From mammals to birds, insects, amphibians or plants, the forest is home to many rare and fragile species. By destroying the forests, human activities are putting entire ecosystems in danger, creating natural imbalances, and putting Life at threat.
The natural world is complex, interconnected, and made of thousands of inter-dependencies and among other functions, trees provide shade and colder temperatures for animals and smaller trees or vegetation which may not survive with the heat of direct sunlight. Besides, trees also feeding animals with their fruits while providing them with food and shelter they need to survive.
Then you should find out some examples of how Life is interconnected:. Healthy forests support the livelihoods of 1. This means there are many people depending on forests for survival and using them to hunt and gather raw products for their small-scale agriculture processes.
But in developing countries such as Borneo, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, or Mexico, land tenure systems are weak. Locals then have to make one of two choices. Or they can stay and work for the companies exploring it in remote plantations — often getting unfair wages and working under inhumane conditions.
Related: Is Avocado Production Sustainable? In the long term, the lack of healthy, nutritious soil can lead to low yields and food insecurity. Deforestation weakens and degrades the soi l. Forested soils are usually not only richer on organic matter, but also more resistant to erosion, bad weather, and extreme weather events. This happens mainly because roots help fix trees in the ground and the sun-blocking tree cover helps the soil to slowly dry out.
As a result, deforestation will probably mean the soil will become increasingly fragile, leaving the area more vulnerable to natural disasters such as landslides and floods. Deforestation also has a very strong contribution to climate change. If we speak about tropical forests, they hold more than gigatons of carbon, according to WWF.
Both these effects negatively contribute to the greenhouse effect and to climate change. To understand the challenges of deforestation, check this National Geographic video. Around the world, deforestation occurs mostly in the tropics where there are different types of forests are: from wet and hot rainforests to others that lose their leaves in the dry season and become woodlands.
Some parts of the world have managed to protect their forests from deforestation while others have seen their forestal area decline. These changes significantly differ but there are 3 important worldwide examples of deforestation: the Amazon rainforest, Indonesia and Borneo, and Africa.
Brazil and the Amazon forest are also important for the wrong reasons deforestation areas worldwide. Before , large industrial projects such as dams, roads, or mines were the main causes of deforestation in the Amazon region, together with subsistence farming.
However, for around thirty years, the causes of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest are changing. The development of intensive livestock production, combined with meat consumption increases in developed countries, is thus the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon forest.
Indonesia and the island of Borneo are emblematic symbols of the global phenomenon of deforestation. This region in Southeast Asia is naturally one of the richest reserves of forest and biodiversity in the world. But at the same time, it is also one of the regions that have been suffering the most deforestation in recent decades. According to FAO , between and alone, Indonesia lost about 9 million hectares of its forests, largely due to deforestation caused by palm oil.
One of the most important causes of deforestation in Indonesia and Borneo is unquestionably the production of palm oil. According to FAO, between and , nearly 6 million hectares of palm oil plantations have gradually replaced Indonesian forests. This makes the palm oil industry one of the biggest contributors to deforestation in Southeast Asia — and it is expected to continue to be so. Certifications are starting to appear, including sustainable palm oil labels that aim to prove it comes from certified forests and workers are fairly paid like RSPO.
Despite industries still posing serious environmental problems, the media spotlight on this topic is beginning to shift the lines. Africa is also a large area suffering from deforestation. In fact, it experiences more deforestation than Asia: about 2 million hectares of forest disappear each year in Africa. Woodcutting of forest reserves and the development of cocoa and palm oil plantations are among the main causes of deforestation in Africa, together with land cleaning for mining activities.
Unconventional production practices that illegally take down trees and use dangerous chemicals threaten forests and wildlife. In this way, exploiting crops such as palm oil, wood, coffee or avocados has side effects that affect the environment and the surrounding ecosystems.
Some of the animals under greatest threat are:. How can we stop deforestation? According to OECD , the human population is expected to continue to increase and reach over 9 billion people by At the current rate of consumption, and with more people inhabiting Earth, the need for more space to grow food and extract natural resources is only likely to increase — depending, of course, on tech development such as artificial foods. As the demand for food or raw materials like cotton or minerals increases, so does the need to turn forests into farmland, pastureland, or mining spots.
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The era of greyhound racing in the U. See how people have imagined life on Mars through history. As large amounts of forests are cleared away, allowing exposed earth to whither and die and the habitats of innumerable species to be destroyed, the indigenous communities who live there and depend on the forest to sustain their way of life are also under threat.
The loss of forests has an immediate and direct effect on their lifestyle that we in the highly industrialized parts of the world, despite our own dependency on what the rainforest provides, will never know. The level of immediacy is exponentially greater for indigenous peoples. The governments of nations with rainforests in their borders often attempt to evict indigenous tribes before the actual clear-cutting begins.
This is one of the pre-emptive effects of deforestation. Global Commons. Effects of Deforestation The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines deforestation as the "permanent removal of standing forests. What Is Deforestation? Environmental Effects of Deforestation From Above Loss of Habitat One of the most dangerous and unsettling effects of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat.
Increased Greenhouse Gases In addition to the loss of habitat, the lack of trees also allows a greater amount of greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere.
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