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Dear Don and Yale: For a long time now, decades probably, I've been hearing about deforestation. But who, exactly, is cutting down all the trees?
親愛的唐和雅艾爾：長久以來，或許幾十年以來，關于濫砍濫伐的事情我聽得太多了。但到底是誰在砍伐這些樹木呢？
Yale: If I had to guess, I'd say it's farmers clearing land for planting crops. Am I right？
雅艾爾：要我猜的話，我覺得是農民們在開荒墾植。我猜對了嗎？
Don: That would seem to make sense. Farmers do need to clear space to plant their fields. But actually, farmers around the world have just as much to do with planting trees as they do with chopping them down. A study using satellite pictures looked at around 2.5 billion acres of farmland around the world. It found that about ten-percent of it is covered by trees. That's an area twice as large as the Amazon rain forest.
唐：聽起來似乎有道理。農民們確實需要開荒墾植。但事實上，世界各地的農民既砍樹也植樹。一項研究采用衛星照片觀察了世界各地約25億公頃的農田。研究發現大約有十分之一的農田周圍種有樹木。且其總面積是亞馬遜熱帶雨林的兩倍。
Yale: That's pretty surprising. I mean why would farmers want so many trees taking up space? Don't they want their fields to be as large as possible?
雅艾爾：這實在令人驚奇。我的意思是為什么農民們會種植占用這么多土地的樹木？難道他們不希望盡可能多地耕種土地嗎？
Don: Yes, generally. But other studies have found that trees are very useful for farmers. They help keep soil healthy. And they can be harvested to feed animals, provide timber and wood for burning, and produce fruit. Trees also help prevent soil erosion and improve groundwater quality.
唐：一般來說，是的。但另一項研究顯示樹木對農民用處非常大。樹木能保持土壤健康，能用來喂牲口，樹干和樹枝可用來燒柴，此外樹還能結果。同時，樹能防止水土流失，改善地下水水質。
Yale: So farmers grow trees because they're profitable.
雅艾爾：所以農民們種樹是因為樹木用處大。
Don: Basically farmers have to make a living, and if trees made it harder to make a profit then farmers wouldn't keep them around. Of course, deforestation is still a big problem. Many farmers, especially in the Brazilian rain forest, cut down thousands of trees to make way for fields. But in many other places, farms and forests work together.
唐：從根本上來說，農民需要謀生。如果農民們很難依靠樹木獲利，他們是不會四處種植樹木的。當然，濫砍濫伐仍是一個大問題。許多地區，尤其是在巴西雨林中，成千上萬的樹被砍伐，為耕地騰地方。但是在其它許多地方，農民和森林是相互依存的。
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