7+Cuba

** Country: ** Cuba
 * Topic: ** Deforestation
 * Committee: ** 7
 * Name: ** Michelle L.
 * Period: ** 0

 **I. __A BRIEF BACKGROUND OF THE TOPIC:__** Deforestation is a global concern throughout the world today, and many countries are trying to make the amount of land that is being damaged smaller, but is not very successful. Forest loss is caused by a complex set of social and economic pressures, and affects the genetic diversity of species on Earth. Large amounts of land have been destroyed and it is affecting the climate and geography. In order to clear potentially valuable agricultural, valuable rainforest has been destroyed, in many tropical countries. Forest loss also increases soil erosion, river siltation, and deposition, affecting navigation, wildlife habitat, and drinking water supplies.  __The topic of deforestation has been brought up in many conferences. The UN Forum was started by The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The UN also created the Tropical Forestry Action Plan which is launched by four international organizations: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, and the World Resources Institute.   __Cuba is partially covered by forests and has gone through many stages of deforestation in the past. War tanks used heavy chains and razed entire forests across the whole island. Millions of trees which provided refuge along with the animals that depended on them for shelter. Cuba has tried to invest in a reforestation campaign, but has failed because millions of the trees planted have died from lack of care. Many of the new agricultural methods failed but still left their mark on the process of deforestation.  Cuba thinks that it should restore degraded forest lands along with the establishment of protected areas are key to securing rainforests for the long-term benefits. Another solution can be to decrease the amount of products that are harvested from the rainforests. The TFAP sees forest destruction as a result of poverty, and the timber industry is assumed to alleviate poverty in areas. And so logging is therefore seen as directly reducing the main underlying cause of deforestation. http://www.fiu.edu/~fef/env.crisis2.html http://www.safnet.org/aboutforestry/world.cfm http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/chapter5/06_e.php
 * II. ** __**UNITED NATIONS INVOLVEMENT:**
 * III. ** __**COUNTRY POLICY AND INVOLVEMENT:**
 * IV. __SOLUTIONS:__**
 * Sources:**