Environmental Consequences

21. Lastly, inequalities in the distribution of land ownership set in motion a process of environmental degradation that is hard to reverse.(¹⁵) Soil degradation and reduced soil fertility, high risks of flooding, lowering of water-tables, siltation of rivers and lakes, and other environmental problems also contribute to this process.

Deforestation of large areas is often encouraged with tax and credit facilities in order to make way for forms of extensive ranching or mining activities or to exploit the resulting timber, but plans for environmental rehabilitation are either non-existent or not implemented.

Poverty is also linked to environmental degradation in a vicious circle when small farmers suffer expropriation by major landowners and the landless poor are forced to search for new land, therefore occupying structurally fragile areas such as slopes, and further eroding the forest heritage in order to clear a space to farm.