I looked up the deforestation problem in Madagascar, and how that effects the country’s development. I used the Colby website to find my information and the link is https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog030/node/355. This case study talks about the historical and present day problems in Madagascar caused by deforestation. In 1896 the people of Madagascar used shifting cultivation to survive. They would plant and grow crops on a certain area, and then burn the fields when they became not fertile anymore. This destroyed the land and made it useless for future generations to farm on. The government realized this was a problem because eventually there would be no more land left, so they banned this practice. However the people did not comply with this ban and it was very hard to enforce. This relates to the idea of sustainable development that was discussed in the module. The Madagascar people are developing by crowing crops and selling them, however this is not sustainable development because they are ruining the land and future generations will not be able to use it.

The second case study I looked up is about deforestation in India. I used fao.org as my site for information and the link is http://www.fao.org/docrep/article/wfc/xii/0250-a1.htm . The deforestation of the tropical rainforest in India has increased greatly in recent history, and it has come to the point that if something isn’t done the entire rainforest will be destroyed. I find it interesting that people in India are using the forest and its different resources for different things, such as firewood and grazing, to try to develop, but they are really just killing the forest, and hurting their development in the long run. They are taking too much of the forest to fast and soon it will all be gone. The goal of the development is to be able to use the forest in a healthy way that helps the people, and will keep the forest alive for future generations. This would be sustainable development, which was talked about in the module. To help the government has created initiatives for protecting the forest, and has removed subsidies that encouraged deforestation.

These two case studies talk about deforestation, which is a topic that can not be directly related to my hometown which is Wyckoff, New Jersey. However my hometown is only about a 30 minute drive from New York City, so it seems as if about every year a new proposal is created to build more apartments or townhouses in my town. Sometimes these projects get approved and more apartments are created. This helps development because it beings more people into my town, which create more cash flow which increases the equality of life. However if every project like this was approved, we would use up all of the land and trees on my town and that would hurt our development. We would kill all of the natural resources around us, just like what is happening in the case studies that I looked up. It is very important to have a balance in order to create sustainable development.