Massive deforestation is currently carried out in Sudan for the benefit of agriculture

May 29, 2012 06:18 GMT  ·  By

As high officials in the region of southern Sudan continue to allow for wide stretches of land to be stripped free of their forests, mainly due to the fact that local agriculture is currently developing in a rather hectic manner, there is no telling what impact this state of things will have on local weather conditions and on the well-being of the environment.

Most researchers agree that the people of Southern Sudan have only recently begun to chop down their forests, and that the reasons behind such foolish actions are in fact quite valid ones.

Apparently, ever since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between southern and northern Sudan, a lot of Sudanese people – approximately 35,000 individuals – made their way back to their homes and were faced with having to make a living.

Since agriculture is pretty much the only thing for them to do there, it is only natural that they should start destroying the forests and replacing them with crops. Recent investigations on the matter show that about 2,776 square kilometers of forest are destroyed on an annual basis in South Sudan, reports ipsnews.net.

Specialist warn that cutting down forest at this rate may lead to the area's facing droughts, which means that, quite paradoxically, the agriculture that Sudanese people seem so fond of developing might also find itself in a pitfall.

Isaac Woja, a researcher who specializes in the management of natural resources, argues that “"The rate at which people are cutting trees is worrying. If this trend continues future generations are going to suffer. South Sudan may become a desert like what you see in the north."

For the time being, as long as the people living in southern Sudan have no other ways of making a living, it is most likely that rampant deforestation will continue to take place.