Answer: INTRODUCTION
"Of all the environmental impacts of the study projections, deforestation probably poses the most serious problems for the world, particularly for the developing world."
Global 2000
"It has been predicted that within the next 25-30 years, most of the humid tropical forest as we know it, will be transformed into unproductive land, and the deterioration of the savannah into desert will continue at ever-increasing speed."
As you read this sentence, 50 to 100 acres of primary tropical forests will be eliminated, disrupted, degraded or impoverished. Yearly, an area of tropical forest the size of Great Britain is "converted" from an area equal to the size of Europe.
If present trends continue, by the year 2000, all tropical forests, with the exception of two areas - the western Brazilian Amazon and Central Africa - will have been destroyed. Since 1950, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), half of the world's forests have disappeared. Latin America has lost 37 percent of its tropical forests; Central America, 66 percent; Southeast Asia, 38 percent; Central Africa, 52 percent. Nearly 20 million acres are destroyed annually.
As areas of tropical forests are destroyed or degraded, tribal groups are forced to change their resource base. In some cases they move into areas occupied by other groups, straining the area's resources. In other cases they are forced to relocate outside of forests, permanently altering their way of life by converting to agriculture or to cash employment. Rarely are the rights of these groups to the lands they occupy recognized. Further, their intimate knowledge of the area's resources and how to manage them are nearly always ignored.
Millions of indigenous people live in tropical moist forests which cover some 3.6 million square miles in 70 countries. More than 80 percent of these forests are found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Gabon, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Venezuela, and Zaire, while 30 additional countries contain sufficient tracts to have significant ecological and biotic values. If these areas are to be managed effectively into the next century, the indigenous peoples that inhabit them should be consulted.