Disaster Management in Fisheries

2.1.16 FOREST FIRES

Forest fires destroy or damage between 15 and 36 million acres of tropical forest every year. Sometimes the fires are started on purpose as a way to illegally clear an area of trees. Habitat destruction is happening all over the world and closer to your home than you might think. Tropical rain forests in Central and South America and in Southeast Asia and Oceania are being threatened. Rainforests now occupy less then ½ of the land that they did 100 years ago (that’s less than 2% of the earth’s surface).

Borneo is one of the most biodiverse places on earth. There are many different kinds of animals on Borneo including sun bears, clouded leopards, gibbons, eight different species of monkeys, around 1,000 elephants, rhinos and orangutans. However, the orangutan population has fallen 50% in the last 50 years. The number of rhinos has fallen to less than 50 rhinos.

One of the main threats to Borneo’s biodiversity is the loss of lowland forests. In the past two decades, people have cleared about two million acres of these forests. The lowland forests are being cleared to make room for palm oil plantations. Many animals cannot survive on just one crop.

Around the world natural wetlands are disappearing. The U.S. has lost half its wetlands in the last 200 years. Europe has lost two-thirds of its wetlands in the last 300 years. Tourism is hurting the natural habitats of animals dependent on mountains, coral reefs and beaches. An example is the green turtle that uses the island beaches in the South Atlantic Ocean to lay its eggs. Near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, a Boy Scout troop planted one thousand milkweed plants to replace the ones bulldozed for a basin detention project. Each year, thousands of monarch butterflies stop and eat the milkweed on their way south for the winter.