Welcome to For Forests’ Sake, in this blog, we hope that we are able to shed light on environmental pollution, and its effects on the forests and us. Before we proceed, here’s a quick introduction of the two of us who are maintaining this blog! Ivy and I (Dylan) are both Year 3 Geography majors with great interests in the conservation of the environment (which is also why we took this module :D).

Now, enough about us…

So… why For Forests’ Sake? To put it simply (for now), forests are extremely important ecosystems, and current trends of environmental pollution has put the health and conditions of the Earth’s forests at great risks.

A forest is defined as a large area covered by trees (Choong, 2020). According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, forests cover approximately 31% of the Earth’s surface (FAO, n.d.). As mentioned above, forests are extremely important as it carries a plethora of biodiversity values. A key concept related to the importance of forests is its ecosystem services. To give a brief summary, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), ecosystem services refer to the benefits people derive from ecosystems (Karki, 2020). Ecosystem services can be categorised into four groups, namely: provisioning – e.g. food and water, regulating – e.g. climate control, supporting – e.g. oxygen production and cultural – e.g. recreation (TEEB, n.d.). More about this in future blog posts.

Moving on the pollution part of everything…

Simply put (again), pollution refers to the introduction of harmful substances into the environment (National Geographic Society, 2012), while a similar sounding term pollutant refers more specifically to the substances involved (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018).

The processes of environmental pollution and the types of pollutants will play a central role in this blog, highlighting the adverse effects it has on the world’s forests.

This blog will explore the numerous types of forests that exist in our world, as well as further delve into the importance of these ecosystems. We will also be taking a more scientific dive into the processes of environmental pollution, its causes and how it not only affects the forests, but us humans as well. Hopefully through this platform, we will be able to enlighten you on the very real threat of pollution to our forests.

Till next time, bye bye!

References:

Choong, M. F. A. (2020). Primary vegetation [PowerPoint slides]. Unpublished manuscript, GES1021, National University of Singapore, Singapore

FAO. (n.d.). The State of the World’s Forests 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/

Karki, M. (2020, June 19). Services. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-ecosystem-management/our-work/cems-thematic-groups/services

National Geographic Society. (2012, October 09). Pollution. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/pollution/

Tan, H. T., Chou, L. M., Yeo, D. C. J., & Ng, P. K. L. (2010). The natural heritage of Singapore. Pearson Prentice Hall, Singapore, 9, 323.

TEEB. (n.d.). Ecosystem Services. Retrieved August 24, 2020, from http://www.teebweb.org/resources/ecosystem-services/

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2018, November 19). Report on the Environment (Rep.). Retrieved August 24, 2020, from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website: https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/roe-glossary#p