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NATURAL RESOURCES
What causes this loss of forests and their biodiversity?
A common Northern misunderstanding is that deforestation and the resulting loss of biodiversity are caused by explosive population growth and unsustainable development in Southern countries. In fact, industrialized governments, multilateral development banks, and transnational corporations cause tropical forest devastation by supporting destructive energy, forestry and agriculture projects. The World Bank is famous for its unsustainable projects in development countries, such as the Trans-Amazon Highway that opened up the Brazilian rain forest for exploitation. Another important factor in biodiversity erosion is the northern countries' preference for genetic uniformity over diversity. For example, the World Bank's Tropical Forestry Action Plan was theoretically implemented to "save" the forests. However, the TFAP's massive planting of endless rows of not very diverse, economically-valuable eucalyptus trees in Asia, Africa, and Latin America benefits industry far more than it does biodiversity and the people who rely on the forests.