Why Is Deforestation An Important Issue

[Doménica Spielmann]

Deforestationand forest degradation are the biggest threats to forests worldwide. Deforestation occurs when forests are converted to non-forest uses, such as agriculture and road construction. Forest degradation occurs when forest ecosystems lose their capacity to provide important goods and services to people and nature.

Forests also play a crucial role in climate change adaptation efforts. They act as a food safety net during climate shocks, reduce risks from disasters like coastal flooding, and help regulate water flows and microclimates. Improving the health of these forest ecosystems and introducing sustainable management practices increase the resilience of human and natural systems to the impacts of climate change.

Nature-based Solutions such as forest landscape restoration can help countries reverse the effects of deforestation and degradation and regain the ecological, social, climatic and economic benefits of forests.

For example, a ROAM assessment in Malawi helped the government introduce sustainable agricultural systems to address food insecurity. In Colombia, FLR interventions have supported the rehabilitation of landscapes after decades of conflict.

Deforestation is an important issue, since shrinking forest cover reduces biodiversity, affects soil and water quality, impacts wildlife habitat and influences climate change. The Canadian government carefully monitors and regularly publishes reports on deforestation. Our scientists combine satellite and aerial images with information about regional development, forest ecosystems, natural processes and local conditions to help monitor and manage the health of Canadian forests.

The annual deforestation rate in Canada in 2010 was less than 0.02% of our forests and the rate has been declining for over 25 years. In 1990, 63,100 hectares were lost to deforestation and in 2014 this figure dropped to 34,200 hectares.

The conversion of forest to agricultural land is decreasing but it remains the largest contributor to deforestation in Canada. The small contribution the forest sector makes to deforestation is from building permanent logging access roads. Forest harvesting practices in Canada are tightly regulated to ensure long-term sustainability of this important natural resource. Learn more about forest management practices.

Canada has some of the most rigorous laws in the world for protecting forests and ensuring sustainable forest management. We are world leaders in scientific research that informs planning and management practices. Find out about Canadian forestry laws and policies.

Media reports have equated forest cover loss from forest fires, harvesting and insects to deforestation, which is incorrect. The small amount of deforestation that occurs in Canada is primarily driven by resource development, economic growth and the need to build infrastructure. To manage these pressures, provincial governments are increasingly using integrated landscape management (ILM) to plan the land uses over a broad landscape and encourage different users to share infrastructure and minimize deforestation.

The Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada is collaborating with the oil and gas sector to identify ways to reduce the amount and impact of development on forest ecosystems and to accelerate the reclamation of land disturbed by mining or oil and gas extraction.

A forest is a living community of organisms that naturally experiences constant change. Over time, forests experience many disturbances (including fire, insects, disease, drought, wind throw, floods and timber harvesting), yet trees continue to grow back naturally. In the forest, nothing is ever static. This is particularly true in the boreal forest, which is ecologically adapted to renew itself through disturbances such as fire. Read more about natural disturbances.

Amazonia - The area around the River Amazon in South America, principally in Brazil, but also extending into Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. The region comprises approximately one third of the world's remaining tropical rainforest.2

Amazonia Legal (Legal Amazon) - An area of 5.2 million km, constituting all of the Brazilian Amazon. The Brazilian government created the Amazonia Legal designation in 1953 as a way to plan and promote the social and economic development of states in the Amazon region, which historically share the same economic, political, and social challenges.3

Land Surface Albedo - The ratio of the solar radiation reflected from Earth's surface to the solar radiation incident upon it, which is critical to the regulation of Earth's surface energy budget. In essence, land surface albedo is a measurement of the "whiteness" or reflectivity of the surface of the land.

Slash-and-burn - Relating to or denoting a method of agriculture in which existing vegetation is cut down and burned off before new seeds are sown, typically used as a method for clearing forest land for farming,9 also called fire-fallow cultivation.

The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world as well as the largest river basin, spanning 670 million hectares16 across 9 South American countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.17 The Amazon contains more species of plants and animals than anywhere else on the planet, and is believed to be the home of 10% of all species on Earth.18 Of the many plant species in the Amazon, 75% are unique to the Amazon. There are 3,000 different species of fish, which is the largest number of freshwater fish species in the world.19 Additionally, the Amazon rainforest is home to 34 million people who depend on its resources.20

One factor that influences Amazonian deforestation, as well as its other contributing factors, is government involvement. This takes the form of legislation, or lack thereof, that directly protects the forest, but also includes the policies surrounding logging permits, the process of designating protected lands, and the rules around businesses involved in the Amazon rainforest. These policies include penalties, fines, warnings, and seizures of equipment, or lack thereof, when legislation is violated. As the Amazon rainforest includes territory of 9 different countries, multiple governments are involved in its protection. However, the most influential government by far is the Brazilian government as 64% of the Amazon falls within its borders.26 27

Deforestation caused by cattle ranching is supported by an international demand for cattle-related products, including leather, meat, dairy, and cosmetics, which flow into companies in multiple industries worth billions of dollars.35 Deforestation through cattle-ranching is further driven by low costs for inputs, such as breeding bulls or cows, fencing, artificial feed, medicine, and labor, as well as ease of transportation and inexpensive land.36 At the onset of these deforestation problems, the government of Brazil had incentives for many years to increase land usage and ownership through cattle and clearing land.37

Roads and other related infrastructure have a huge impact on deforestation by increasing accessibility to the forest. After extensive research into all roads and transportation routes (including those that were illegal or unofficial), one study found that nearly 95% of all deforestation occurred within either 5.5 km of roads or 1 km of rivers, as both facilitate much more access to the rainforest.38 Additionally, the study found that protected areas near roads and rivers had much lower deforestation (10.9%) than did unprotected areas near roads and rivers (43.6%).39

There are about 150 dams in the Amazon region, with hundreds more planned.44 Dams contribute to deforestation by replacing large swaths of forest with reservoirs of water. One example is the Belo Monte Dam, which is the fourth largest hydroelectric project on Earth. Its reservoir was filled in 2015, taking out 260 square miles of lowland and forest.45 Other examples of dams in the Amazon include the Balbina, Tucuru, and Samuel dams. The area of forest lost to reservoir creation was 1,200 square miles at Balbina, 744 square miles at Tucuru, and 168 square miles at Samuel.46 Perhaps most notable, however, is the Tucuru Dam, which is located in the northeastern Brazilian Amazon and is the largest dam ever built in a tropical rainforest.47 Its reservoir displaced 40,000 people and flooded 2,875 square kilometers of forest.48

Flooding forests for reservoirs is not the only way dams contribute to deforestation. In addition, dams displace populations (Belo Monte has displaced 20,000 indigenous people since it was built in 2015),49 attract more people to the dam location with related jobs, and expose areas along the many roads that are built to each dam. All of these effects lead to more deforestation via increased land development and increased access for various groups engaged in deforestation.50 Many projects associated with these dams, like that of creating waterways for soy transportation, contribute to deforestation as well.51

Around the world, agriculture accounts for about 27% of all forest loss, and Amazonia is no exception.52 Oftentimes, farmers will use slash-and-burn techniques to clear land for growing or harvesting commodities like soy, palm oil, gold, sugarcane, and beef, which depletes the forest cover and increases the risk of fire. In 2003, one of the worst years for deforestation in the Amazon, it was discovered that more than 20% of the forest in Mato Grosso (a Brazilian state) was converted to cropland.53 Much of this specific cause is powered by global markets and economic conditions.54 Generally, specific deforestation rates tend to rise and fall in concert with the price of soybeans, beef, timber, and other crops in the region.55

The elimination of tree cover is the main reason for species disturbance. Not only do the trees of the Amazon rainforest provide a home for many species, but the canopy of the rainforest also regulates temperature which is critical for numerous other species. Without the regulation these tree canopies provide, the environment becomes more like a savannah with much less vegetation, a highly variant temperature from day to night, and much lower humidity levels. This change also results in high winds and exposure to direct sunlight, solar radiation, and, at times, heavy precipitation, all of which could prove fatal to many species.

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