Deforestation

Question 1

What is the wood used for

Answer 1

Commercial items e.g Paper furniture and homes
Furniture industry
NE Manchuria being cut down to be made into chopsticks toothpicks and ping pong paddles.
Use of disposable chopsticks uses up to 1.3 billion m3 of timber per year

Question 2

Why clear the forest

Answer 2

To make room for housing and urbanisation

To crate room for cattle ranching

Question 3

In last 2 decades, north and central China’s forest cover has been reduced by

Answer 3

A half

Question 4

How much of China is covered by forests

Answer 4

14%

Most in north and south and mountainous central

Question 5

Forest loss contributes to between

Answer 5

6-12% of annual global emissions

Question 6

Effects of deforestation - soil erosion

Answer 6

More soil erosion as without trees, soil is free to wash and blow away. Sandstorm from Gobi desert as spring approaches. And smog esp. in Beijing. Paddy fields turned into sandy beaches. Sandstorms wipe out 10s of thousands of hectares of farm land, expanding desert. During GLF , 1/3 of China’s open forest were cut down to burn the wood to make fuel.

Question 7

Effects of deforestation - water

Answer 7

Disrupt water cycle. Trees absorb rainfall and produce water vapour into atmosphere. Also lessens the pollution in water by stopping polluted run off.

Question 8

Solution

Answer 8

China’s forest cover increased by 46,000 Miles 2 between 2000 and 2010
Logging bans and monitoring bans set in 2000 part of natural forest conservation program.