Why is the loss of forest a problem?
- Loss of forests means loss of species: Forests are home to seventy percent of the world's plants and animals.
- Deforestation contributes to global warming: About 20 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from the clearing of tropical forests.
- Deforestation messes with the water cycle: Over half the water in rainforests is held within plants.
What are the causes of deforestation?
Tropical forests of all varieties, in particular, are disappearing rapidly by human activity. Other causes of deforestation may include drought, forest fires, and climate change. Although deforestation meets some human needs, it also causes major problems, including social conflict, the extinction of plants and animals, and climate change.
How does deforestation affect the tropical rainforest?
Tropical deforestation may also affect rainfall patterns far outside the tropics. Deforestation can also turn the tropics into a larger source of carbon emissions, which increases the greenhouse effect and global warming. The trees and plants in the forests contain a lot of carbon.
How big is the deforestation problem in the world?
A new WWF report on global forest cover and forest loss finds that over 160,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of California, were lost in deforestation hot spots around the world between 2004 and 2017. Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk. Continue Reading h More Stories h
Why are tropical forests disappearing?
Tropical forests of all varieties are disappearing rapidly as humans clear the natural landscape to make room for farms and pastures, to harvest timber for construction and fuel, and to build roads and urban areas.
Why is deforestation worse in the tropics?
Tropical forest loss is a bigger contributor to global emissions than loss of forests in temperate climes, in part because tropical trees hold more carbon in their biomass than in soil.
What happens during tropical deforestation?
Deforestation and the Hydrologic Cycle Tropical deforestation also affects the local climate of an area by reducing the evaporative cooling that takes place from both soil and plant life. As trees and plants are cleared away, the moist canopy of the tropical rain forest quickly diminishes.
How does tropical deforestation affect humans?
Over the past two decades, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that deforestation, by triggering a complex cascade of events, creates the conditions for a range of deadly pathogens—such as Nipah and Lassa viruses, and the parasites that cause malaria and Lyme disease—to spread to people.
What are the 3 major threats to tropical forest?
Logging interests cut down rain forest trees for timber used in flooring, furniture, and other items. Power plants and other industries cut and burn trees to generate electricity. The paper industry turns huge tracts of rain forest trees into pulp.
What will happen to the tropical forest if it is deforested?
When an area is completely deforested for farming, the farmer typically burns the trees and vegetation to create a fertilizing layer of ash. After this slash-and-burn deforestation, the nutrient reservoir is lost, flooding and erosion rates are high, and soils often become unable to support crops in just a few years.
What happens to the environment during deforestation?
The loss of trees and other vegetation can cause climate change, desertification, soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and a host of problems for Indigenous people.
What will happen to the tropical rainforest if it is deforestation?
Increased Soil Erosion Without trees to anchor fertile soil, erosion can occur and sweep the land into rivers. The agricultural plants that often replace the trees cannot hold onto the soil. Many of these plants—such as coffee, cotton, palm oil, soybean and wheat—can actually exacerbate soil erosion.
What is deforestation in the tropical rainforest?
Deforestation includes the conversion of natural forests into tree plantations, like the clearance of tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia for oil palm and timber plantations. Governments often exclude areas burned by fires from official deforestation statistics.
What is the process of deforestation?
Plants also carry out the opposite process—known as respiration— in which they emit carbon dioxide, but generally in smaller amounts than they take in during photosynthesis.
Why do we need to protect tropical forests?
We need to protect tropical forests from deforestation and degradation if we want to reduce emissions to the levels needed to protect the planet against the worst global warming impacts. Ending deforestation will not solve global warming by itself, of course—urgent action is needed to cut the other 90 percent of emissions.
How do tropical forests help?
Tropical forests help regulate regional rainfall and prevent both floods and droughts. Reducing deforestation is not only a beneficial action against global warming—it also can make important contributions to saving biodiversity and supporting sustainable development. Report.
How much carbon do tropical forests sequester?
Their potential sequestration is conservatively estimated at about 40 percent as much as would be achieved by ending deforestation, making them an important additional “natural climate solution.”
How much did Brazil reduce deforestation?
But there have been setbacks as well. Brazil was able to reduce deforestation by 70 percent between 2004 and 2012, but the Bolsonaro government in the late 2010s weakened enforcement and made racist attacks on Indigenous groups and their lands, reversing some of the steps forward. Continuing progress will require a sustained commitment by governments, businesses, and civil society worldwide to the goal of ending tropical deforestation.
How do plants produce carbon dioxide?
Plants also carry out the opposite process— known as respiration—in which they emit carbon dioxide , but generally in smaller amounts than they take in during photosynthesis. The surplus carbon is stored in the plant, helping it to grow. When trees are cut down and burned or allowed to rot, their stored carbon is released into ...
What are the four commodities that contribute to global deforestation?
Just four commodities—beef, soy, palm oil, and wood products —drive the majority of global deforestation. And consumers can help stop it.
Why Does NASA Study Deforestation?
NASA supports and conducts research on tropical forests from space-based and ground-based perspectives, helping provide the information that national and international leaders need to develop strategies for sustaining human populations and preserving tropical forest biodiversity.
How Do Deforestation Events Occur?
The biggest direct cause of tropical deforestation is turning the land into cropland and pasture. Countries build roads to improve the transportation of goods. The road development itself causes some deforestation. The new roads also provide entry to land that could not be accessed before. Logging often comes after the new roads. In some cases, it is the reason the roads were built. When loggers have harvested all the wood in an area , they move on. The roads and the logged areas attract settlers. The settlers destroy the remaining forest for cropland or cattle pasture.
How does deforestation affect the climate?
Up to 30 percent of the rain that falls in tropical forests is water that the rainforest has recycled into the atmosphere. Water evaporates, condenses into clouds and falls again as rain. In addition to maintaining tropical rainfall, the evaporation cools the Earth’s surface. Deforestation is likely to create a drier, hotter climate in the tropics. Tropical deforestation may also affect rainfall patterns far outside the tropics.
What are the most common land features on Earth?
Forests are an important and common feature of the Earth’s land cover, covering 31 percent of the total land surface. There are two regions in particular where forests are common. A large area of forests (the taiga, or boreal forest) is found across northern North America, Europe, and Asia. Stretching out from the equator on all Earth’s land surfaces is another wide belt of forests of amazing diversity and productivity. These tropical forests include dense rain forests, where rainfall is abundant year-round. They also include seasonally moist forests, where rainfall is abundant but seasonal, and drier, more open woodlands.
How much of the Earth's dry land is tropical forest?
Although tropical forests cover only about 7 percent of the Earth’s dry land, they probably hold about half of all species on Earth. Many species can only be found in small areas. This makes them more likely to die out. In addition, the forest that remains is more dangerous for the plants and animals still there.
What does NASA do to help the tropical forest?
NASA supports and conducts research on tropical forests from space-based and ground-based perspectives, helping provide the information that national and international leaders need to develop strategies for sustaining human populations and preserving tropical forest biodiversity.
Why do settlers destroy the remaining forest?
The roads and the logged areas attract settlers. The settlers destroy the remaining forest for cropland or cattle pasture. Government policies to encourage economic growth, like road projects, have caused significant, unintentional deforestation. Global economic factors can also encourage deforestation.
How does deforestation affect climate?
These greenhouse gas emissions contribute to rising temperatures, changes in patterns of weather and water, and an increased frequency of extreme weather events. For example, in Sumatra, rainforests on deep peatlands are being cleared, drained and converted to pulp plantations, contributing to Indonesia’s high greenhouse gas emissions. Changes in climate can affect forest-dwelling creatures by altering their habitats and decreasing availability of food and water. Some will be able to adapt by moving to higher elevations or latitudes, but species losses may occur.
What are the threats to the forests?
But forests around the world are under threat, jeopardizing these benefits. The threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest degradation. The main cause of deforestation is agriculture (poorly planned infrastructure is emerging as a big threat too) and the main cause of forest degradation is illegal logging. In 2019, the tropics lost close to 30 soccer fields' worth of trees every single minute.
Why is deforestation a problem in tropical rainforests?
Deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rain forests because these forests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. For example, in the Amazon around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, mostly due to forest conversion for cattle ranching. Deforestation in this region is particularly rampant near more populated areas, roads and rivers, but even remote areas have been encroached upon when valuable mahogany, gold, and oil are discovered.
How does WWF stop deforestation?
To eliminate one of the largest drivers of deforestation—the irresponsible expansion of agricultural operations—WWF is focused on ensuring that agribusiness, governments, and others meet their commitments to help conserve the world's forests . Doing so marries the strengths of two approaches WWF uses to stop deforestation. One is the ability, via REDD + programs, to engage with governments. The other is the ability, via the Forest Stewardship Council and other market-based certification schemes, to engage with agriculture producers .
Why is WWF important?
Effective policies help stop deforestation. That's why WWF helps countries, like Myanmar and Belize, assess the value of their natural resources and the services they provide, such as forests that absorb carbon and provide habitat for endangered wildlife. Decision makers use the assessments in a variety of ways, including promoting a green economy approach—one in which the sustainable use of natural capital is integrated into a country's new plans and policies for the economy, agriculture, energy, and more.
What are the effects of deforestation on the Mekong?
In the Greater Mekong in Southeast Asia, where land tenure systems are weak, deforestation has contributed to social conflict and migration. In Brazil, poor people have been lured from their villages to remote soy plantations where they may be abused and forced, at gunpoint, to work under inhumane conditions.
How much forest cover is lost in the world?
A new WWF report on global forest cover and forest loss finds that over 160,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of California, were lost in deforestation hot spots around the world between 2004 and 2017. Deforestation puts human health and the health of our planet at risk.
What happens to the carbon dioxide in the rainforest?
Rainforest canopies absorb carbon dioxide which is a gas in the atmosphere. When the rainforests are burned and cleared, the carbon is released. Also, when trees are cut down they can no longer absorb carbon dioxide. This means more carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere.
What is shifting cultivation?
The ash acts as a fertiliser adder nutrients to the soil. When the soil begins to turn infertile (usually after 3-5 years) the people move on. This is called shifting cultivation. It is a sustainable method of farming in the rainforest.
How many countries have a tropical rainforest?
Deforestation in the tropical rainforest. 62 countries have tropical rainforest within their borders. The graph below shows the top 19 countries. There are no early records of the extent of tropical rainforest, however, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that around half of the world’s tropical rainforest has been cleared.
What is the cause of deforestation in Africa?
In Africa, 75% of land being cleared by peasant farmers has been previously logged. Ranching is a major cause of deforestation, particularly in Central and South America. In Central America, two-thirds of lowland tropical forests have been turned into pasture since 1950.
What happens when it rains?
When it rains, it washes the soil away. The rainforest never fully recovers. Wildlife and plant life is reduced. Elimination of Indian groups and their way of life. Estimates suggest that 80% of forest Indians have died since the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century.
What diseases have killed the most people in the world?
Most have died from western diseases such as malaria to which they have no immunity. Those remaining have been forced away by the construction of roads, ranches, mines and reservoirs. Soil Erosion. When vegetation is removed soil is left exposed to the heavy equatorial rainfall.
Where do rainforests get their nutrients?
Ecosystem. About 80% of the rainforests nutrients comes from trees and plants. That leaves 20% of the nutrients in the soil. The nutrients from the leaves that fall are instantly recycled back up into the plants and trees. When a rainforest is clear-cut, conditions change very quickly. The soil dries up in the sun.
How does deforestation affect the environment?
There’s soil erosion, water cycle disruption, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity losses with every tree that is chopped, and the planet feels its impact.
Why are trees important?
But it’s real, and it’s important. Trees anchor soil in place, and when they’re chopped down, that soil is displaced. Soil erosion and suddenly displaced soil can lead to farming issues, clogged waterways, mudslides, and beyond. Water cycle disruption: We all know that water gets evaporated — and that includes by trees.
How much deforestation is there in the rainforest?
Today, the majority of deforestation actually happens in tropical rainforests. About 12 million hectares of tropical forest were lost in 2018 — the equivalent to 30 football fields per minute — the BBC reports.
What happens when there are no trees?
They release it into the atmosphere via extracted groundwater, it rains, reinvigorates the area, and the cycle begins again. But when there are no trees, there is no water cycle. And that means a climate change called desertification, leaving the land dry and at-risk for fire and loss of plant and wildlife.
How much carbon does a landscape hold?
And those lush, gorgeous landscapes hold an approximate 25 percent of the world’s carbon within their trees and other plant life. (Mind. Blown.)
What is the biggest cause of deforestation?
People think of paper as the biggest driver for deforestation, but actually, agriculture drives more than 70 percent of deforestation in tropical and subtropical countries; 80 percent of all land-based species live in forests; The main cause of deforestation comes from illegal logging ;
What happens when you burn a rainforest?
Without rainforests, climate scientists warn, the global-warming consequences could be catastrophic. ”.
