Asian Rain Forest Deforestation

3 Pages 807 Words

Deforestation in Asia and the Effects on the Environment and its Peoples”


Today, the logging and rate of deforestation of Asian forests is at an all time high. National governments are making a profit from the logging rights to the forests but it is at the expense of the indigenous peoples of the areas. Unless there is an immediate change in this, there will be no way of saving the forests for future generations and the indigenous peoples will lose the way of life they have grown accustomed to.
“The term “indigenous” has come to be applied to a politically marginalized, territorially based ethnic groups, who are culturally distinct from the majority populations of the nation states in which they have now found themselves, and who recognize themselves as indigenous” (Minority Rights Group International). Today, the Asia-Pacific region has lost over half of its original forest cover and there are no signs of that rate declining. Most of the Asian national governments have sided with the logging companies and sold parts of the forests to them. Not only are the forests being ruined, but the indigenous peoples are being run out of their homes. The indigenous peoples are dependent on the forests and they need them to sustain their lifestyles. The land on which they live is the same land where their ancestors lived. These ancestral territories are not only their economic base, they are also intimately bound up with their cosmologies and identities and communities as peoples. The indigenous peoples see themselves as stewards holding the land of their ancestors in trust for future generations. By cutting down the trees in their areas, it would force the indigenous peoples out of their areas and eventually force them to change their way of life. None of this seems to matter to the national governments of Asia or the loggers. They are more interested in their own well being rather than preserving the historical cultures and socie...