DEFORESTATION

 

Deforestation

Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use such as agricultural croplands, urbanization, or mining activities.

As you all might already be familiar with the term and its meaning and be familiar with some of the problems, we are facing these days due to deforestation, but wait! Deforestation is much more of a serious issue than we realize. Did You know? the world bank estimates that in the last 25 years, forests shrank by a whopping 1.3 million square km, and for an estimate of how big that area is? It is bigger than the size of whole south Africa. And every year, an area the size of Switzerland is lost to deforestation.

 

But then the question arises, what is all this deforestation carried for? and what do they do with all this free land after the trees and vegetation is cut and burnt off? There are mainly just 4 commodities that are mostly responsible for most of the tropical deforestation, i.e., beef, soy, palm oil and wood products.

 

When forests are destroyed, complex ecosystems are disrupted or perished. Native communities that depend on forests also suffer the consequences of widespread deforestation.

Deforestation not only eliminates vegetation that is important for removing carbon dioxide from the air, but the act of clearing the forests also produces greenhouse gas emissions. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that deforestation is the second-leading cause of climate change. (The first being the burning of fossil fuels, will come to that some other day .. ) In fact, deforestation accounts for nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Forests don’t just provide home to millions of wild animal and plant species—their ability to capture greenhouse gas emissions makes the earth livable for us all.

When humans harm forests for short-term economic gains, we harm our species’ chances for survival in the long-term.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that nearly 25% of the global population relies on forests for their livelihoods, including many of the world’s poorest communities. Deforestation’s environmental impact extends far beyond the edges of the forests. When we remove forests, we lose out on the vital protection they provide against climate change, soil erosion, and natural disasters like flooding.

 

 

In order to avoid irreversible damage from habitat loss and climate change, we need to both halt the loss of forests and promote their restoration.