Costa Rica has a conservation program that protects more than 10% of the country. The protected areas runs through 40 miles and 9 ecological zones from sea level to 12,500 feet, thereby preserving a wide variety of wildlife. Starting in 1995, a plan to protect 18% of the country in national parks and another 13% in privately owned preserves was implemented, targeting areas that are high in biodiversity. This helped to reserve some of the human impacts that had been negatively affecting Costa Rica up until then.
Yet despite the creation of many national parks and protected areas, Costa Rica still has world's 7th highest deforestation rate (3.9% in 2007). Increases in Costa Rica's has caused approximately 20,000 acres of annual deforestation. Deforestation has eliminated most of the world’s tropical cloud forests years ago, and even protected areas like the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve are threatened as the world’s temperature rises.
The Biggest Threats to the Costa Rican Cloud Forest Include...
Cattle Ranching:
50% of the deforestation in Costa Rica is a result of beef cattle ranching. To clear land for the cattle to live on, slash and burn farming techniques are implemented in areas with soil that has enough nutrients to sustain the wildlife. However, the nutrients don't last long, as the cattle deplete the soil fairly quickly. After a few years it dries out, forcing the cattle farmers to move farther up the mountain, destroying more rainforest to create new cattle pastures.
Subsistence Farming:
Agricultural farmers encounter the same conundrum as cattle farmers. Farm land erodes because the soil is unable to sustain long term crop development in the mountains. Farmers are then forced to cut down more land for plantations and move farther up the already damaged mountain. The forests are also cut down to create vast mono-crop plantations where bananas, palm oil, pineapple, sugar cane, tea, coffee and other agricultural products are grown.
Logging:
Logging is the second largest cause of deforestation in Costa Rica. To find highest quality wood to sell to furniture stores, timber corporations cut down hundreds of trees every year. Stores such as Pier 1 Imports then buy this wood in bulk. Techniques such as "clear felling" eliminate acres of trees in just one day. These trees are then examined and it is decided whether the wood will be used for furniture, timber, or wood chipping. Furthermore, in order to access these trees, roads must be created in order to reach the forests. These roads damage wildlife as well, as they haphazardly cut through the forest, often destroying both trees and homes for the animals that inhabit them.
Mining and Oil Drilling:
Mining and Oil Drilling is the third largest threat to the Costa Rican Cloud Forest. High demand for minerals such as diamonds, aluminum, copper, and gold cause companies to use poisonous chemicals in their extraction methods. Forests are affected by oil companies searching for new oil deposits, as large roads are built through untouched forests in order to build pipelines to extract oil. These oil pipelines often rupture spilling gallons in the forest.
How Does This Affect the Atmosphere?
Due to the loss of forest, initial cloud formation occurs higher than it did in previous years. This affects the wildlife in the forest, as it changes the temperature of the ecoregion. Plants and animals from lower climactic associations have been encroaching on the reserve and other Costa Rican cloud forest areas for more than a decade.This graph shows the rising temperatures in the Cloud Forest, which will affect both animal and plant species in the ecosystem.
It is important to remember that deforestation accounts for nearly 25% of global Carbon Dioxide emissions, and is a serious issue in places other than Costa Rica as well.
http://globalspecies.org/ecoregions/display/NT0119
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Costa_Rica.htm
http://www.rainforestconcern.org/rainforest_facts/why_being_destroyed/
The Biggest Threats to the Costa Rican Cloud Forest Include...
Cattle Ranching:
50% of the deforestation in Costa Rica is a result of beef cattle ranching. To clear land for the cattle to live on, slash and burn farming techniques are implemented in areas with soil that has enough nutrients to sustain the wildlife. However, the nutrients don't last long, as the cattle deplete the soil fairly quickly. After a few years it dries out, forcing the cattle farmers to move farther up the mountain, destroying more rainforest to create new cattle pastures.
Subsistence Farming:
Agricultural farmers encounter the same conundrum as cattle farmers. Farm land erodes because the soil is unable to sustain long term crop development in the mountains. Farmers are then forced to cut down more land for plantations and move farther up the already damaged mountain. The forests are also cut down to create vast mono-crop plantations where bananas, palm oil, pineapple, sugar cane, tea, coffee and other agricultural products are grown.
Logging:
Logging is the second largest cause of deforestation in Costa Rica. To find highest quality wood to sell to furniture stores, timber corporations cut down hundreds of trees every year. Stores such as Pier 1 Imports then buy this wood in bulk. Techniques such as "clear felling" eliminate acres of trees in just one day. These trees are then examined and it is decided whether the wood will be used for furniture, timber, or wood chipping. Furthermore, in order to access these trees, roads must be created in order to reach the forests. These roads damage wildlife as well, as they haphazardly cut through the forest, often destroying both trees and homes for the animals that inhabit them.
meted.ucar.edu
Mining and Oil Drilling:
Mining and Oil Drilling is the third largest threat to the Costa Rican Cloud Forest. High demand for minerals such as diamonds, aluminum, copper, and gold cause companies to use poisonous chemicals in their extraction methods. Forests are affected by oil companies searching for new oil deposits, as large roads are built through untouched forests in order to build pipelines to extract oil. These oil pipelines often rupture spilling gallons in the forest.
How Does This Affect the Atmosphere?
Due to the loss of forest, initial cloud formation occurs higher than it did in previous years. This affects the wildlife in the forest, as it changes the temperature of the ecoregion. Plants and animals from lower climactic associations have been encroaching on the reserve and other Costa Rican cloud forest areas for more than a decade.This graph shows the rising temperatures in the Cloud Forest, which will affect both animal and plant species in the ecosystem.
http://globalspecies.org/weather_stations/climate/190/201
It is important to remember that deforestation accounts for nearly 25% of global Carbon Dioxide emissions, and is a serious issue in places other than Costa Rica as well.
http://globalspecies.org/ecoregions/display/NT0119
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Costa_Rica.htm
http://www.rainforestconcern.org/rainforest_facts/why_being_destroyed/
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