Forests

Poverty's Role in Deforestation

Poverty and lack are very common problems in the developing world. More than 40,000 children die of starvation every day, and about one-fifth of the world's population does not have food, homes or fuel. Most of them live in the poor countries of Southeast Asia Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

Poor countries, wanting foreign currency, sell land to large, international logging and food production companies. Their products are exported to rich, industrialized countries — like Japan, and those in Europe and North America — while landless peasants, desperate to grow food and find wood for cooking and heating, are forced to clear new land.

Often, this land is poor for farming and after 2-3 years new land must be cleared again.

We can help solve this problem by not buying products from large multinational companies that exploit cheap labour and land in the developing world. For example, we can stop eating imported tropical fruit and stop patronizing fast food chains. And we must try to buy more products made by smaller, local producers.