As long ago as March 1982, the tobacco-deforestation link was being cited. Their former covering of trees has been cut down to be used as fuel for curing tobacco. With most of the fertile ground given over to tobacco, some farmers have tried to grow maize on the formerly forested hillsides. But heavy rains wash away soil, plants, and all. The topsoil has eroded in some places, and rocks and boulders are already washing down toward the fertile fields below, the report says.
Tobacco growing brings the farmers more profits than maize did. . . .
Exports are being promoted at the expense of local consumption. Some environmentalists say that to cure tobacco grown on 200,000 hectares of land, farmers need another 200,000 hectares of forest for wood. And a 1986 industry-commissioned report estimated that 7.8 kg of wood on average was needed to cure one kg of tobacco. Tobacco farmers are replanting nothing. They have no conscience about the damage they are doing.