Certain traits must be present for any attempt at a shift in use of resources to work. First, the new use must hold the potential for greater income than what the people were doing. There must be some incentive for them to learn new skills
First, such attempts must promise better returns than the alternative practice and second, they need to be evaluated for how they fit into the set of activities pursued by households (Barnham & Coomes, 1997).
Other organizations, such as the Foundation Cordillera Tropical of Ecuador, which was founded by a large landowner, have bought up large tracts of forest in order to protect the area's biodiversity.
The FCT hopes to conserve the region's biodiversity and forests by acquiring and protecting large sections of forest. This organization works to persuade the local people not to log these protected forests (Jokisch & Lair, 2002).
The fact that there area always some people ready to make profits by breaking the law complicates things further. In many countries where logging of rainforests can be profitable, the loggers bribe the government officials and go ahead and remove the valuable trees. The companies that encourage this practice often pay more to the loggers who provide the most wood, encouraging those involved with the practice to cut the forests down more vigorously. These companies often have other ways of working around government regulations designed to protect the rainforests, such as under-declaring the amount of wood they transport out of the country (Stone, 2002). This makes the process of encouraging alternate, nondestructive ways to profit from the presence of the rainforests more difficult. Such facts make it more clear why extensive knowledge of the cultures of the indigenous people involved is so crucial.
CONCLUSION
When environmentalists first appealed to the people profiting from cutting down rainforests to leave them standing for the good of the rest of the world, they responded with something...
What right have you to tell us we cannot do the same?" (Stone, 2002) It is not rational to ask a man who struggles to support his family to put the world's needs first. It only makes sense that poor people will try to improve their economic situation when presented with an opportunity to make more money. The environmental issue of rainforest loss, with its accompanying soil erosion, contamination of the water table and loss of biodiversity, is caused by many factors that interplay with each other. Economic progress can result not only in less poverty but improved health care and education and a reduction in crime. These are welcome changes to people who have had to live life without them, and if we want these people to choose to protect the environment, we must provide options that allow them to meet their personal goals. When a village can get electricity, running water, a school and a health clinic by cutting down some trees, the villagers are likely to make that choice. When the cleared land can be used for farming or to graze cattle, then they have a double financial benefit for participating in logging - whether legal or illegal. While denuding the land will not benefit them in the long run, the problems they may face in ten or twenty years may not influence a choice that can help take care of their families right now. The most effective solutions to the problems of deforestation and the environmental damage resulting from it is to provide a better alternative.
Bibliography
Barnham, Bradford L., and Coomes, Oliver T. 1997. "Rain Forest Extraction and Conservation in Amazonia." The Geographical Journal 162:2, pp. 180+.
Jokisch, Brad D, and Lair, Bridget M. 2002. "One Last Stand? Forests and Change on Ecuador's Eastern Cordillera." The Geographical Review 92:2, pp. 235+. (Jokisch & Lair, 2002)
Morrison, Scott. 2001. "The Brazilian Tropical Forest: Deforestation and Human Rights." International Journal of Politics and Ethics 1:4, pp.…
