World Development Report 1984

with certain nondemographic factors. For exam- areas such as in Nepal (see Box 5.4). Forests also
ple, an unequal distribution of farmland, by protect power production from hydroelectric
restricting access to better soils, can help to push schemes. When watersheds are cleared, dams
growing numbers of people onto ecologically sen- often start to silt up. Less electricity can be genersitive
areas-erosion-prone hillsides, semiarid ated (because less water can flow through the
savannas, and tropical forests. One example is the turbines); thus the economic life of the investment
migration to the Amazon rainforests from rural is reduced. For example, the useful life of the
areas of northeastern Brazil, where 6 percent of the Ambuklao Dam in the Philippines has been cut
landholdings account for more than 70 percent of from sixty to thirty-two years because of
the land area. Social changes can also bring eco- deforestation.
logical threats: in Kenya and Uganda pastoral Satisfying the demand for firewood is a major
groups, whose political power was destroyed cause of deforestation, particularly in the drier and
under colonial rule, have seen their closed system higher regions where trees grow slowly. To meet
of communal management converted into open their daily energy needs, an estimated 1.3 billion
access to their land. With added population people must cut firewood faster than it can be
growth, overgrazing and severe environmental replaced by natural growth. Unfortunately, those
damage have followed. Population pressure is not who are exhausting the forest seldom recognize
always the main culprit, but it almost always exac- what they are doing. The depletion becomes
erbates the problem. apparent only when obtaining adequate supplies
Of course, the environmental problems of the requires more physical effort or greater expense. In
developing countries are not confined to the coun- the Gambia and Tanzania population growth has
tryside. Industrialization and urbanization have made wood so scarce that each household spends
already led to severe air, water, and noise pollution 250 to 300 worker-days a year gathering the wood
in some cities. Although such pollution is a hazard it needs. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the price of
to public health, it does not pose as immediate a wood increased tenfold during the 1970s and now
threat to the economic life of low-income countries claims up to 20 percent of household income.
as does deforestation and desertification. In dry The scarcity of wood has profound implications
countries, these two threats are closely linked. for everyday life in developing countries. When
there is not enough fuel to heat food and boil
Deforestation water, diseases spread more rapidly. In China
more than 70 million rural households-about 350
Forests are central to the economic and ecological million people-suffer serious fuel shortages for
life of many developing countries. They help to up to six months a year when crop residues are
control floods and thus protect roads in mountain- exhausted and wood is unavailable in deforested
ous and wet areas. Floods and landslides have areas. In much of West Africa, families traditionbecome
serious problems in steep, deforested ally cooked two meals a day. Now, because wood
Box 5.4 Reclaiming the Himalayan watersheds
fli,r .,nge. r..,hr h1. 1- throu li r i t,' . r i-.jm n, p icpho . .L . l,,.:,,I. .- i-e . d ud.: t IiI. id.- hi .... 11 al -e , C., -lr.iie
Indii- aind H,,ng d, mh t.i....1 . . r i . l-h rlm,: in th.: path .'t tIi.: ;inuai .1311 tekr11 11 i Iot . ':k .:I. 1 t h I . 1 a .I.... , I t
c3u .ng mill- .n. ni . 1* 1,r:..L i .magx ti . -d \ . I. ;lihn.n, t,. thE flh:l:i oL ih, dan:.-. dr -n, i.. i,.- n, *n : -.ii;
,k .n..a!.-uI.;t h,.in,rh -utna r'r... u pU ptht I .,Iir gr,Bu. ih .E o-i,1 . tA. .i-..] .l111 i- h.n`.. rr.3:d 1 -. %. . n
h.: i l, . iw h rr .l'nr d:,n..,s e ar rt r 1... incr,.-d .-.p .nfniiaII ,.. x r th, - zr. n,n \i Inh *n1-lun .. .f thr, .-. , ir,r-
n-.,,,h -. rz, ri-in hr'e. n,-r .h,- In thE F p ' t t .%tr, v.,r, ,. n th.,u h r.hE nkeni; 1 fiani.ad- h Indi.i .rnd \.-pal
ni, Lin. *u L, - .n . r h, d .rh 1 n-- ri l ,'r'nu.Iruniall r.ntn h.ie l;rd cIr,rnv u, r.ur..t rpt ... .Lk. . ..d. i
ir.d,i md ,i i lr. . Ul r i .pl r . II- haw T.-. .lh p .. inbal thei lo odin-, th, MA rld p- .3I Fl. n *. I ar .1 S .intnbuin... it .ci.r
:Ertll I-'.,rr r1..^ d*ir'i.-.i.T,Ii"i3 i.h,.h .. I-;,3rL p.>, i.3r g a I rr.'irl I. r, Ihr r .. d.-p..r J .M . t ,1l.:-. 11 i, hich p..pul.-
ms,;Il:.-d ih, ;r I h- . ramn. i rur, .ii lndial' Xij.:- or tiTar PrAd. ht, h d-. .rIp u- n d,.slr, , In th, il. ......-. r..- r.' ar-1
rith.-r ,h.i,. . ..... thc -,nt., In th I- l Ii rh 1........- i,,. -nul.l ..a...,lr.ho.i . 3\.rn 12 I-NII.............. t_h.pi,r "
Undi. r -r , -urT.'undin; i rei (L3nia,- pp iivp.i.3i'r , pldflanIrni rr-,c. .er .i , ,Ie
ulalirn !r... rh a.nr.l c..nr n..rv,t-. n,.r lI,nd r.r-a til p,oje(i ill lttump? t. r.cl.irn -
95