How Does Deforestation Affect the Economy?
Positive Impacts on the Economy
Tropical forests provide a lot of important renewable resources that contribute to national economic growth, but at the same time, cutting down mass amounts of trees to access these resources severely harm the environment and the ecosystems where the deforestation is occurring. Deforestation can positively impact the economy in many ways because of the resources it produces. |
Negative Impacts on the Economy
Tourism is many of the rainforest countries main source of economic income. Deforestation is drastically cutting down the numbers of tourist because no one wants to see polluted rivers, tree stumps, wasteland, and dead animals. So not only is deforestation ruining the habitat of many plants and animals, but it is also ruining the economy. |
Why is Deforestation Such a Difficult Problem to Solve?
Deforestation can ruin the economy, but it can also help it, so this is why countries let it happen. Although deforestation reduces the amount of tourists visiting forests, countries still do it because there are so many resources that forests provide that can help the economy. Timber is a huge part of the economy in manufacturing it for many different uses. Also, many forests have resources such as palm oil, which is used in so much of our everyday lives such as in a lot of food products. All of the resources forests can provide are why countries continue to let deforestation occur even though it can hurt the economy in other ways.
Deforestation is such a hard problem to solve because it does hurt the environment and the economy, but at the same time it helps the economy in a lot of ways. This is why there are many alternatives to deforestation that try and limit the loss of biodiversity and tourism, but also try to get enough resources from forests to keep a stable economy. |