The vast majority of the world's tropical forests are located in what is known as the 'Global South'. The 'Global South' includes most low-income countries outside Europe and North America, located in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It is one of a
family of terms, including 'Third World'. Many countries in the Global South suffer from the proverbial, 'resource curse' also known as the paradox of plenty. The paradox of plenty refers to the relatively well-known phenomenon of the presence of high-value natural resources in a country/jurisdiction fuelling instability, even armed uprisings. This phenomenon formed the bedrock of several Hollywood-thriller films such as Blood Diamonds, The Lord of War and Black November. While hard commodities, such as diamonds are commonly associated with fuelling the resource curse in low-income countries, some of our most common grocery items also play an important role in fuelling tropical forest loss
Ecosystems of the Global South Are Under a Huge Pressure
Commonly purchased grocery items coffee, rubber, cashew nuts, cocoa, oil palm among others are a major cause of forest conversion to agricultural plantations (https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/centres/centre-for-sustainable-finance/news/action-plan-for-banks-to-halt-deforestation ). Large-scale forest cover change has a damaging effect on the ability of tropical forests to store carbon, provide habitat to biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. Most post-Second World War conflicts have occurred within regions where biodiversity is particularly high, with over 80% of all major armed conflicts during the period 1950–2000 occurring directly within areas recognized as global biodiversity hotspots (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714000391#b0140).
For instance, over the last four decades, Lake Chad, once the sixth largest lake in the world and an important freshwater source for the region, has decreased by more than 90% in area
This drastic decline has been driven by a variety of factors, including, setting up of modern irrigation, climate change and agricultural expansion. With the desert encroaching further every year, it is getting increasingly difficult for families to make a living through agriculture, fishing and livestock farming. The UN says 10.7 million people in the Lake Chad basin need humanitarian relief to survive (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43500314).
