Concept:
- The need for conservation becomes obvious if the question is turned around and we ask what would be lost if the forests disappeared.
- The losses fall into three clear groups, ecological, economic and social.
Step 1: What would be lost ecologically.
Without forest cover the soil would be washed away by rain, floods and droughts would grow more severe, and the supply of oxygen and the absorption of carbon dioxide would both fall. Countless species would disappear along with their habitat.
Step 2: What would be lost economically.
Forests supply timber, fuel wood, bamboo, medicinal plants, gum, resin, honey and lac. Industries based on these raw materials would collapse, and the country would have to import what it now gets from its own forests.
Step 3: What would be lost socially.
Tribal and forest-dwelling communities depend on forests for food, medicine and livelihood, and their culture is built around them. Losing the forest would take away the basis of their way of life.
Final Answer: Forests must be conserved because their loss would mean eroded soil, a damaged water cycle, vanished species, ruined forest-based industries and the destruction of the livelihood of the communities that live in them.