3.2.4. SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS
Some societies are making efforts to stop or slow
deforestation. In Gishwati, where large scale destruction of forests has
occurred the government has required that every able-bodied citizen plants some
trees per year or does the equivalent amount of work in other forest
services.
30
In western countries, increasing consumer demand for wood
products that have been produced and harvested in a sustainable manner are
causing forest landowners and forest industries to become increasingly
accountable for their forest management and timber harvesting practices. Agents
of deforestation can be individuals or groups of individuals that are clearing
the forest. Commercial farmers slash and burn farmers, cattle ranches and
loggers are all agents of deforestation.
Agents are usually acting in their own self interest.
Underlining causes include poverty, lack of land reform. The causes of
deforestation are complex and change over time. Deforestation can be most
easily be understood by studying the causes for each forest and country
separately.
Forests are valuable habitat for wildlife. Direct economic
benefits accrue from the harvest of forest resources such as wildlife, non-wood
products like wild mushrooms, honey and medicinal herbs and from the sale of
hunting and camping equipment.
Forests also play an important role in watershed protection,
soil conservation and the recharge of aquifers.
They can also be the source of new drugs (like taxol) (Gyani
Babu Juwa, 2000, in Khalid Bin Musa (2008).
Although timber production can be an important cause of
deforestation, higher long-term gains can be obtained by managing forest lands
to maintain forest cover. Forests are also important stores of organic carbon,
and forests can extract carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air. Forests are
also valued as a thing of aesthetic beauty and as a cultural resource.
Deforestation results in the loss of these benefits.
«We do not have a definite parcel, according to our
forces we used as enough land as possible because we were there and we did not
have any other soil to exploit in order to satisfy our needs. But actually when
we settled nobody was allocated a plot of more than 1 hectare» said one
interviewee.
As said by the interviewees, they had different income
generation activities in the forests and these are shown in the following
table.
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Table 5.Major income generation
activities
|
Activities
|
Effective
|
%
|
|
Farming
|
32
|
53.3
|
|
Forest products
|
5
|
8.3
|
|
Grazing
|
17
|
28.3
|
|
Household labor
|
3
|
5
|
|
Other (authority)
|
3
|
5
|
|
Total
|
60
|
100
|
Source: Field survey, author, 2012
About the half of the interviewees generate their incomes from
agriculture and grazing and these two activities were mainly carried in the
forest and these are the most likely to impact on the forest and lead to the
tremendous soil erosion and flooding on the steep slopes of Kanama and other
mountains around the forest. Forest products which accounts for 8.3 % of the
respondents are thought to be a negative impacts on the forest itself but also
on the other biodiversity in the forest.
So, these income generation activities are improving the
livelihoods of surrounding population socially and economically but on the
other hand they harm the environment in which these people live. By doing
these, there was no integration of all factors in order to satisfy the forest
need and to improve the local livelihoods.
As the forest was changed, many species that were used as
traditional medicine were lost completely and this form of medicine has been
highly affected.
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Table 6.Medicine plants threatened and what they
treat.
|
Scientific names
|
Names
|
Maladies
|
|
Balthasarea schliebenii
|
Umufumbageshi
|
Rheumatism
|
|
Cluta abyssinica
|
Umutarishongi
|
Poison
|
|
Loberia giberroa, milletia
|
Intomvu
|
Poison
|
|
Psilopetala vernonea
|
Umunaniranzovu
|
Kugombora
|
|
Amygdalina
|
Umubirizi
|
Worms
|
|
Physalis peruviana
|
Imbubu
|
Cough
|
Source: Field survey, Author, 2012
The decrease of these plants has made population to walk a
long distance to search for traditional medicine and this leads to the lost
both economically and socially. Other species which were used for wood fire
were also threatened and also had a negative impact on the life of the
population around Gishwati forest. These species include: umusebeya,
umukore, umuyove, umugeshi, umwungo and umushubi.
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