries to contribute funds to help reduce deforestation (REDD Plus, aka Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation)  ASEAN – Set up the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The purpose is to address haze pollution, namely prevention, mitigation and monitoring.  Designated 27 national protected areas from selected countries as National Heritage Parks  Strongly urged Indonesia to ratify the Agreement  Set up the ASEAN Haze Technical Task Force to combat the fires

Consequences Serious threats to the world

A brief summary

Extinction of species and greenhouse effects EXTINCTION OF SPECIES  Lose habitats  Population in balance between predator and prey  Killed by farmers when they intrude into their territory GREENHOUSE EFFECTS  Input of CO2 is more than output  Blocks up atmosphere, preventing heat from escaping

Natural disasters  Floods – No water infiltration from forests when rain  Droughts – No water supply  Earthquakes  Acid rain

Soil Erosion  Trees with the help of deep root systems are able to draw water from sub-surface water table. Humidity prevents excessive water loss and rapid desiccation. Plants contribute organic matter which upon decomposition adds humus to the soil.  Deforestation leaves the ground surface bare. Further loss of nutrients might occur. Where remaining vegetation is burned to clear the land and agriculture attempted loss of nutrients is even more rapid. Already poor tropical soil is made poorer.

Soil Erosion (continued)  The top soil which is thus lost is irreplaceable. Nature takes about 1000 years to produce 2.5 cms of top soil.  Massive soil erosion aggravates flood situation in two ways. Firstly, the deposition of silt and sediments in river beds makes them shallow. Secondly, land devoid of forest cover loses its water holding capacity.  About 10 million hectares of forested land can hold enough water to fill completely a reservoir as large as that of Bhakhra-Nangal dam. In absence of plant cover this water flows down in rapid torrents.

Solutions? Or maybe not… 1. Ban the use of flammable items (daily necessities) 2. Use a few robot guards to guard the forests. Although this may be costly, the costs will be covered by other countries through the contracts. 3. Have occasional air patrols where deforestation happens the most 4. Seal off the forests and only allow access to plantations

GAME TIME!

Question 1  Name two causes of deforestation. ANS: Any 2 of the following Palm oil, Poor management of forests, Local poverty, Timber needs

Question 2  Which of the following is a consequence of deforestation?  A) Soil erosionSoil erosion  B) More rainsMore rains  C) None of the aboveNone of the above

Question 3  True or False? Singapore sent firemen to aid Indonesia to put out the fires. True False

Question 4  Name 3 stakeholders of the forests.  Ans: Any 3 of the following  Tribes, Eco-tour Operators, Factories, Animals, Scientists, Government, Conservationists, Schools

Question 5  Which of the following is an effort made by America to save the orang utans? 1. Import orang utans to their own forests Import orang utans to their own forests 2. Spend $1.5m to save the orang utans Spend $1.5m to save the orang utans 3. America did nothing America did nothing

Bonus question  Name the jobs of the stakeholder scientists. 1. To go into the rainforests and try to find good uses for new plant specimens 2. They find new plant species then use them in experiments to see if they can be used for medicine Go on

Congratulations, you are CORRECT! Go on

Congratulations, you are CORRECT! Go on

Congratulations, you are CORRECT! Go on

Sorry to disappoint you, but you are WRONG! Try again Go on to next question Try again Go on to next question

Sorry to disappoint you, but you are WRONG! Try again Go on to next question Try again Go on to next question

Sorry to disappoint you, but you are WRONG! Try again Go on to next question Try again Go on to next question

THE END! Thank you for your kind attention