The Economic Consequences of Rainforest Deforestation

Many people mistakenly believe that there is at least one fringe benefit to the fact that the rainforests are being cut down: deforestation makes room for farmland that can benefit local populations or even the global economy. Unfortunately, these beliefs are false on both sides of the argument. On the one hand, deforestation creates imbalances in agricultural land both in areas immediately impacted and around the world, all without producing equally viable farmland to balance that effect. On the other hand, there are many untapped food supplies in little-known species of fruits and other plants waiting to be discovered in rainforests, many of which have only been discovered by local populations if at all.

In actual fact, deforestation of the rainforests continues to destabilize the global climate, which in turn has a negative impact on much more agricultural land than the amount left by the deforestation. Moreover, the land that results from deforestation is poor land for agricultural purposes in the first place. Most of this land is ill-suited to both crop growth and grazing. Worse yet, the moderately-viable land that is gained by deforestation is infrequently put to its best use possible. Usually, it is drained of all its growth potential and quickly becomes useless. Also, adjacent lands - once the rainforests are cleared - are often subject to residual pollution from the clearing or burning process and fall victim to soil erosion which can ruin areas that were viable for farmers prior to the initial deforestation.

The vast majority of food consumed in the world today came at one point from rainforests. As such, countless varieties of potential future crops that have yet to be discovered are being lost with the rain forests as they are destroyed. For example, natives of the rainforests eat ten times more different kinds of fruit than people in the rest of the world - all of which could be potentially grown and eaten elsewhere.

So, not only do the rainforests affect both local and global food supplies directly by altering regional and global climates, but they also represent a vast wealth of information and potential future food sources we have yet to discover. Unfortunately, this fact is widely misunderstood by both environmentalists and entrepreneurs across the world. Radical change must come from both sides of the political debates on this issue, and they should: it is in the world's economic and environmental interest that the rainforests be protected in the long term. For more amazing statistics and supplemental information visit this website.