The case study that I chose was the new efforts being taken by African nations to combat the illegal logging being done in Tanzania and Mozambique. The Zanzibar Declaration on Illegal Logging is supposed to improve the communications between customs authorities and forest officials, according to http://allafrica.com/stories/201509091188.html. This declaration will hopefully reduce the amount of deforestation, which is largely due to “terrorist organizations” using the lumber to fund their activities. In fact, according to the article, over 4 million hectares have been cut down just in 12 years. This issue directly deals with environmental justice, which was prevalent in this module. The trees not only important for the wildlife in the area, but also important for lowering the carbon dioxide levels for the entire planet.
In Maryland the Chesapeake Bay is a very important natural feature of the area. But recently, the bay has seen a huge drop in its oyster population which brings a pretty big concern for the health of the bay. The oysters act as natural filters and provide habitat for aquatic life. Recently, the oyster populations have been down to only two percent of the usual population because of pollution. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s website, in response to this, an oyster gardening program where people grow adolescent oysters to adulthood, has been set up to combat the dwindling oyster population. This issue relates to the topic of how development has environmental downsides. The Chesapeake Bay has become a foothold for many industries on the east coast, and as a result of this
this development pollution has caused oyster populations to be diminished, which in turn resulted in poor water quality because of the lack of the natural filtration the oysters provided.
http://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/programs-initiatives/maryland/oyster-restoration
My hometown of Pittsburgh, PA was once the hub of steel manufacturing of the world. Pittsburgh was ideal for manufacturing because of its convenient location at the intersection of three rivers, the Allegheny, Monongahela, and the Ohio Rivers. As industry boomed for decades, the rivers ecosystems’ took a toll as pollution and toxins leaked into the rivers. Just like how in Africa, the illegal logging negatively affected the African forest ecosystem, the illegal dumping of pollution in the Pittsburgh river ecosystem adversely affected it. Also, similarly to the oyster situation in the Chesapeake Bay, pollution due to development also hurt the ecosystem. Like the African illegal logging, governmental intervention was necessary to cull the illegal dumping in the rivers. Moreover, like the oyster growing initiative in Maryland, environmental groups in Pittsburgh came together to restore the rivers to their natural beauty.
Hi, Justin, I’m Ben. I wrote about environmental justice issues, here is a link to my blog https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bwu
Great post, I am a big fan of environmental issues. It’s too bad to hear about the extensive illegal logging. It’s easy to say it here and now, but buying locally sourced goods (if you can) is an easy way to control things like that. Really easy for me to say considering ow big an industry logging is here (and how well managed it is). I do have question regarding your local waterways. You mentioned environmental groups restoring the rivers. How is that going? Are the clean enough to fish from again? I am glad there are concerned citizens around!
Ben
Hi Justin, very interesting post. What I find intriguing about this is how, in case 2, it is located in a United States city not far from us. This shows just how close the environmental problems are coming to affect where we live. While they are not that big of an issue yet, they may start to have a larger and larger impact as time goes on. We need to start making changes soon, while the consequences are still minimal. If you would like to check out my post, go to:
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/23/the-ups-and-downs-of-development/