| The Tobacco Reference Guide |
| by David Moyer, MD. |
| Chapter 27 International |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour |
| International: Tobacco and deforestation |
| globalink (artefact pour saut de ligne) |
| 2.5 million tons of tobacco worldwide is flue-cured using wood each year. This |
| requires 6.2 million acres of forest to be cut yearly to meet this need. Pakistan |
| consumes 1.5 million cubic meters of wood for tobacco curing; Tanzania consumes |
| 1.3 million cubic meters of wood fuel. |
| Tobacco Control in the Third World, p. 57 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| In terms of the use of wood in curing tobacco, different studies give different results on |
| deforestation, and the subject is controversial. The following data are reported: one |
| tree is felled for every 300 cigarettes, one hectare of tobacco requires between 0.5 |
| and 1 hectare of forest for curing; one in twelve trees felled worldwide is used in curing |
| tobacco; or, each kilo of tobacco demands about 160 kilos of wood. However, |
| another report downgrades the environmental impact and estimates lower ratios of |
| wood usage for tobacco curing. Unfortunately, facts about trees cut and deforestation |
| have been uncritically repeated many times, and are not proven. |
| Tobacco in History, p. 243 |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| Dr. Helmut Geist from Nuess, Germany published a detailed review article "Global |
| assessment of deforestation related to tobacco farming" in Tobacco Control, Spring |
| 1999, pp. 18-28. An estimated 200,000 hectares of forests are lost from tobacco |
| farming and flue curing each year. The deforestation occurs mainly in southern Africa, |
| South and East Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. This accounts for about |
| 1.7% of global net losses of forest cover, but nearly 5% of the total deforestation in the |
| developing countries of the world. An estimated 11.4 million tons of wood, much |
| taken from native forests in the developing world, is consumed each year for flue |
| curing of tobacco. 93% of tobacco-related deforestation occurs in developing |
| countries, and 90% of all land cultivated for tobacco is in developing countries. In |
| Tanzania, wood is used for 100% of flue-cured tobacco that is produced. |
| tobacco reference guideg (artefact pour saut |
| Page 99 of 116 |
| globalink (artefact pour saut de ligne) |
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