“A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, US President, 1933 - 1945 Forest: anywhere that has a high concentration of trees, any kind of tree. Of course, ‘high concentration’ is a loose term and there is no fixed standard. A wood is usually thought of as smaller than a forest but it all depends where you are. Some areas in Russia, called ‘woods’, would be vast forests in Europe. Then there is rain forest and jungle – both tropical – but the word ‘forest’ includes them all.
Forests – Earth’s Lungs – and Deforestation in Bangladesh
“A nation that
destroys its soil destroys
itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the
air and giving fresh strength to our people.” Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, US President, 1933 - 1945
Forest: anywhere that has a high concentration of trees, any kind of tree. Of
course, ‘high concentration’ is a loose term and there is no fixed standard. A wood is usually thought of as
smaller than a forest but it all depends where you are. Some areas in Russia,
called ‘woods’, would be vast forests in Europe. Then there is rain forest and
jungle – both tropical – but the word ‘forest’ includes them all.
In these times of ecological crisis, it is trite to say that the world’s forests are its
lungs but they really are that important. The forests clean up and cool down
our atmosphere. They give off steam in the day, putting water back
in the system in the form of clouds. They are also home to an incredible
number of plants and animals. The common chicken is originally a jungle bird;
and rubber and aspirin are taken
from jungle plants.
As we have said, jungle is not the only kind of
forest, far from it. In non-tropical
regions, there are pine forests,
both highland and lowland; and deciduous forests
that include trees which lose their leaves in winter.
Returning to the tropical forests, rain forest has a high,
tree-top roof which cuts out sunlight to the forest floor and means that few
plants grow there between the long, tall trunks.
Jungle, on the other hand, does not have this tree roof or ‘canopy’ and so the
jungle floor is thick with plant life; in places so thick that it is impossible
to walk through.
This is rarely a problem in northern deciduous forests, and pure pine forests are positively sterile with almost nothing growing
between the trees and very few animals, even small ones, making their homes
there.
Forest once covered almost all of the world’s land but, as
the earth dried, so the forests thinned and
gave way to plains and parkland. This deforestation speeded up when humans
discovered how to use fire and how to make axes.
As human beings were forced to turn to farming, the deforestation happened even faster
as people cleared
large areas of forest to plant the new crops.
At first, this land stolen from the forest by burning is fertile and productive, in part because the ash from
the burnt trees and bushes enriches the soil. But, in just one or two years, the soil becomes almost useless and people move on
to chop and burn down another area. While the
population is low, the forest can grow back in time but, as it increases, so
the forest begins to disappear more and more quickly.
Which brings us to the human-forest relationship. There is
some debate about the most
natural habitat for early human beings but
everyone agrees that, as a species, we have spent a lot of evolutionary time
living in, or very near, different kinds of forest.
The human beings most physically adapted to living in forests are the Pygmies of the Congo in central Africa. Hundreds of generations of living deep in the rain forest have caused the Pygmies to become much shorter and smaller. A very short, light person can run through forest more easily than a tall, heavy one and also climb higher or further out along a branch. Most humans are not so well adapted to forest life and have preferred living on the edge of a forest or in large clearings in it. In this way, human beings can use the resources of the forest by day – gathering fruit or hunting and trapping animals – but avoid the many dangers of passing the night among the trees.
However, if enemies threaten,
it is to the nearby forest that people run, with their animals, to hide. The
forest was and is both a place of danger and a place of safety which is perhaps
why it is a frequent feature of fairy stories and folk tales, where it presents endless
possibilities for discussing good, bad and the unknown.
Robin Hood, a real person by the way, could not have
survived without Sherwood Forest to hide in and, even in modern times, guerrilla
armies always do better where there are large jungles or forests nearby, from
Vietnam to the Ukraine to Colombia. But, as the forests shrink, bandits and
guerrilla
fighters have fewer places to hide.
And the forests are still shrinking. One main reason is
the logging and timber industry. So many things, from
matches to bridges, from spoons to houses, are made, at least in part, of wood. As
if these were not enough, most of the world’s paper, and there is a lot
of paper used these days, comes from breaking trees down into a kind of powder.
The result is that the Amazon jungle, the Congo basin forest
and all the other forests of the world, great or small, are disappearing. We
are told that an area the size of Wales or Massachusetts or Switzerland is being
cut down in the Amazon every year but we find it hard to stop and still live
our modern lives the way we like. We are ripping out our
own lungs and, if we don’t stop soon, the earth will get sick and we, the human
race, will die. If we cannot save the forests, we cannot save ourselves.
And if the situation in South America seems too far away to affect you,
just take a look at what is happening here at home in Bangladesh. Forests that
used to account
for 15% of the country’s land in 1960 now cover only 4%, with
deforestation happening at the rate of 8,000,000 hectares a year. The main
causes seem to be clearing trees for cultivation of crops and logging. It is estimated that a sustainable
rate for clearing forests is 1.3% a year, so that these or other lands can be
re-planted, but, in fact, deforestation is continuing at a rate of 4.3%
currently.
There are four major types of forest in this country: mixed
evergreen, deciduous, mangrove and freshwater swamp. The mangrove forests, the
most famous of which is the Shundarban and the mixed evergreen ones cover the
most land. 
However, when we cut these down, we need to remember that we are not
just losing trees but many different species of plant and animal. Bangladesh,
although a small country, is home to 1,952 invertebrates, 653 species of fish, fifty amphibians,
and 147 types of reptile, 566 kinds of birds and 127 mammals. The Shundarban,
for instance, is the natural habitat of the Bengal tiger, the Ganges and
Irrawaddy dolphins, saltwater crocodiles and over 150 species of birds. Some of
these animals only live in this region. But the crisis does not end there.
Deciduous forests are the natural habitat of the Bengal fox, the mongoose, the
golden jackal and the jungle cat, among many others.
As many as 20% of these species are either critically
endangered or endangered. And before we dream that there is
still time to protect them, let us not forget that Bangladesh lost 31 species
of vertebrates
(eleven of which were mammals) in the twentieth century, most in the last few
decades since independence. 
Nineteen mammal species are critically endangered and some of
them on the
verge of extinction, including the long-tailed macaque, the hog deer
and the Malayan sun bear. Many of these are hunted so that they can be
illegally exported for body parts or as pets or to be caged in zoos. Others are killed
for their meat or by increasing traffic. However, the most serious threat to
wildlife – especially large animals – is the loss of the forests in which they
live as more and more trees are cut down to make more space to grow crops and
build new homes.
Of course, with an ever-increasing population, Bangladesh needs more food and to provide shelter for the poorest people and, so, the choice to protect the forests and wildlife is not an easy one when people have so many pressing needs, but it is urgent nonetheless.
If you want to watch some videos on this topic, you can click on the links to YouTube videos below.
If you want to answer questions on this article to test how much you understand, you can click on the green box: Finished Reading?
Videos :
1. Who are the Congo Pygmies? (10:39)
2. Rainforests | National Geographic (3:40)