...DEFORESTATION 1. Introduction The year 2011 is ‘The International Year of Forests’. This designation has generated momentum bringing greater attention to the forests worldwide. Forests cover almost a third of the earth’s land surface providing many environmental benefits including a major role in the hydrologic cycle, soil conservation, prevention of climate change and preservation of biodiversity. Forest resources can provide long-term national economic benefits. For example, at least 145 countries of the world are currently involved in wood production. At the same time, Sufficient evidence is also available that the whole world is facing an environmental crisis on account of heavy deforestation. Nobody knows exactly how much of the world’s rainforests have already been destroyed and continue to be razed each year. Deforestation is a major issue in today’s era. In the name of modernization, man has cut down trees in great numbers that has lead to the destruction of great forests and the lives of many animals and plant species. We fail to realize that trees are the most important aspects of our planet and the existence of tress does play a vital role. 2. What is Deforestation Deforestation is the conversion of forest to an alternative permanent non-forested land use such as agriculture, grazing or urban development. Deforestation is the permanent devastation of native forests and woods. Deforestation is affecting our environment and the way...
Words: 1237 - Pages: 5
...2-4-2014 | | Amazon Deforestation | | Deforestation is the loss or destruction of naturally occurring forests. It is primarily due to human activities such as cutting trees for fuel, slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing land for livestock grazing, oil extraction, and many others. Deforestation is considered to be one of the contributing factors to global climate change. It can occur around the world, even though it’s more common in tropical rainforests. Countries with significant deforestation currently or in the recent years include Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, and parts of Eastern Europe. Though deforestation has increased rapidly in the last fifty years, it has been known to be practiced through history. Deforestation is typically done to make more land available for housing and urbanization and cattle ranching. Most of the logging industry that contributes to deforestation is done illegally, as reports from the World Wildlife Fund state. Common methods include burning trees and clear cutting, which is the controversial practice of complete removal of a given area of forest. In Brazil, you will find the Amazon rainforest. It is 5.7 million square kilometers and the largest continuous rainforest in the entire world. Since 1970, one sixth of the Amazon has been cleared mainly for ethanol production and cattle. While techniques like slash-and-burn provide a short term boost in agricultural production, rainforest soil is typically very thin and does not support...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...Deforestation Deforest is defined as the cutting down and removal of all or most of the trees in a forested area. (Dictionary.com) The action of deforestation damages the quality of the land. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. (Wikipedia) Deforestation affects the environment greatly and is one of the primary contributors to climate change. When deforestation occurs, carbon dioxide is released and remains in the atmosphere. As the carbon dioxide accumulates it catches radiation, which leads to heat. Oxygen doesn’t hold radiation like greenhouse gasses do. The heat that is produced is considered global warming. Trees store carbon and when it is cut down that carbon is released into the air. According to the World Carfree Network (WCN), cars and trucks account for about 14 percent of global carbon emissions, while most analysts attribute upwards of 15 percent to deforestation. (Scientificamerican.com) Another aspect of the environment that deforestation affects is the water cycle. Trees help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts. (Society) Water vapor is a greenhouse gas. The flow of water vapor and carbon dioxide is disrupted directly by cutting down trees. The water that the trees draw from the ground is eventually emitted into the air. When the land is empty...
Words: 3589 - Pages: 15
...Deforestation Environmental Science SCI-204 iLab 1 People relay on products from rainforest everyday and never realize it. Today, people around the world use woods that come from rainforest for products like desk, flooring, instruments, and many other products made from exotic woods. “Tropical forests yield some of the most beautiful and valuable woods in the world, such as teak, mahogany, rosewood, balsa, sandalwood and countless lesser-known species.” (Rainforest Alliance, 2014) Many medications are made up from plants and trees that are only found in rainforest. “Some 120 prescription drugs sold worldwide today are derived directly from rainforest plants.” (Talk, 2014) Many food products come from rainforest. Things like coffee beans, bananas, nuts, chocolate, and spices all can be found in the rainforest. “At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World.” (Taylor, 2012) Another product people use everyday is oxygen. The Amazon produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen. “The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen.” (Taylor, 2012) The next time you inhale, and fill your lungs with life giving oxygen be thankful to the rainforest. The rainforest has helped the world with many products, and all of them are important to everyday life. When you go to your local coffee...
Words: 1496 - Pages: 6
...Causes of Deforestation: Agriculture - As demands on agricultural products rise more and more land is brought under cultivation for which forests are cleared, grass-lands ploughed, uneven grounds leveled, marshes drained and even land under water is reclaimed. Plantations and commercial agriculture - A major force behind deforestation is commercial agriculture: Wealthy companies clear large areas of forest to be converted into farmland. Commercial agriculture such as: Palm oil and acacia trees, cattle ranching, soybeans, etc. Urbanization - Industries and towns are developing in former rainforest. Hydroelectric power - Rivers are dammed and huge areas of forest are flooded as a result. Transport - Transport networks are built through the forest to link settlements. Industries - Forest are cleared to support industrial activities and extraction of resource, Two main types are: Logging for timber and mining for minerals. Forest Fires - Fire is often used to clear forested land, as it is cheaper than employing laborers and bringing in machinery to remove the trees and vegetation. The vegetation is cleared and left to dry out, then the area is set on fire. Burning of forest has taken place on a small scale for many thousands of years, by small groups of subsistence farmers, this is known as slash and burn agriculture. Mining - Large areas of forest are cleared for the open-cast mining of minerals such as iron, gold and copper. Roads - Road shave been...
Words: 2193 - Pages: 9
...Deforestation Identifying the Problem Deforestation is the removal of related ecosystems or rainforests into ecosystems that are less biodiverse such as croplands, pastures, or plantations. Also, more people need wood to make furniture, houses, and many more everyday things. An estimated 18 million acres of forest are lost each year. Believe it or not but in 100 years if the current rate of deforestation continues all forests will be gone. This will cause terrible effects on the global climate and it will get rid of the majority of plant and animal species on the planet. Deforestation is mainly due to our acts that are totally against the laws of nature. To create new land area for people forests are being destroyed. This trend shows the greed of humans and the increasing needs. There are two different types of deforestation: Clear Cutting and Slash and Burn. Clear Cutting is cutting down a large area of trees that are standing at the same time. Slash and Burn is when people cut down all the foliage in a forest and burn it to access the nutrients. (4) A lot of the countries with high amounts of deforestation are the ones that are developing. For the countries to grow and develop their economies they need access to more resources, employment of people, logging to manufacture more timber products, and agricultural expansion. The solution to getting all these positive things is deforestation. The world’s highest rates of deforestation are happening in the economies...
Words: 2977 - Pages: 12
...but every year areas the sizes of Panama are being decimated (Deforestation). The clearing of large tracks of forests, which is thereafter converted to a non-forest use, is known as deforestation. Deforestation has a multitude of devastating effects in the world we live in. However with the cooperation of people worldwide this process can be drastically slowed down and even stopped. Forests are cut down for various reasons, but are almost always related to money in some way or another. The most common reasons are Urbanization, logging, large-scale agriculture, mining and urbanization. Deforestation can occur naturally and is caused by lighting, which then triggers forest fires. On average in U.S. 4 million to 5 million acres are lost due to forest fires, but in recent years more than 9 million acres have burn. Scientist believe the reason for the drastic increase is because global warming making summer season longer and dryer which is inductive to forest fires (Wildfires). Healthy forests help absorb greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions that are caused by human civilization and contribute to global warming. Without trees, more carbon and greenhouse gasses enter the atmosphere. To make matters worse, trees actually become carbon sources when they are cut, burned, or otherwise removed. According to the World Wild Life organization 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are the result of deforestation. This number might be hard to wrap your head around, but compared...
Words: 1397 - Pages: 6
...UNIT I DEFORESTATION CHAPTER 1 What is deforestation? Deforestation is the removal or damage of vegetation in a forest to the extent that it no longer supports its natural flora and fauna. In other words, deforestation can be defined as the transformation of forest land to non-forest uses where forest land includes lands under agro-forestry and shifting cultivation, and not simply closed canopy primary forests (FAO/UNEP, 1982). However, this definition does not include “logging”. More inclusive was Myers’s 1980 definition, where deforestation refers, “generally to the complete destruction of forest cover through clearing for agriculture … [so] … that not a tree remains, and the land is given over to non-forest purposes … [and where] very heavy and unduly negligent logging … [result in a] … decline of biomass and depletion of ecosystem services … . So severe that the residual forest can no longer qualify as forest in any practical sense of the world.” Alan Graigner (1980, AS quoted in Saxena and Nautiyal, 1997) asserts that selective logging does not “lead to forest clearance and does not constitute deforestation”, whereas Norman Myers (1980, 1993) thinks that logging is crucial because, although it may only affect a small proportion of trees per hectare, it damages wide areas and is the precursor of penetration by the forest farmers. For the purpose of this study, the FAO’s latest definitions (1993) will be used. The FAO defines forests as “ecosystems with a minimum...
Words: 17310 - Pages: 70
...The Effects of Deforestation on the Environment Concise Paper Americans have not always been concerned about the environment until recent years, since the changes in weather have been severe and obvious. Environmental scientists have been analyzing ways in which we could keep Earth alive and well. Our dependency on natural resources is increasing; therefore, the planet we live on is beginning to deteriorate. In specific, attention has been brought upon issues such as: global warming, droughts, wild fires, etc. However, we forget to mention something that tends to be affected by some, if not all, of these issues: deforestation. Deforestation plays a key part on not only human lives, but on the lives of animals, creatures, insects that depend on trees for survival. Before getting to the root of the problem, we must know what deforestation is. According to, Andrea Becker, who writes for Seattle Pi, defines deforestation as “forest loss through urban sprawl, land clearing of agriculture, wildfire or timber harvest.” In other words, it can be described as the clearing of trees. It may not seem like an issue that is severe, but when it comes down to it, the clearing of trees tends to affect the ecosystem in a number of ways. It is important to keep in mind that deforestation does not only occur in the United States, it is a big problem in the Brazilian and Bolivian Amazons. In addition, deforestation threatens our climate as well as the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people...
Words: 1614 - Pages: 7
...Amazon Deforestation For many inhabitants of South America, deforestation has become a major threat affecting not only this region, but the world as a whole. With the question, is deforestation a positive to society, would be immediately proven wrong. We may not realize it, but with the destruction of cutting down amazonian trees there are consequential effects that disturb us and the entire planet. Deforestation is seen as a negative due to the fact that with cutting down trees, the animals that inhabit this natural region are now at a loss of a proper habitat. The result for many of the animals that are indigenous to the Amazon facing deforestation, will now experience habitat loss. As an effect of habitat loss, the populations of different...
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
... Deforestation and the Environment Mankind has been cutting down trees since we first appeared in this world, for kindling, shelter, weapons and in more modern times for paper, furniture and housing. Changing and adapting the environment to suit our needs. Thousands of acres of forest have been cut down to satisfy our insatiable demand for wood and land in a process known as deforestation. Deforestation is defined as the clearing of trees from an area of woodland or forest for many different reasons such as farms, ranches, or urbanization, all of which are commercial uses. Although deforestation makes our lives easier, it takes a toll on our environment. Deforestation causes many negative effects to the environment. Two of those negative effects are the loss of biodiversity and the increasing of global warming. Deforestation can lead directly to the loss of biodiversity. Deforestation can cause certain tree species to permanently disappear, which, in turn, affects the biodiversity of plant species in our environment. Forests provide abundance in resources for humans such as timber, food and medicines. Many plants develop specific chemicals that can cure certain illnesses. We should be protecting the diversity of plant life in order to observe and study it, because is very likely that the cures to many diseases are out there, but at the rate that deforestation is occurring today, those species of trees are likely...
Words: 906 - Pages: 4
...Deforestation in the Amazon Discussion of the geographical, economical, and the overall influential importance of the Amazon Rainforest is, in my opinion, a necessity to understanding why deforestation is a huge mistake and will lead to major consequences for the entire planet. Common important facts about why deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest might include issues such as greenhouse gases or entire ecosystems demolished. Geographically, The Amazon Rainforest is by far the biggest rainforest left on our planet (sad to say) proportional to the size of Australia. The rainforest itself reaches out to several countries around Brazil. Economically, the regions of the Amazon Rainforest provide surrounding countries and entire continents with some of the most basic necessities and natural resources. Bananas, papayas, oranges, and pineapples are some of the major food exports out of the Amazon Rainforest regions. Along with food resources, many spices and other natural resources are only found in the Amazon Rainforest regions. Continuing the deforestation in order to use the land for other means of resources would harshly alter the economy of South America entirely and further affect the import/export economy of the United States and others. In addition to its economic influence, the Amazon Rainforest regions have aided advancements in medicine and scientific breakthroughs. Many explorations and scientific research of animal and plant life in the Amazon Rainforest...
Words: 2701 - Pages: 11
...Satire (Deforestation) Everyone knows that the state of the environment is continually decreasing. Pollution continues to fill the air, water is being contaminated, and climate change is on the rise. Everyone reads the horrifying facts about the Earth is being destroyed by all of the human interaction. Deforestation is also one of these issues. Trees are cut down every day for pretty furniture or shredded up into paper. This adds to the problem because of that lack of carbon dioxide being processed into oxygen. Forests are demolished for the space that they use. I believe that the clear solution is to cut all of the trees down. My proposal gives wonderful benefits. More trees will be able to grow in their place. All the brand new, clear space...
Words: 604 - Pages: 3
...role as a fundamental raw material. Back in the last decade, Indonesia as the largest pulp and paper producer in South-East Asia ran this industry based on its 141.4 million hectares tropical rainforest covering. However, serious deforestation has occurred due to the over-development of the paper and pulp industry. More and more rare species of animals and plants are becoming extinct, not to mention global warming, water loss and soil erosion. This report will discuss the said deforestation and its effects on Indonesian environment and its community, and also focus on analyzing the role of various sectors, namely thepaper and pulp product buyers, environmental non-government organizations and the Indonesian government,within the paper and pulp industry. Asia Paper & Pulp Group(APP) and Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL) are used as examples of the paper and pulp manufacturers. The report will be concluded by providing recommendations regarding the issue. Indonesia overview Indonesia maintains the highest rate of illegal logging among other countries, up to 60% of timber production. Corruption has been a prevalent issue in Indonesia, and was even worse after the end of the Suharto government system. Deforestation rate is excessive from 1.3 to 2 million hectares every year. Indonesia represents about one-quarter of global tropical wood production and exports, and about half of global tropical hardwood plywood exports. Indonesia is one of the prime...
Words: 1898 - Pages: 8
...Deforestation of Tropical Rainforests Gabriel Corbeil ENV/GEO 120 March 20, 2015 Introduction: Tropical rainforests represent an important percentage of the globes biodiversity. This ecosystem is estimated to house 50% of all plant, insect and animal life. Covering less than 7% of Earth’s surface, it nonetheless is attributed with producing 20% of our oxygen supply. This unique biome arcs like a green arrow along the equatorial line. Its primary locations are South America, Central Africa and South-East Asia. Each region is facing varying degrees of serious deforestation. The result being widespread loss of humid tropical forest “Between 1990 and 1997, 5.8 ± 1.4 million hectares of humid tropical forest were lost each year, with a further 2.3 ± 0.7 million hectares of forest visibly degraded.” (Achard et al. 2002) The heart of the problem lies beneath a tangled mess of socio-economic growth resulting in massive deforestation chiefly for the land. Commercial farmers using the land for cattle, soybeans, palm oil and monoculture tree farms take advantage of loose government regulations. The most common tactic for land for forest removal is “slash and burn” where existing vegetation is cut down and burned for fertilizer. This technique has major impacts on multiple cycles key to forest health. Most notably the hydrological cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle. If this trend continues there will be major changes in precipitation and air quality, both locally and globally...
Words: 2402 - Pages: 10
