Deforestation One

 
 
 

Vocabulary

valley	area (3)	leave (2)
log (2)	logging	extreme
agent	deep (2)	environmental
pity	footage	national park
entire	state (2)	old-growth
beech	cleared	regenerate
risk	spread	UNESCO
severe	no more	order (3)
beech	recently	cut/cut/cut
illegal	legally	cut down
insist	method	under control
allow	care (2)	according to
double	protect	progressively
cancer	level (2)	undercover
beach	sign (3)	inventory
triple	permit	specialist

 
 
 
 
 

Video: Deforestation, One

 
 
 
 

Transcript

This is the Cerna River Valley in Romania, home to one of Europe’s last beech forests.

But the forest’s future is threatened by extreme logging.

Environmental group Agent Green wants all logging here stopped. They filmed this undercover footage of loggers.

Agent Green Activist: “You shouldn’t cut trees in a national park.”
Logger: “Yes it’s a nation park; but you can cut trees in a national park. Isn’t it a pity to leave wood in a forest instead of making money from it?”
Agent Green Activist: “Will you cut the entire forest?”
Logger: “Yes, all of it.”

Agent Green Activist: “Here no tourism is possible any more. And this was also a very old-growth forest: beech forest, a beautiful forest. That will be all cleared.

In the next ten years there will be no more forest. ”

Parts of the forest are protected from logging by UNESCO. But over half is unprotected and is at severe risk.

Journalist: The deeper you get into this national park, the more signs of logging. The whole park seems to be a logging area. In fact we see some beech trees that have been cut recently — this one must be at least two-hundred years old.

These trees were cut down with a permit — but using illegal methods.

The forest agency insists all is under control.

Forest Agency Official: The logging inside the park is done legally, according to the management plan. The forest is cut progressively, which allows the forest to regenerate.

We care for these young trees like our own children.

Agent Green Activist: “Illegal logging at this level means that the cancer spreads across the whole country. The results of the new forest inventory, ordered and paid by the state, and made by the forestry specialists, shows that actually illegal has not been stopped, but more than doubled.

 

 

Questions

1. There are vast tracts of beech forests throughout Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Spain. True or false?

2. Are loggers cutting down trees in a commercial forest plantation?

3. Which is more important for the loggers, profits or nature conservation?

4. Everyone in Romania is pro-business. Is this entirely right, mostly right, partially right, in the middle, yes and no, wrong or entirely wrong?

5. Only a small portion of the forest reverse has been cut down. Is this correct or incorrect?

6. Does the forest agency official confess to what is happening? Is he straightforward and truthful? What does he say?

7. Is the conservationist (environmentalist) optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

 

A. There are lots of large tracts of forests in my country. Yes or no?

B. Do people like and appreciate nature?

C. Is there a battle between developers and conservationists?

D. What might happen in the future?

E. What should people and the government do?