Cheongshim International Academy Model United Nations 2013
Environmental Council
Commission: Environmental Council
Agendum: Fighting Deforestation
Student Officer: Chiwan Kim
Introduction
Along with the growing attention and caution towards the rapid changes of our environment, the term
“Deforestation” was coined and utilized by many environmentalists. The term itself, which is self-explanatory, refers to the clearing of massive quantities of forests usually damaging the fertility of the land. The more humanity develops and abuses nature for our benefits, the more land and trees we get rid of; therefore, in order to warn people of the amass eradication of forests, environmentalists created the term “Deforestation”. Now that the aforementioned issue is alarmed and noticed, much analysis and research that sonorously depict how severe the status quo is have been made. Such surveys and studies indicate possible solutions that can ameliorate our absence of forests. In the Environmental Council, we will debate on creating the most feasible and plausible, yet efficient and effective solution for this urgent global problem at hand.
Definition of Key Terms
Deforestation
The term refers to clearing of large areas of forests for human use and usually implies a long-term or even permanent duration of loss.
Primary Forest
Primary Forests are forests that have never had human interruption. These forests are chaste nature, a quality that is rare in our current situation. Primary forests are shaped only by natural phenomenon.
Secondary Forest
Secondary Forests are regenerating forests that have once made human interaction. Due to human disturbance, these forests had to cure themselves through natural ways on order to complete its primary state.
Disturbed Forests
Disturbed Forests are forests that have been already contaminated by human influence. In many forms of disturbance, ranging from the construction of roads to wood extraction, these forests suffered artificial interruption.
Forest Plantation
As one of the solutions of “Deforestation”, this activity is the re-seeding and re-planting of trees where needed. This also includes the introduction and inclusion of species or other forest-friendly features.

Cheongshim International Academy Model United Nations 2013
Environmental Council
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the amount and gauge of variety in species within a scope of biological range. Such scopes can be “family”,
“species”, “ecosystem”, or even the “Biosphere”.
Background Information
To start off, there is a huge quantity of research data on this topic; thus the statistical information may differ by who or when the survey was made.
Deforestation has occurred mainly in regions around Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Deforestation took place most rapidly between the years 1960-1990, when blinded development was undoubtedly prioritized over environmental issues. Currently, Brazil is going through deforestation at the most with highest annual rate of deforestation: the Atlantic coast of Brazil has already lost 90-95% of its rainforests.
Central America, South America, Philippines and Madagascar all have lost 50%, 70%, 90%, 95% of its rainforests, respectively. The abject reality is that only 6% of Central Africa’s forests are protected under the law, which means the remaining 94% is free to be abused and transformed into factories. In terms of the global rate of deforestations, we are losing 78 million acres-land larger than Poland-of forests in our world per year, or in other words, we are losing 2.4 acres-approximately two U.S football fields-of forests every second. It is shocking that on average 137 different species become extinct everyday because of deforestation.
Acknowledging the detrimental environmental problem, the causes for this phenomenon were analyzed.
There are many known causes of Deforestation. The most prominent one was found to be Subsistence farming. Subsistence farming would be the act of cultivating for the benefit of the farmer him or herself or the family of that farmer. According to data retrieved by the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC), approximately 48% of deforestation was made due to Subsistence farming. 32% was made by commercial agriculture, and logging was responsible for 14%. Other rooted causes were to be overall population growth, urbanization, and globalization. The lack of capacity for living lands can be a fundamental cause of deforestation. Usually, poor countries tend to clear forests because they do not have any alternative for profiting. For example, authoritative families in Indonesia cooperate with their government to abuse the grand acres of forests for their advantage. In Brazil, due to urbanization the government is trying to open more land in

Cheongshim International Academy Model United Nations 2013
Environmental Council the Amazon forest for more space for living. As we can see, agricultural purposes turn out to be the most crucial motives of deforestation.
Major Countries and Organizations Involved
Brazil
Brazil alone owns 30% of Earth’s forests, equivalent to 2.5 million km^2 of land. With the Amazon, Brazil proudly shows many diverse species and biodiversity in its forests; but as much as there is Brazil faces the most severe amount of deforestation.
Indonesia
Indonesia is another country that is suffering from massive deforestation; however, this country has a bureaucracy that is mainly responsible for the clearing of forests in Indonesia.
UNFCCC
The United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is responsible for accurate statistics and data made on this subject.
Syria
This country is also marked as warning state of deforestation. Countries in the Middle East should participate actively and take action to such first-hand account problem.
Timeline of Events
Date
1100-1500
Description of Event
Significant amount of deforestation made in Europe for the purpose of expanding population.
1800-1900 The introduction of steamboats marked the start of destruction of banks in eminent rivers.
1960-1990 This period is considered the most detrimental in regards of deforestation. It is known that one fifth of the world’s tropical rainforests were cleared in those thirty years.

Cheongshim International Academy Model United Nations 2013
Environmental Council
2005 The first time the rate of deforestation seemed to decline according to research made by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization).
2011 Conservation International listed the top ten most endangered forests needing protection.
Relevant UN Treaties, Resolutions and Events
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
This blanket term has programs that involve direct financial aid for undoing deforestation, and limiting developing countries with alternative incentives for not clearing forests. By doing so the activity of developing countries, the main cause of deforestation, is restricted to a more eco-friendly scope.
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties-15 (COP-15)
In Copenhagen in December 2009, an accord was reached with a collective commitment by developed countries for new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions that will approach USD 30 billion for the period 2010–2012. This dedication made by the developed countries guarantees the decrease of deforestation, which is helpful itself because the forest cures itself automatically.
Previous Attempts to Solve the Issue
Including the aforementioned accords that globally reduce emissions all together, there were many attempts in solving this urgent environmental hazard. People started developing new farming techniques that could reduce the amount of clearing of forests. A few organizations act to monitor the rate of deforestation so that they can alarm and warn countries of the situation. A simpler solution is reforestation. People are creating holidays to provide an opportunity for people to care about the problem once more and seed a tree at least so that it purifies the environment to a certain level. In order to solve timber problems, forest plantation are also planned so that people can get timber from artificial forests rather than destroying primary forests.
Possible Solutions
There are many possible interpretations and perspectives when looking at this issue. One can tackle the fundamental causes of the problem, or one can reverse the steps humans took. Others can make a more specific

Cheongshim International Academy Model United Nations 2013
Environmental Council solution that only regards the major countries involved in deforestation. Out of many of these solutions there can always be integration among several solutions. The more the better.
One plausible solution is Forest Management. This is an activity that maximizes annual harvest while confirming the area of harvest to be consistent with the forest re-growth rate. By doing so it prevents further deforestation to occur. For rehabilitation of forests, environmentalists work to provide and introduce fuels that promote fertile growth of forests. Depending on what plant and what species the forest contains, different factors are inserted in these forests for rapid growth.
Forests tend to grow back by their own as nature was meant to be, but they do not re-grow exactly to their original state or the way we want it to. Therefore, in order to effectively achieve re-forestation, the UN
Environmental Council has to take this issue seriously and come up with regulations and promotions that can apply globally. Deforestation may be occurring in specific regions, but every country on the globe has to take responsibility for this problem, especially the developed nations. With the necessity of cooperation of all nations, we need a resolution that works.
Bibliography
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"Deforestation." National Geographic . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/>.
"Deforestation." Deforestation . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deforestation?topic=58071
"Deforestation." Greenpeace International . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/science/deforestation/>.
"Deforestation." Deforestation . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/facts/deforestation.htm>.
"Deforestation." Deforestation . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <https://blogs.worldbank.org/category/tags/deforestation>.