Forests cleared for poppy plants
Forests serve as the reliable sources of timber and other wood-based products that could generate huge foreign exchange receipts when exported. But nowadays, the forests are also being explored and tapped for growing poppy plants. But the trade-offs are tremendous to the environment because clearing of the forests alone was observed to have exerted undue pressures to the ecological balance of the land. According to a case-study made by the Trade and Environment Database of the American University’s School for International Service, thousands of acres of forests were illegally logged and used instead to plant marijuana and opium, which sell for hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States. The TED is a collection of case studies focusing on environmental issues. Consequently, the land being used for this cash-crop have experienced soil erosion; and indigenous plants and animal species have been noted to be disappearing and the cultural tribe of the Tarhumara Indian tribe is thr...