DOES MONEY ACTUALLY GROW ON TREES?

Alexia Platt (WHS)

‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’. A cliché I’m sure most people will have heard when they were younger; when there were no understanding of the true value of money. However, although overused now, is this cliché wrong – are there economic benefits of trees? As of 2020 there are approximately 3.04 trillion trees on the planet, made up of 60,065 different species. Uses vary from tangible products, such as paper or furniture to intangible services, such as the carbon cycle or retaining nutrients in biomass to aid farmers in growing crops. Over time, although the uses may have developed and changed, trees have always been a vital part of our economy, in ways that at first, may not be apparent. Let’s jump back in time. The year is 1690, and the global dominance of the British Empire is growing. In Britain, most of the population are in the primary sector of employment, particularly in agriculture, growing trees to help build houses, or to trade for an animal to increase income for the household. As timber and fruits were traded amongst farmers, incomes increased. However, as more villages were established, space that was previously forestland was cleared of trees, and the supply started to diminish. The navy (at the time, the biggest in the world) relied on the timber for their ships, to continue to expand their fleet, they had to travel further abroad. Ships then travelled to America, India, and Europe to gain resources, power, and valuable influence to create trading alliances that are still in place today. This extra money and resources gave Britain an advantage when the industrial revolution hit in 1760, allowing for a quick and smooth integration of the new, more efficient way of life that asserted Britain further as a global power and boosted the economy to a new extent. And all of this stemmed from the reliance and resources of trees, without which, the roots of our economy would not stand today. However, as countries developed, the reliance on single resources and tangible products have decreased, particularly in AC’s in favour of services and jobs in tertiary and quaternary sectors, meaning agriculture (such as timber production) has steadily decreased. But trees still play a vital part in the growth of our economy today. In LIDC’s and EDC’s, such as Brazil, logging and mass production of wood has become part of the economy. Although the industry is environmentally frowned upon, it has an estimated worth of $200 billion annually, allowing many developing countries who produce this material to place money into developing infrastructure and technology further. There are not only economic benefits, but in some societies, such as in parts of Indonesia, trees and wood have been used as currency on a local scale, allowing people to trade wood for farming animals, or clothes, encouraging economic movement in smaller villages, that may not have reliable national trading routes. Paper, furniture and fuel are just some other ways that trees have become so heavily relied on in people’s lives, with few other ways to substitute the valuable resources they produce. However, the rate that trees resources are exploited at is becoming too high. In the quest to become economically developed sustainability of forests has been forgotten, with tropical deforestation rates accounting for loss of biodiversity, reduction in carbon intakes and affecting further tree growth in surrounding areas as nutrients are removed.

There have been recent attempts, however, to preserve the trees, and in particular rainforests. In a recent study by Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, it was determined that rainforests store around 25% of Carbon Dioxide, with the Amazon alone strong 127 billion tons. To release these gases would heavily increase the enhanced greenhouse effect, changing the balance of the Earth’s ecosystems. Sustainable income from trees is becoming more apparent, particularly in countries where deforestation rates are highest. In Bangladesh, whose fuel industry relies on 81% wood, the logging industry have been encouraged to collect dead trees, wood waste and pruning rather than felling increased sections of forest. This will still allow for an income to be produced, whilst ensuring trees remain a present part of the ecosystem. Furthermore, as a society, there has been a global effort to move away from the use of wood entirely. Reusable energy, such as solar power, makes up 26% of the global energy used and is expected to rise to 45% by 2045. Although this means the usage of trees in the economy will decline, it allows for new income sources, such as eco-tourism that encourages more environmentally aware holidays; for example, Samasati lodge, Costa Rica. The lodge uses rainwater instead of transporting water through pipes, is built on stilts rather than the ground as not to disrupt run-off water to rivers and blends in with surroundings to ensure not to disturb local wildlife in attempts to make holidays more environmentally sustainable, whilst still taking economic advantages of trees. ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’. Well, since 2016 in the UK, it hasn’t, when our bank note system changed from paper to plastic, showing the progression from a society that once relied on a single produce, to a new, man-made source. This well represents our economy today, and our declining reliance on trees, helping – once a vital part in building the roots of our economy, but soon, will become a thing of the past.