Essay On Deforestation And Its Effects

[Gordon Neal]

Deforestationor forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use.[1] Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present.[2] This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century.[3] Between 15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Bangladesh, are destroyed every year. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute.[4] Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics.[5][6] In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests. These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage.[7][8]

The direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture by far.[9] More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018.[10] Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, palm oil, rubber and various other popular products.[11] Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the wood industry (logging), urbanization and mining. The effects of climate change are another cause via the increased risk of wildfires (see deforestation and climate change).

Deforestation results in habitat destruction which in turn leads to biodiversity loss. Deforestation also leads to extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and displacement of indigenous people who live in forests. Deforested regions often also suffer from other environmental problems such as desertification and soil erosion.

Another problem is that deforestation reduces the uptake of carbon dioxide (carbon sequestration) from the atmosphere. This reduces the potential of forests to assist with climate change mitigation. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change is also important for the agricultural sector.[12] The reason for this linkage is because the effects of climate change on agriculture pose new risks to global food systems.[12]

Since 1990, it is estimated that some 420 million hectares of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses, although the rate of deforestation has decreased over the past three decades. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990. More than 100 million hectares of forests are adversely affected by forest fires, pests, diseases, invasive species, drought and adverse weather events.[13]

Deforestation and forest area net change are not the same: the latter is the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a given period. Net change, therefore, can be positive or negative, depending on whether gains exceed losses, or vice versa.[14]

Deforestation is more extreme in tropical and subtropical forests in emerging economies. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live in tropical forests.[21] As a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres (2.4 million square miles) remain of the original 16 million square kilometres (6 million square miles) of tropical rainforest that formerly covered the Earth.[19] More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018.[22]

In 2023, the Global Forest Watch reported a 9% decline in tropical primary forest loss compared to the previous year, with significant regional reductions in Brazil and Colombia overshadowed by increases elsewhere, leading to a 3.2% rise in global deforestation. Massive wildfires in Canada, exacerbated by climate change, contributed to a 24% increase in global tree cover loss, highlighting the ongoing threats to forests essential for carbon storage and biodiversity. Despite some progress, the overall trends in forest destruction and climate impacts remain off track.[27]

Global deforestation[31] sharply accelerated around 1852.[32][33] As of 1947, the planet had 15 to 16 million km2 (5.8 to 6.2 million sq mi) of mature tropical forests,[34] but by 2015, it was estimated that about half of these had been destroyed.[35][21][36] Total land coverage by tropical rainforests decreased from 14% to 6%. Much of this loss happened between 1960 and 1990, when 20% of all tropical rainforests were destroyed. At this rate, extinction of such forests is projected to occur by the mid-21st century.[citation needed]

In the early 2000s, some scientists predicted that unless significant measures (such as seeking out and protecting old growth forests that have not been disturbed)[34] are taken on a worldwide basis, by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining,[32][36] with another 10% in a degraded condition.[32] 80% will have been lost, and with them hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable species.[32]

Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics.[5][6] In 2019, the world lost nearly 12 million hectares of tree cover. Nearly a third of that loss, 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests, areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage. This is equivalent to losing an area of primary forest the size of a football pitch every six seconds.[7][8]

A 2002 analysis of satellite imagery suggested that the rate of deforestation in the humid tropics (approximately 5.8 million hectares per year) was roughly 23% lower than the most commonly quoted rates.[40] A 2005 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that although the Earth's total forest area continued to decrease at about 13 million hectares per year, the global rate of deforestation had been slowing.[41][42] On the other hand, a 2005 analysis of satellite images reveals that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is twice as fast as scientists previously estimated.[43][44]

From 2010 to 2015, worldwide forest area decreased by 3.3 million ha per year, according to FAO. During this five-year period, the biggest forest area loss occurred in the tropics, particularly in South America and Africa. Per capita forest area decline was also greatest in the tropics and subtropics but is occurring in every climatic domain (except in the temperate) as populations increase.[45]

Some claim that rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace.[48] The London-based Rainforest Foundation notes that "the UN figure is based on a definition of forest as being an area with as little as 10% actual tree cover, which would therefore include areas that are actually savanna-like ecosystems and badly damaged forests".[49] Other critics of the FAO data point out that they do not distinguish between forest types,[50] and that they are based largely on reporting from forestry departments of individual countries,[51] which do not take into account unofficial activities like illegal logging.[52] Despite these uncertainties, there is agreement that destruction of rainforests remains a significant environmental problem.

Rates of deforestation vary around the world. Up to 90% of West Africa's coastal rainforests have disappeared since 1900.[56] Madagascar has lost 90% of its eastern rainforests.[57][58] In South Asia, about 88% of the rainforests have been lost.[59]

Mexico, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, have lost large areas of their rainforest.[60][61]

The World Wildlife Fund's ecoregion project catalogues habitat types throughout the world, including habitat loss such as deforestation, showing for example that even in the rich forests of parts of Canada such as the Mid-Continental Canadian forests of the prairie provinces half of the forest cover has been lost or altered.

In 2011, Conservation International listed the top 10 most endangered forests, characterized by having all lost 90% or more of their original habitat, and each harboring at least 1500 endemic plant species (species found nowhere else in the world).[76]

Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest fragmentation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity.[12] Large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean and oil palm) accounted for 40 percent of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010, and local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent.[12] Trees are cut down for use as building material, timber or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal or timber), while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and agricultural crops.

The vast majority of agricultural activity resulting in deforestation is subsidized by government tax revenue.[89] Disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management, and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that lead to large-scale deforestation.

The types of drivers vary greatly depending on the region in which they take place. The regions with the greatest amount of deforestation for livestock and row crop agriculture are Central and South America, while commodity crop deforestation was found mainly in Southeast Asia. The region with the greatest forest loss due to shifting agriculture was sub-Saharan Africa.[90]

The overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture.[9] Subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation; commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%; logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%.[9]

More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018.[10] Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, tea, palm oil, rice, rubber, and various other popular products.[11] The rising demand for certain products and global trade arrangements causes forest conversions, which ultimately leads to soil erosion.[91] The top soil oftentimes erodes after forests are cleared which leads to sediment increase in rivers and streams.

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