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How Does Deforestation Affect the Environment?

Forests, a vital component of life on Earth, cover approximately 31% of our planet’s land area . However, more than 75% of the Earth’s surface has been modified and degraded by human activities such as deforestation. Destroying forests alters weather patterns, destroys habitats, and negatively affects rural communities, leading to food insecurity and causing irreversible damage to entire ecosystems. So how does deforestation affect the environment and what threats does it pose to living species?

To answer the question of how deforestation affects the environment, it is important to look at why humans need forests in the first place. Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. Among the main reasons for this damaging practice are agricultural expansion and cattle breeding as well as to obtain raw materials such as palm oil, a key ingredient in cosmetics and food products widely used around the world, and timber used for fuel, manufacturing, and infrastructure development. Studies show that 15,3 billion trees are chopped down every year and over the past 12,000 years, nearly 50% of the world’s trees have been purposefully cleared by humans. This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals.

You might also like: 10 Deforestation Facts You Should Know About

1. Effects on Climate Change

The scientific consensus on deforestation is that it intensifies climate change at a dramatic rate. The Global Forest Watch made it clear: protecting tropical rainforests is essential for achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Trees are known for their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Healthy forests act as extremely valuable carbon sinks, with the Amazon rainforest being one of the world’s most important ones. However, deforestation is turning these sinks into huge net emitters , something that can have huge implications for slowing the pace of climate change and contributing to a steep rise in global temperatures. The current rate of rainforest-loss generated emissions is nearly 25% higher than those generated in the European Union and just slightly below US levels. Deforestation also increases the risk of uncontrollable wildfires because of humans burning vegetation. This, in turn, contributes to destroying forests, intensifying deforestation even more.

2. Effects on Soil Pollution and the Water Cycle

In addition to their role as carbon sinks, forests are a crucial component of the water cycle and have the all important function of preventing desertification. Cutting down trees can disrupt the cycle by decreasing precipitation and affecting river flow and water volume. In the case of the Amazon rainforest, research shows that at least 80% of its trees would be needed in order to keep the hydrological cycle going. With nearly 17% of the forest lost already, the Amazon is currently at its tipping point . Statistics show that deforestation in the tropics reduces precipitation over the Amazon by around 10% , or 138 millimeter, every year. In the South Asian Monsoon region, the reduction in rainfall is even higher, with around 18% less rain recorded in India in a single year.

Aside from their contribution to the water flow, trees help the land retain water and sustain forest life by supplying the soil with rich nutrients. Deforestation deprives the land of its cover, leaving the soil exposed to wind and rain. This makes soil vulnerable to being washed away, and prone to erosion. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as much as half of the world’s topsoil has been lost as a consequence of the nearly 4 million square miles of forest that have been lost since the beginning of the 20th century.

3. The Effects on Humans 

In answering the question of how does deforestation affect the environment, you may discover that in fact, it also has a direct impact on the human population. With the loss of trees and entire forests, homelands are also being destroyed in the process. Indigenous communities who live in forests and depend on them to sustain their life bear the brunt of impacts from deforestation. As their houses are destroyed and resources compromised, these tribes are forced to migrate elsewhere and find other ways to sustain themselves. The Amazon rainforest is home to over one million Indigenous people , mostly of Indian descent, divided into more than 400 indigenous tribes. They live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow and hunt their food. These “uncontacted” tribes live by the rules of nature but are becoming increasingly vulnerable to deforestation, which has forced many of them to migrate. While some of them move into areas occupied by other tribes, straining the land’s resources, others are forced to relocate to urban settings and completely change their way of living.

4. The Effects on Animals and Plants

Along with Indigenous tribes, animals are some of the biggest victims of deforestation. Forests around the world are home to more than 80% of all terrestrial animal, plant, and insect species . However, the rapid destruction of forests is contributing to a decline in biodiversity never seen before. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. Many factors related to cutting down trees contribute to driving species to extinction. Through land erosion, the soil is depleted of its nutrients, a huge source of nourishment for animals and plants. Furthermore, many animal species are heavily reliant on specific plants and their fruits for food sources. When these resources are lost, animals become weaker, more vulnerable to diseases and often succumb to starvation. Another important role of trees is to regulate the temperature of forests and maintain it constant. When deforestation occurs, temperature variates more drastically from day to night and this extreme change can often prove fatal for many animal species.  

5. The Effects on Food Security

One last major effect of deforestation is its impact on food security through the loss of biodiversity. While food availability for Indigenous tribes and animals that live in forests is reduced in the process of deforestation, its effects on weather patterns and soil degradation also drastically decrease agricultural productivity. Populations located in the proximity of tropical forests are mostly impacted by the worsening trend. Indeed, millions of people living in these areas depend almost entirely on agriculture and are thus extremely vulnerable to the impact of deforestation on food security, struggling to grow enough food and prevent crops from damage. It has been shown that the deforestation of the Amazon contributes to a decline in pasture productivity of about 39% as well as a drop of soy yields of nearly 25% in over half of the Amazon region and of a staggering 60% in a third of the area.

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Can We Halt Deforestation?

Knowing how deforestation affect the environment more than one way and its catastrophic effects on the planet, it is crucial that people around the world take action to mitigate its impact. This can be done on an individual level, for example by reducing meat consumption, going paperless and recycling products as much as possible, opting for natural products that do not contain ingredients such as palm oil and supporting organisations and sustainable companies that are committed to reducing this dangerous practice. On a governmental level, the consequences of deforestation can be mitigated by introducing policies that protect natural forests and regulate mining and logging operations as well as other operations that require the destruction of tree plantations.

Featured image: Global Water for Sustainability 

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• ENVIRONMENT

Why deforestation matters—and what we can do to stop it

Large scale destruction of trees—deforestation—affects ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading to humans.

As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change , preserve wildlife, and support more than eight billion people , trees inevitably hold a major part of the answer. Yet the mass destruction of trees—deforestation—continues, sacrificing the long-term benefits of standing trees for short-term gain of fuel, and materials for manufacturing and construction.

We need trees for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit. As those gases enter the atmosphere, global warming increases, a trend scientists now prefer to call climate change.

There is also the imminent danger of disease caused by deforestation. An estimated 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases come from animals, and a major cause of viruses’ jump from wildlife to humans is habitat loss, often through deforestation.

But we can still save our forests. Aggressive efforts to rewild and reforest are already showing success. Tropical tree cover alone can provide 23 percent of the climate mitigation needed to meet goals set in the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to one estimate .

Causes of deforestation

Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since 1990, the world has lost more than 420 million hectares or about a billion acres of forest, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations —mainly in Africa and South America. About 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years, and losses recently have been on the rise . The organization Amazon Conservation reports that destruction rose by 21 percent in 2020 , a loss the size of Israel.

Farming, grazing of livestock, mining, and drilling combined account for more than half of all deforestation . Forestry practices, wildfires and, in small part, urbanization account for the rest. In Malaysia and Indonesia, forests are cut down to make way for producing palm oil , which can be found in everything from shampoo to saltine crackers. In the Amazon, cattle ranching and farms—particularly soy plantations—are key culprits .

Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also fell countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally , also build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl as land is developed for homes.

Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.

Why it matters

There are some 250 million people who live in forest and savannah areas and depend on them for subsistence and income—many of them among the world’s rural poor.

Eighty percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests , and deforestation threatens species including the orangutan , Sumatran tiger , and many species of birds. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and retains heat at night. That disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.

With wild habitats destroyed and human life ever expanding, the line between animal and human areas blurs, opening the door to zoonotic diseases . In 2014, for example, the Ebola virus killed over 11,000 people in West Africa after fruit bats transmitted the disease to a toddler who was playing near trees where bats were roosting.

( How deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans .)

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Some scientists believe there could be as many as 1.7 million currently “undiscovered” viruses in mammals and birds, of which up to 827,000 could have the ability to infect people, according to a 2018 study .

Deforestation’s effects reach far beyond the people and animals where trees are cut. The South American rainforest, for example, influences regional and perhaps even global water cycles, and it's key to the water supply in Brazilian cities and neighboring countries. The Amazon actually helps furnish water to some of the soy farmers and beef ranchers who are clearing the forest. The loss of clean water and biodiversity from all forests could have many other effects we can’t foresee, touching even your morning cup of coffee .

In terms of climate change, cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. If tropical deforestation were a country, according to the World Resources Institute , it would rank third in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, behind China and the U.S.

What can be done

The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope . A movement is under way to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover by first reforesting (replanting trees) and ultimately rewilding (a more comprehensive mission to restore entire ecosystems).

( Which nation could be the first to be rewilded ?)

Organizations and activists are working to fight illegal mining and logging—National Geographic Explorer Topher White, for example, has come up with a way to use recycled cell phones to monitor for chainsaws . In Tanzania, the residents of Kokota have planted more than 2 million trees on their small island over a decade, aiming to repair previous damage. And in Brazil, conservationists are rallying in the face of ominous signals that the government may roll back forest protections.

( Which tree planting projects should you support ?)

Stopping deforestation before it reaches a critical point will play a key role in avoiding the next zoonotic pandemic. A November 2022 study showed that when bats struggle to find suitable habitat, they travel closer to human communities where diseases are more likely to spillover. Inversely, when bats’ native habitats were left intact, they stayed away from humans. This research is the first to show how we can predict and avoid spillovers through monitoring and maintaining wildlife habitats.

For consumers, it makes sense to examine the products and meats you buy, looking for sustainably produced sources when you can. Nonprofit groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance certify products they consider sustainable, while the World Wildlife Fund has a palm oil scorecard for consumer brands.

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Essay on Deforestation

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Introduction:

Deforestation is the process of clearing trees and forest for other uses. Deforestation usually occurs due to city expansion. As habitats increase in cities, there is a need to create more space the for homes, organizations, and factories. This, however, has a damning effect on our environment.

Effect of Deforestation on the Environment:

Deforestation means fewer trees and more land. This has a serious adverse effect on our environment. On one hand, deforestation makes some animals homeless. Animals that survive in the forest might go extinct with less forest. On the other hand, deforestation is also the biggest cause of climate change around the world.

Preventing Deforestation:

Reducing or preventing deforestation is easier said than done. This is because trees are cut down because there is a pressing need to do so. Thus, to prevent deforestation we must try to reduce that need by making smarter choices in paper usage, city planning, migration, etc.

Conclusion:

The essence of plant life in the forest is unquestionable. To ensure a greener environment we must all join the efforts in reducing deforestation.

Deforestation is definitely one of the most troubling of all problems which has plagued our environment. It is important more than ever to take care of the green cover or else it can jeopardize the existence of life on Earth. It is owing to the presence of green trees that we get the oxygen needed to breathe in.

However, because of excessive exploitation by humans, it has been seen that the trees are being cut down mercilessly. This act of cleaning the green cover is known as deforestation.

Educate people:

The best way to handle the problem of deforestation is by making sure that we educate the masses regarding the importance of green cover. When people understand as to how deforestation is leading to grave consequences, they will get the incentive to plant trees rather than uproot them.

Protect the Environment:

As we have continued to exploit the environment in a way that it is hard to get things back to normal, it is now important to immediately start protecting the environment. A lot of natural calamities are occurring these days because the ecosystem balance has been disturbed. Deforestation alone is responsible for a major amount of problems.

So, you need to understand as to how you can come up with ways to excite people about planting more trees and doing their bit for the sake of the environment. Think of your children and grand children. If we continue with our aggressive deforestation campaigns, they are not likely to have a healthy environment for survival. Is that what we really want?

Deforestation can be defined as the removal of trees and clearing of forests for the personal and commercial benefits of human beings. Deforestation has emerged as one of the biggest man-made disasters recently. Every year, more and more trees and vegetation are being erased just to fulfill the various needs of the human race.

Deforestation happens for many reasons. The growing population is one of them. Rising human population needs more area for residential purpose. For this, forests are either burned down or cut to make space for constructing homes and apartments.

Deforestation is also done for commercial purposes. This includes setting up of factories, industries, and towers, etc. The enormous requirements of feeding the human race also create a burden on the land. As a result, clearing land for agricultural purposes leads to deforestation.

Deforestation impacts our earth in several ways. Trees are natural air purifiers. They absorb the carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Deforestation results in uncontrolled air pollution. When there are fewer trees, there is lesser absorption of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

Deforestation also disturbs the water cycle. Forests absorb the groundwater and release the water vapors to form clouds, which in turn cause rains. Roots of trees hold the soil intact and prevent floods. But when there are no trees, different kinds of natural calamities are bound to happen.

With deforestation, chances of floods, drought, global warming, and disturbed weather cycle all come into the play. Not only that, the disappearance of forests means the extinction of wild animals and plants, which are highly important parts of our ecosystem.

In order to curb these disasters, we must plant more trees. Restoration of existing vegetation is equally essential. Population control is another indirect method to save trees and forest areas.

Deforestation is the process of cutting down of trees and forests completely or partially for different reasons like manufacturing different products with various parts of the tree as raw material, to build structures and other buildings, etc. Deforestation in recent days has become the curse of our world that resulted in the destruction of nature and the environment.

Cause and Drawbacks:

Deforestation is mainly done for making better living assets for humans and this one side thought is the biggest drawback of this issue. Instead of doing only the cutting part humans should practice forestation along with deforestation. Whenever a tree or a forest is cut, another one should be planted at the same place or on other lands to promote the forestation.

Deforestation is the main cause for many natural deficiencies and the destruction of many animal, plant and bird species. If the practice of cutting down trees continues, then eventually even the world may get destructed along with the extinction of the human race.

It’s not like trees shouldn’t be used for any kind of production and urbanization or industrialization shouldn’t be done for the development, but the main factor is to compensate for every minus done. Through this, there will be a balancing between the reduction and plantation which will help, to an extent, in the rectification of problems faced by the world due to deforestation.

Deforestation has also affected the atmospheric air combination. The carbon content in the atmosphere has considerably increased over years due to many human activities like uncontrolled fuel combustion.

Forest has played a massive function of inhaling the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and exhaling oxygen during the daytime while they prepare food for themselves. This process is the reason for maintaining a balanced oxygen and carbon level in the atmosphere and that makes the life of us humans to breathe free.

Population growth is undeniably the major factor behind the increased deforestation level. The increased demand for more assets for better living has increased the need for deforestation as well. In such cases forestation should also be made as a follow-up process.

Controlling the overuse of assets can also help in reducing the deforestation rate. If humans start to use products that use a tree as raw material reasonably then it will help in avoiding deforestation as well. Deforestation not only is a life-threatening scenario for many animals and birds, but also the whole human species.

Deforestation refers to the elimination of plants and trees from a region. Deforestation also includes the clearing of jungles and plants from the region due to the numerous commercial motives.

Different Causes of Deforestation:

The below are the different causes of deforestation:

1. Overgrazing:

Overgrazing in jungles finishes recently renewed development. It makes the soil additional compact and invulnerable. The fertility of the soil also reduces owing to the devastation of organic substance. Overgrazing also results in the desertification and the soil erosion. Deforestation results in decreasing the overall soil’s productivity.

2. Shifting Cultivation:

Numerous agriculturalists destroy the jungle for farming and commercial motives and once productiveness of soil is shattered owing to recurrent harvesting, a fresh forest region is devastated. Hence, farmers must be recommended to utilize a similar area for agriculture and use some upgraded farming techniques and stop the deforestation.

3. Fuel Wood:

The maximum amount of forest is destroyed for the fuel wood. Around 86% of the fuel wood is utilized in rural regions in comparison to the 14% in urban parts and hence lead to more deforestation.

4. Forest Fires:

Recurrent fires in the forest regions are one of the major reasons of deforestation. Few incidents of fires are minor whereas the maximum of them are huge.

The industries related to the plywood and timber is mostly accountable for the deforestation. In fact, the huge demand for wooden things has resulted in the quick reduction of the forest.

6. Industry Establishment:

At times the industrial unit is constructed after deforestation. It means for a small achievement of few people, all other people have to bear a permanent loss. In this procedure, wild animals, valuable plant, and unusual birds get devastated. In fact, it adversely affects the quality of the environment.

7. Violation of Forest:

One more reason of deforestation is a violation by tribal on the land of forest for cultivation and other motives. Even though such type of land has a virtuous support for agriculture creation but still it creates environmental threats.

8. Forest Diseases:

Numerous diseases are instigated by rusts, parasitic fungi, nematodes and viruses that result in demise and deterioration of jungle. Fresh saplings are devastated owing to the occurrence of nematodes. Numerous diseases like blister rust, heart rot, and phloem necrosis, oak will, and Dutch elm, etc. destroy the jungle in large quantities.

9. Landslide:

The landslide lead to the deforestation in the mountains is a question of worry. It happened largely in the regions where growing actions are proceeding for the previous few years. The building of highways and railways mainly in hilly lands as well as the structure of large irrigation plans have resulted in enough deforestation and speeded the natural procedure of denudation.

Worldwide Solution for the Deforestation:

The jungle is an essential natural reserve for any nation and deforestation slow down a nation’s growth. To encounter the necessities of the growing population, simple resources might be attained only with the help of afforestation. It is actually the arrangement of implanting plants for food and food growth. Moreover, the nurseries have a significant part in increasing the coverage of the forest area.

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees. It is basically changing the use of land to a different purpose other than the planting of trees.

There are many reasons which have led to large levels of deforestation all over the world. One of the major causes is ever growing population of the world. With the growth in population, the need for more land to live has been rising. This has further led to cutting down of trees. Also, with modernisation, there has been a substantial increase in the requirement of land for setting up of industries. This has again contributed to deforestation.

Mining is another activity of humans which has led to large-scale deforestation in many areas. The need to build road and rail network in order to increase connectivity to the mines has led to cutting down of trees. This has altered the climatic conditions in these areas.

Deforestation has had a huge impact on the environment. Lack of trees has led to less release of water vapour in the air. This has, in turn, led to the alteration of rainfall patterns in different regions. India is a country which is dependent on monsoon rains for agriculture. Frequent droughts and floods caused due to deforestation have affected the lives of many in different parts of the country.

Moreover, trees absorb the carbon-dioxide from the air and help to purify it. Without trees around us, the presence of harmful gases in the air has been rising. This has also led to global warming which is again a major environmental concern. Also, the ever-rising pollution level, especially in many cities in India is due to vast deforestation only.

Additionally, trees bind the soil around them and prevent soil erosion. Deforestation has led to the soil being washed away with winds and rain, making the land unfit for agriculture. Also, trees and forests are the homes to different species of wildlife. With shrinking forests, several of the wildlife has become extinct as they were not able to cope with the changing conditions. Also, there have been increased man and wildlife conflicts in recent times as the animals are forced to venture in the cities in search of food. All these are severe effects of deforestation and need urgent attention by all.

The Perfect Example:

New Delhi is the capital of India. There was once a time when Delhi was a beautiful city. But with modernisation, increase in population, deforestation and mining in the nearby Aravalli hills, Delhi has been reduced to a gas chamber. Such is the impact the Delhi has become one of the most polluted cities in the world. What better example can be there to understand what deforestation has led us to?

There are many ways in which we can reduce deforestation. We must protect our forests. Moreover, we must mark adequate land for our farming needs. There are some laws already in place which prohibit people from unnecessary felling of trees. What needs to be done is the proper execution of the rules so that everyone abides by it. Also, stricter punishments need to be in place for violators so as to deter other people from disobeying the laws. Alternatively, people need to ensure that for every tree felled, equal numbers of trees are planted so that the balance of nature can be maintained. Summarily, it has to be a collective duty of all and just the governments alone, if we really need to reduce deforestation.

It is true that we all need space to live. With the ever-growing population and urbanisation, there has been more than ever need to cut trees and make space. However, we must realise that it is not possible for us to live without having trees around us. Trees bring so many benefits such as giving us oxygen, utilising the harmful carbon dioxide and so many products we need in our daily lives. Without trees around us, there would be no life on the earth. We should all do the needful to protect trees and reduce deforestation.

Deforestation is also known as clearing or clearance of trees. It can be said to mean removal of strands of trees or forests and the conversion of such area of land to a use that is totally non-forest in nature. Some deforestation examples are the converting of areas of forest to urban, ranches or farms use. The area of land that undergoes the most deforestation is the tropical rainforests. It is important to note that forests cover more than 31 percent in total land area of the surface of the earth.

There are a lot of different reasons why deforestation occurs: some tree are being cut down for building or as fuel (timber or coal), while areas of land are to be used as plantation and also as pasture to feed livestock. When trees are removed with properly replacing them, there can as a result be aridity, loss of biodiversity and even habitat damage. We have also had cases of deforestation used in times of war to starve the enemy.

Causes of Deforestation:

It has been discovered that the major and primary deforestation cause is agriculture. Studies have shown that about 48 percent of all deforestation is as a result of subsistence farming and 32 percent of deforestation is as a result of commercial agriculture. Also, it was discovered that logging accounts for about 14% of the total deforestation and 5% is from the removal for fuel wood.

There has been no form of agreement from experts on if industrial form of logging is a very important contributing factor to deforestation globally. Some experts have argued that the clearing of forests is something poor people do more as a result of them not having other alternatives. Other experts are of the belief that the poor seldom clear forests because they do not have the resources needed to do that. A study has also revealed that increase in population as a result of fertility rates that are very high are not a major driver of deforestation and they only influenced less than 8% of the cases of deforestation.

The Environmental Effects of Deforestation:

Deforestation has a lot of negative effects on our planet and environment.

A few of the areas where it negatively affects our environment are discussed below:

i. Atmospheric Effect:

Global warming has deforestation as one of its major contributing factors and deforestation is also a key cause of greenhouse effect. About 20% of all the emission of greenhouse gases is as a result of tropical deforestation. The land in an area that is deforested heats up quicker and it gets to a temperature that is higher than normal, causing a change in solar energy absorption, flow of water vapours and even wind flows and all of these affects the local climate of the area and also the global climate.

Also, the burning of plants in the forest in order to carry out clearing of land, incineration cause a huge amount of carbon dioxide release which is a major and important contributor to the global warming.

ii. Hydrological Effect:

Various researches have shown that deforestation greatly affects water cycle. Groundwater is extracted by trees through the help of their roots; the water extracted is then released into the surrounding atmosphere. If we remove a part of the forest, there will not be transpiration of water like it should be and this result in the climate being a lot drier. The water content of the soil is heavily reduced by deforestation and also atmospheric moisture as well as groundwater. There is a reduced level of water intake that the trees can extract as a result of the dry soil. Soil cohesion is also reduced by deforestation and this can result in landslides, flooding and erosion.

iii. Effect on Soil:

As a direct result of the plant litter on the surface, there is a minimal and reduced erosion rate in forests largely undisturbed. Deforestation increases the erosion rate as a result of the subsequent decrease in the quantity of cover of litter available. The litter cover actually serves as a protection for the soil from all varieties of surface runoff. When mechanized equipments and machineries are used in forestry operations, there can be a resulting erosion increase as a result of the development of roads in the forests.

iv. Effect on Biodiversity:

There is a biodiversity decline due to deforestation. Deforestation can lead to the death and extinction of a lot of species of animals and plants. The habitat of various animals are taken away as a result of deforestation.

The total coverage of forests on the earth’s landmass is 30 percent and the fact the people are destroying them is worrying. Research reveals that majority of the tropical forests on earth are being destroyed. We are almost at half the forest landmass in destruction. How would earth look life without forests? It will be a total disaster if deforestation is encouraged. Deforestation is a human act in which forests are permanently destroyed in order to create settlement area and use the trees for industries like paper manufacture, wood and construction. A lot of forests have been destroyed and the impact has been felt through climate change and extinction of animals due to destruction of the ecosystem. The impacts of deforestation are adverse and there is need to prevent and control it before it can get any worse.

Deforestation is mainly a human activity affected by many factors. Overpopulation contributed to deforestation because there is need to create a settlement area for the increasing number of people on earth and the need for urbanization for economic reasons. Recently, population has greatly risen in the world and people require shelter as a basic need. Forests are destroyed in order for people to find land to build a shelter and then trees are further cut to build those houses. Overpopulation is a major threat to the forest landmass and if not controlled, people will continue to occupy the forests until there is no more forest coverage on earth.

Another factor influencing deforestation is industrialization. Industries that use trees to manufacture their product e.g. paper and wood industries have caused major destruction of forests. The problem with industries is the large-scale need for trees which causes extensive deforestation. The use of timber in industries is a treat to forests all over the world. In as much as we need furniture, paper and homes, it is not worth the massive destruction of our forests.

Fires are also a cause of deforestation. During episodes of drought, fire spreads widely and burns down trees. The fire incidences could result from human activities like smoking or charcoal burning in the forests. Drought due to adverse weather changes in global warming is a natural disaster that claim the lives of people and living things.

Agricultural activities such as farming and livestock keeping also cause deforestation because of the land demand in those activities. Deforestation for farming purpose involves clearing all the vegetation on the required land and using it for and then burring the vegetation hence the name ‘slash and burn agriculture’. The ranches required for cattle keeping among other livestock require a large area that is clear from trees.

Impacts of Deforestation:

Deforestation has a great impact on the ecosystem in different ways. Climate change is influenced by deforestation because trees influence weather directly. Trees usually act to protect against strong winds and erosion but in its absence, natural disasters like floods and storms could be experienced. Also, tree are important in replenishing the air in the atmosphere. Trees have the ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen. Without trees, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be increased. Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it causes global warming.

Global warming is a serious environmental issue that causes adverse climatic changes and affects life on earth. Extreme weather conditions like storms, drought and floods. These weather conditions are not conducive for humans and other living things on earth. Natural disasters as a result of global warming are very destructive both to animate and inanimate objects in the environment.

Loss of species due to deforestation has negatively affected biodiversity. Biodiversity is a highly valued aspect of life on earth and its interruption is a loss. There is a loss of habitat for species to exist in as a result of deforestation and therefore species face extinction. Extinction of some rare species is a threat we are currently facing. Animals that live and depend on forest vegetation for food will also suffer and eventually die of hunger. Survival has been forced on animals of the jungle due to deforestation and that is why human wildlife conflict is being experienced.

The water cycle on earth is negatively affected by deforestation. The existence of water vapor in the atmosphere is maintained by trees. Absence of trees cause a reduced vapor retention in the atmosphere which result in adverse climate changes. Trees and other forest vegetation are important in preventing water pollution because they prevent the contaminated runoff into water sources like rivers, lakes and oceans. Without trees, pollution of water is more frequent and therefore the water will be unsafe for consumption by human and animals.

Solutions to Deforestation:

Based on the serious impact of deforestation, it is only safe if solutions are sought to end this problem. The ultimate solution is definitely restoration of the forest landmass on earth. The restoration can be done by encouraging the planting of trees, a process called reforestation. Although reforestation will not completely solve the impacts of deforestation, it will restore a habitat for the wild animals and slowly restore the ecosystem. Major impacts like concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere require another approach. Human activities that contribute to carbon dioxide gas emission to the atmosphere have to be reduced through strict policies for industries and finding alternative energy sources that do not produce greenhouse gases.

Another solution is public awareness. People have to be made aware that deforestation has negative effects so that they can reduce the act. Through awareness, people can also be taught on ways of reducing the population e.g., family planning. On World Environment Day, people are encouraged to participate in activities like tree planting in order to conserve environment and that is how the awareness takes place.

In conclusion, deforestation is a human activity that is destructive and should be discouraged. Environmental conservation is our responsibility because we have only one earth to live in.

Deforestation , Environment , Forests

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Modern deforestation

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deforestation , the clearing or thinning of forests by humans. Deforestation represents one of the largest issues in global land use . Estimates of deforestation traditionally are based on the area of forest cleared for human use, including removal of the trees for wood products and for croplands and grazing lands. In the practice of clear-cutting , all the trees are removed from the land, which completely destroys the forest . In some cases, however, even partial logging and accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest structure dramatically.

Conversion of forests to land used for other purposes has a long history. Earth’s croplands , which cover about 49 million square km (18.9 million square miles), are mostly deforested land. Most present-day croplands receive enough rain and are warm enough to have once supported forests of one kind or another. Only about 1 million square km (390,000 square miles) of cropland are in areas that would have been cool boreal forests , as in Scandinavia and northern Canada . Much of the remainder was once moist subtropical or tropical forest or, in eastern North America , western Europe, and eastern China , temperate forest .

The extent to which forests have become Earth’s grazing lands is much more difficult to assess. Cattle or sheep pastures in North America or Europe are easy to identify, and they support large numbers of animals. At least 2 million square km (772,204 square miles) of such forests have been cleared for grazing lands. Less certain are the humid tropical forests and some drier tropical woodlands that have been cleared for grazing. These often support only very low numbers of domestic grazing animals, but they may still be considered grazing lands by national authorities. Almost half the world is made up of “ drylands ”—areas too dry to support large numbers of trees—and most are considered grazing lands. There, goats , sheep , and cattle may harm what few trees are able to grow.

Although most of the areas cleared for crops and grazing represent permanent and continuing deforestation, deforestation can be transient . About half of eastern North America lay deforested in the 1870s, almost all of it having been deforested at least once since European colonization in the early 1600s. Since the 1870s the region’s forest cover has increased, though most of the trees are relatively young. Few places exist in eastern North America that retain stands of uncut old-growth forests.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the annual rate of deforestation is about 1.3 million square km per decade, though the rate has slowed in some places in the early 21st century as a result of enhanced forest management practices and the establishment of nature preserves. The greatest deforestation is occurring in the tropics, where a wide variety of forests exists. They range from rainforests that are hot and wet year-round to forests that are merely humid and moist, to those in which trees in varying proportions lose their leaves in the dry season, and to dry open woodlands. Because boundaries between these categories are inevitably arbitrary, estimates differ regarding how much deforestation has occurred in the tropics.

A major contributor to tropical deforestation is the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture , or swidden agriculture ( see also shifting agriculture ). Small-scale farmers clear forests by burning them and then grow crops in the soils fertilized by the ashes. Typically, the land produces for only a few years and then must be abandoned and new patches of forest burned. Fire is also commonly used to clear forests in Southeast Asia , tropical Africa, and the Americas for permanent oil palm plantations.

Additional human activities that contribute to tropical deforestation include commercial logging and land clearing for cattle ranches and plantations of rubber trees , oil palm , and other economically valuable trees.

The Amazon Rainforest is the largest remaining block of humid tropical forest, and about two-thirds of it is in Brazil . (The rest lies along that country’s borders to the west and to the north.) Studies in the Amazon reveal that about 5,000 square km (1,931 square miles) are at least partially logged each year. In addition, each year fires burn an area about half as large as the areas that are cleared. Even when the forest is not entirely cleared, what remains is often a patchwork of forests and fields or, in the event of more intensive deforestation, “islands” of forest surrounded by a “sea” of deforested areas.

The commercial palm oil industry rapidly expanded in the late 20th century and led to the deforestation of significant swaths of Indonesia and Malaysia as well as large areas in Africa. New plantations are often formed using slash-and-burn agricultural methods, and the resulting fragmentation of natural forests and loss of habitat threatens native plants and animals. Bornean and Sumatran orangutans are especially iconic species threatened by the expansion of oil palm farming in Indonesia.

Deforested lands are being replanted in some areas. Some of this replanting is done to replenish logging areas for future exploitation, and some replanting is done as a form of ecological restoration , with the reforested areas made into protected land. Additionally, significant areas are planted as monotypic plantations for lumber or paper production. These are often plantations of eucalyptus or fast-growing pines —and almost always of species that are not native to the places where they are planted. The FAO estimates that there are approximately 1.3 million square km (500,000 square miles) of such plantations on Earth.

Many replanting and reforestation efforts are led and funded by the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations. However, some national governments have also undertaken ambitious replanting projects. For example, starting in 2017, the government of New Zealand sought to plant more than 100 million trees per year within its borders, but perhaps the most ambitious replanting project took place in India on a single day in 2017, when citizens planted some 66 million trees.

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The Causes and Effects of Deforestation, Explained

A big aspect of climate change, summarized briefly.

Explainer • Climate • Environment

Words by Seth Millstein

Deforestation is the process of clearing forests and using the land for other purposes. Although it’s been a part of human society for thousands of years, the pace of deforestation has exploded in recent years, and the planet is paying the price. The causes and effects of deforestation are complex and intertwined, and the impacts are far-reaching and undeniable. Let’s take a closer look at how deforestation works , and how it negatively impacts the planet, animals and humanity.

What Is Deforestation?

Deforestation is the permanent clearing and repurposing of previously forested land. Though there are a number of motivations behind deforestation, it’s generally carried out to repurpose the land for other uses, mainly agriculture, or to extract resources.

Deforestation itself is nothing new, as humans have been clearing forested land for millennia . But the rate at which we destroy forests has increased dramatically: half of all deforestation that’s occurred since 8,000 BC took place in the last 100 years .

In addition to deforestation, forested land is also lost through a similar process known as forest degradation. This is when some, but not all, of the trees in a forested area are cleared, and the land is not repurposed for any other use.

While forest degradation isn’t a good thing by any measure, it’s much less harmful in the long-term than deforestation. Degraded forests will grow back over time, but the trees lost to deforestation are usually lost forever.

How Much Land Has Already Been Deforested?

When the last Ice Age ended around 10,000 years ago, there were roughly six billion hectares of forest on Earth. Since then, around a third of that forest , or two billion hectares, has been destroyed. Around 75 percent of this loss occurred over the last 300 years.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that currently, humans destroy around 10 million hectares of forest every year.

Where Does Deforestation Occur?

Although it happens around the world to some degree, around 95 percent of deforestation occurs in the tropics , and one-third of that takes place in Brazil. Another 14 percent occurs in Indonesia ; collectively, Brazil and Indonesia account for about 45 percent of all deforestation worldwide. About 20 percent of tropical deforestation takes place in South American countries other than Brazil, and another 17 percent occurs in Africa.

By contrast, around two-thirds of all forest degradation occurs in temperate regions , primarily North America, China, Russia and South Asia.

What Are the Biggest Drivers of Deforestation?

Humans deforest land for a number of reasons, but the biggest by far is agriculture. According to the United Nations, 90 percent of global deforestation is carried out to repurpose the land for agricultural use — mostly to raise cattle, grow soybeans and produce palm oil.

Beef Production

Beef production is the single-biggest driver of deforestation , tropical and otherwise. Around 39 percent of global deforestation , and 72 percent of deforestation in Brazil alone, is carried out to create grazing pastures for cattle.

Soy Production (Mostly to Feed Livestock)

Another significant driver of agricultural deforestation is soybean production. While soy is a popular meat and dairy replacement, only around seven percent of global soy is directly consumed by humans. The majority of soy —  75 percent — is used to feed livestock , meaning that most soy-driven deforestation is carried out to aid in agricultural expansion.

Palm Oil Production

The conversion of forested land to palm oil plantations is another primary motivation behind tropical deforestation. Palm oil is a versatile ingredient that’s used in a wide variety of everyday products, including nuts, bread, margarine, cosmetics, fuel and more. It’s derived from the fruit of oil palm trees, and is grown mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Paper and Other Agriculture

Beef, soy and palm oil are collectively responsible for 60 percent of tropical deforestation. Other notable drivers include forestry and the production of paper (13 percent of tropical deforestation), rice and other cereals (10 percent), and vegetables, fruits and nuts (seven percent).

What Are the Environmental Impacts of Deforestation?

Deforestation impacts the environment in a number of negative ways, some more obvious than others.

Global Warming and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Deforestation emits massive amounts of greenhouse gasses, and is a significant contributor to rising global temperatures, in a few different ways.

Trees trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks, branches, leaves and roots. This makes them a crucial tool for reducing global warming, as carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas. When those trees are removed, however, that carbon dioxide is then released back into the air.

The greenhouse emissions don’t end there, however. As we’ve seen, the vast majority of deforested land is converted for agricultural use, and agriculture itself is a huge contributor to global warming as well. Animal agriculture is especially damaging, with scientists estimating that between 11 and 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farms .

Finally, the absence of trees on deforested land means that carbon dioxide that’s emitted from other sources, such as vehicles or local communities, is no longer being stored by trees. As such, deforestation increases net greenhouse emissions in three ways: it releases the carbon that’s already stored in the forest, it prevents the trapping of additional carbon from other sources and it facilitates the release of “new” greenhouse gasses through its conversion to agricultural land.

Loss of Biodiversity

Earth is a vast, interconnected ecosystem, and a certain level of biodiversity is required to ensure that it maintains its equilibrium. Deforestation is reducing this biodiversity every day.

Forests are teeming with life. Millions of different animals, plants and insects call the forest their home, including three million different species in the Amazon rainforest alone. Over a dozen animal species can only be found in the Amazon rainforest .

Destroying these forests destroys these animals’ homes and, in the long term, threatens the continued survival of their species. This isn’t a hypothetical concern: every day, about 135 plant and animal species go extinct because of deforestation , and an estimated 10,000 additional species — including 2,800 species of animal — are at risk of extinction due to deforestation in the Amazon alone. Palm oil production in particular has driven orangutans to the brink of extinction .

We are living in a period mass extinction — the sixth to occur during Earth’s lifetime. This matters not only because it’s sad when cute animals die, but rather, because accelerated periods of extinction threaten to disrupt the delicate equilibrium that allows Earth’s ecosystem to continue existing.

A 2023 study found that over the last 500 years, entire genuses have been going extinct at a rate 35 times higher than the historical average. This rate of extinction, the authors of the study wrote, is “destroying the conditions that make human life possible.”

Soil Erosion and Degradation

It may not get as much attention as oil or gold, but soil is a vital natural resource that we and countless other creatures rely on to survive. Trees and other natural vegetation shield soil from the sun and rain, and help hold it in place. When those trees are removed, the nutrient-rich topsoil becomes loosened, and is more susceptible to erosion and degradation by the elements.

Soil erosion and soil degradation have a number of dangerous effects. In the most general sense, degradation and erosion make soil less viable for supporting plant life, and reduces the number of plants that the land can support. Degraded soil is also worse at retaining water, thus increasing the risk of flooding . Sediment from eroded soil is also a major water pollutant that imperils fish populations and human drinking water alike.

These effects can continue for decades after deforested land is repurposed, as the crops grown on deforested land often don’t hold onto the topsoil as firmly as the natural vegetation did.

What Can Be Done to Reduce Deforestation?

Government regulation.

In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has reduced deforestation rates in his country significantly since taking office in 2019. His administration has accomplished this largely by empowering regulatory agencies to more closely track and monitor illegal deforestation, increasing enforcement of anti-deforestation laws, and in general, cracking down on illegal deforestation.

Industry Pledges

There’s also some sign that voluntary industry pledges can help curb deforestation. In 2006, a collective of major soybean traders agreed to no longer buy soy that was grown on deforested land. Eight years later, the share of soybean expansion on previously-forested lands fell from 30 percent to one percent.

Reforestation and Afforestation

Lastly, there is reforestation and afforestation — the process of planting trees on deforested land or new land, respectively. In China, afforestation initiatives enacted by the government in the late 1970s have increased the country’s tree cover from 12 percent to 22 percent, while local reforestation programs have planted at least 50 million additional trees around the Earth in the last 35 years.

The Bottom Line

Deforestation’s environmental impact is clear: it releases greenhouse gasses, pollutes the water, kills plants and animals, erodes the soil and reduces the planet’s biodiversity. Unfortunately, it’s also become more and more common over the centuries, and without focused, aggressive action to curb it, deforestation will likely only get worse over time.

Independent Journalism Needs You

Seth Millstein is a writer and musician living in the Bay Area. He has helped launch several early-stage journalism startups, including Bustle and Timeline, and his work has been published in Bustle, Huffington Post, The Daily Dot and elsewhere.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The unseen effects of deforestation: biophysical effects on climate.

• 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
• 2 The Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, United States
• 3 The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cali, Colombia

Climate policy has thus far focused solely on carbon stocks and sequestration to evaluate the potential of forests to mitigate global warming. These factors are used to assess the impacts of different drivers of deforestation and forest degradation as well as alternative forest management. However, when forest cover, structure and composition change, shifts in biophysical processes (the water and energy balances) may enhance or diminish the climate effects of carbon released from forest aboveground biomass. The net climate impact of carbon effects and biophysical effects determines outcomes for forest and agricultural species as well as the humans who depend on them. Evaluating the net impact is complicated by the disparate spatio-temporal scales at which they operate. Here we review the biophysical mechanisms by which forests influence climate and synthesize recent work on the biophysical climate forcing of forests across latitudes. We then combine published data on the biophysical effects of deforestation on climate by latitude with a new analysis of the climate impact of the CO 2 in forest aboveground biomass by latitude to quantitatively assess how these processes combine to shape local and global climate. We find that tropical deforestation leads to strong net global warming as a result of both CO 2 and biophysical effects. From the tropics to a point between 30°N and 40°N, biophysical cooling by standing forests is both local and global, adding to the global cooling effect of CO 2 sequestered by forests. In the mid-latitudes up to 50°N, deforestation leads to modest net global warming as warming from released forest carbon outweighs a small opposing biophysical cooling. Beyond 50°N large scale deforestation leads to a net global cooling due to the dominance of biophysical processes (particularly increased albedo) over warming from CO 2 released. Locally at all latitudes, forest biophysical impacts far outweigh CO 2 effects, promoting local climate stability by reducing extreme temperatures in all seasons and times of day. The importance of forests for both global climate change mitigation and local adaptation by human and non-human species is not adequately captured by current carbon-centric metrics, particularly in the context of future climate warming.

Introduction

Failure to stabilize climate is in itself a large threat to biodiversity already at risk from deforestation. Protection, expansion, and improved management of the world’s forests represent some of the most promising natural solutions to the problem of keeping global warming below 1.5–2 degrees ( Griscom et al., 2017 ; Roe et al., 2019 ). Forests sequester large quantities of carbon; of the 450–650 Pg of carbon stored in vegetation ( IPCC, 2013 ), over 360 Pg is in forest vegetation ( Pan et al., 2013 ). Adding the carbon in soils, forests contain over 800 PgC, almost as much as is currently stored in the atmosphere ( Pan et al., 2013 ). In addition, forests are responsible for much of the carbon removal by terrestrial ecosystems which together remove 29% of annual CO 2 emissions (∼11.5 PgC; Friedlingstein et al., 2019 ). Globally, forest loss not only releases a large amount of carbon to the atmosphere, but it also significantly diminishes a major pathway for carbon removal long into the future ( Houghton and Nassikas, 2018 ). Tropical forests, which hold the greatest amount of aboveground biomass and have one of the fastest carbon sequestration rates per unit land area ( Harris et al., 2021 ), face the greatest deforestation pressure ( FAO, 2020 ). Given the long half-life and homogenous nature of atmospheric CO 2 , current forest management decisions will have an enduring impact on global climate through effects on CO 2 alone. However, forests also impact climate directly through controls on three main biophysical mechanisms: albedo, evapotranspiration (ET) and canopy roughness.

The direct biophysical effects of forests moderate local climate conditions. As a result of relatively low albedo, forests absorb a larger fraction of incoming sunlight than brighter surfaces such as bare soil, agricultural fields, or snow. Changes in albedo can impact the radiation balance at the top of the atmosphere and thus global temperature. The local climate, however, is not only impacted by albedo changes but also by how forests partition incoming solar radiation between latent and sensible heat. Deep roots and high leaf area make forests very efficient at moving water from the land surface to the atmosphere via ET, producing latent heat. Thus, beneath the forest canopy, the sensible heat flux and associated surface temperature are relatively low, especially during the growing season when ET is high ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Mildrexler et al., 2011 ; Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ). This cooling is enhanced by the relatively high roughness of the canopy, which strengthens vertical mixing and draws heat and water vapor away from the surface. Higher in the atmosphere, as water vapor condenses, the latent heat is converted to sensible heat. As a result, warming that began with sunlight striking the canopy is felt higher in the atmosphere rather than in the air near the land surface. These non-radiative processes stabilize local climate by reducing both the diurnal temperature range and seasonal temperature extremes ( Lee et al., 2011 ; Zhang et al., 2014 ; Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Findell et al., 2017 ; Forzieri et al., 2017 ; Hirsch et al., 2018 ; Lejeune et al., 2018 ). Their impact on global climate, however, is less clear.

Despite high spatial variability, forest biophysical impacts do follow predictable latitudinal patterns. In the tropics, higher incoming solar radiation and moisture availability provide more energy to drive ET and convection, which in combination with roughness overcome the warming effect of low albedo, and result in year round cooling by forests. At higher latitudes, where incoming solar radiation is highly seasonal, the impacts of ET and surface roughness are diminished ( Anderson et al., 2011 ; Li et al., 2015 ) and albedo is the dominant biophysical determinant of the climate response. In boreal forests, relatively low albedo and low ET cause strong winter and spring warming. In the summer, higher incoming radiation and somewhat higher ET result in mild cooling by boreal forests ( Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ). In the mid-latitudes, forest cover results in mild biophysical evaporative cooling in the summer months and mild albedo warming in the winter months ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Li et al., 2015 ; Schultz et al., 2017 ). The latitude of zero net biophysical effect, the point at which the annual effect of the forest shifts from local cooling to local warming, ranges from 30 to 56°N in the literature ( Figure 1 ). These generalized latitudinal trends can be modified by aridity, elevation, species composition, and other characteristics, which vary across a range of spatial scales ( Anderson-Teixeira et al., 2012 ; Williams et al., 2021 ).

Figure 1. Latitude of net zero biophysical effect of forests on local temperature varies from 30 to 56°N. Above the line, forest cover causes local warming; below the line, forest cover causes local cooling. The thickness of the line indicates the number of studies that show forest cooling up to that threshold. Data sources as indicated.

Various mechanisms can amplify or dampen a forest’s direct effects on the energy and water balance, with climate impacts in the immediate vicinity, in remote locations, or both ( Bonan, 2008 ). Indirect biophysical effects are particularly important in the boreal region where snow-forest albedo interactions are prevalent. Low albedo forests typically mask high albedo snow, resulting in local radiative warming ( Jiao et al., 2017 ). At the larger scale this forest-induced warming is transferred to the oceans and further amplified by interactions with sea ice ( Brovkin et al., 2004 ; Bala et al., 2007 ; Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Laguë and Swann, 2016 ). In fact, indirect biophysical feedbacks appear to dominate the global temperature response to deforestation in the boreal region ( Devaraju et al., 2018 ). Future climate warming may alter the strength of such feedbacks, depending on the rate at which forests expand northward and the extent and persistence of spring snow cover in a warmer world.

In the tropics, where ET and roughness are the dominant biophysical drivers, forests cool the lower atmosphere, but also provide the water vapor to support cloud formation ( Teuling et al., 2017 ). Clouds whiten the atmosphere over forests and thus increase albedo, at least partially offsetting the inherently low albedo of the forest below ( Heald and Spracklen, 2015 ; Fisher et al., 2017 ). However, the water vapor in clouds also absorbs and re-radiates heat, counteracting some of the cloud albedo-induced cooling ( Swann et al., 2012 ). In the Amazon basin, evidence suggests that deep clouds may occur more frequently over forested areas as a result of greater humidity and consequently greater convective available potential energy ( Wang et al., 2009 ). The impact of tropical deforestation on cloud formation is modified by biomass burning aerosols ( Liu et al., 2020 ) and the net impact on global climate is unclear. Quantifying these indirect biophysical feedback effects is an ongoing challenge for the modeling community particularly in the context of constraining future climate scenarios.

Forest production of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC), which affect both biogeochemical and biophysical processes, further complicate quantification of the net climate impact of forests. BVOC and their oxidation products regulate secondary organic aerosols (SOA), which are highly reflective and result in biophysical cooling. SOA also act as cloud condensation nuclei, enhancing droplet concentrations and thereby increasing cloud albedo, which leads to additional biophysical cooling ( Topping et al., 2013 ). On the other hand, SOA can also cause latent heat release in deep convective cloud systems resulting in strong radiative warming of the atmosphere ( Fan et al., 2012 , 2013 ). Furthermore, through impacts on the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere, BVOC increase the lifetime of methane and lead to the formation of tropospheric ozone in the presence of nitrogen oxides ( Arneth et al., 2011 ; McFiggans et al., 2019 ). The persistence of ozone and methane (both greenhouse gases) results in a biogeochemical warming effect. The net effect of forest BVOC at both local and global scales remains uncertain. Current evidence, from modeling forest loss since 1850, suggests that BVOC result in a small net cooling, if indirect cloud effects are included ( Scott et al., 2018 ). The strongest effect is in the tropics, where BVOC production is highest ( Messina et al., 2016 ).

An improved understanding of the combined effects of forest carbon and biophysical controls on both local and global climate is necessary to guide policy decisions that support global climate mitigation, local adaptation and biodiversity conservation. The relative importance of forest carbon storage and biophysical effects on climate depend in large part on the spatial and temporal scale of interest. Local surface or air temperature may not be sensitive to the incremental impact of atmospheric CO 2 removed by forests growing in a particular landscape or watershed. In contrast, local temperature is sensitive to biophysical changes in albedo, ET and roughness. At regional and global scales, where the cumulative effects of forests on atmospheric CO 2 become apparent in the temperature response, we can usefully compare these impacts. Estimates of the relative impact of biophysical and biogeochemical (e.g., carbon cycle) processes on global or zonal climate have been provided primarily by model simulations of large-scale deforestation or afforestation ( Table 1 ). These studies generally show that CO 2 effects on global temperature are many times greater than the biophysical effects of forest cover or forest loss. In models depicting global or zonal deforestation outside the tropics, however, global warming from CO 2 release offsets only 10–90% of the global biophysical cooling. The global CO 2 effects of total deforestation in the tropics greatly outweigh the global biophysical effects ( Table 1 ). With the exception of Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré (2010) , these studies have estimated the net contribution of biophysical processes, without isolating the individual biophysical components. Here, we provide a new analysis of CO 2 -induced warming from deforestation by 10° latitudinal increments ( Supplementary Information 1 ). We then compare the CO 2 effect with the only published determination of biophysical effects by latitude ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010) to clarify the potential net impact of forest loss in a particular region on local and global climate.

Table 1. Forest effects on global temperature in modeling experiments from biogeochemical (CO 2 ) versus biophysical impacts (albedo, evapotranspiration and roughness as well as changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation, snow and ice, and clouds).

Materials and Methods

In the scientific literature, biophysical impacts have been quantified using a number of different methods. In situ observational data, including weather station and eddy flux measurements, have shaped our understanding of the direct biophysical impacts of forests on the surface energy balance. With the advantage of high temporal resolution, they allow for process level investigation of forest biophysical impacts and attribution of temperature changes to particular biophysical forcings, both radiative (albedo) and non-radiative (ET and roughness) ( Lee et al., 2011 ; Luyssaert et al., 2014 ; Vanden Broucke et al., 2015 ; Bright et al., 2017 ; Liao et al., 2018 ). Remote sensing techniques have recently been used to extrapolate to larger scales, providing a global map of forest cover effects on local climate ( Li et al., 2015 ; Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Bright et al., 2017 ; Duveiller et al., 2018 ; Prevedello et al., 2019 ). However, in contrast to in situ approaches which generally measure near surface air temperature (generally but not always at 2 m), remote sensing studies have investigated the response of land surface temperature (i.e., skin temperature) which is 0.5–3 times more sensitive to forest cover change ( Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Novick and Katul, 2020 ).

Generally, both in situ and remote sensing analyses have adopted a space-for-time approach where differences in surface climate of neighboring forest and non-forest sites are used as proxies for the climate signal from deforestation/afforestation over time. This approach assumes that neighboring sites share a common background climate and that any temperature differences between them can be attributed solely to differences in forest cover. Consequently, large-scale biophysical feedback effects are ignored. New observation-based methodologies have been devised to investigate impacts from ongoing land use change rather than estimating climate sensitivities to idealized forest change ( Alkama and Cescatti, 2016 ; Bright et al., 2017 ; Prevedello et al., 2019 ), however, they too measure only local biophysical impacts.

Numerical modeling of paired climate simulations with contrasting forest cover is necessary to investigate the net climate response to forest cover change, including both local and non-local impacts. Model simulations have focused on idealized scenarios of large-scale deforestation/afforestation which are more likely to trigger large-scale climate feedbacks than more realistic incremental forest cover change. Discrepancies between observed and modeled results may be due in part to the influence of indirect climate feedbacks that are not captured by observations ( Winckler et al., 2017a , 2019a ; Chen and Dirmeyer, 2020 ). Unfortunately, model resolution is currently too coarse to guide local policy decisions. Modeling results are also plagued by a number of uncertainties associated with the partitioning of energy between latent or sensible heat ( de Noblet-Ducoudré et al., 2012 ). The predicted impacts of similar land cover changes are model specific and can vary in sign, magnitude, and geographical distribution ( Devaraju et al., 2015 ; Lawrence and Vandecar, 2015 ; Garcia et al., 2016 ; Laguë and Swann, 2016 ; Stark et al., 2016 ; Quesada et al., 2017 ; Boysen et al., 2020 ) and therefore must be viewed with caution. In this paper, we synthesize all types of observational data from the literature to illustrate the biophysical impacts of forests on local climate. However, given that local impacts have been extensively explored and summarized in the past ( Anderson et al., 2011 ; Perugini et al., 2017 ), and because we wish to include indirect effects and feedbacks, we rely predominantly on modeling studies and our own calculations to elucidate the role of forests at different latitudes in shaping climate.

Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

We combined published data on biophysical effects of deforestation by latitude with our own analysis of CO 2 effects from deforestation by latitude to compare the relative strength of biophysical factors and CO 2 (the dominant biogeochemical factor) affecting global climate. Most modeling experiments available in the literature involve total deforestation at all latitudes, and the ocean feedbacks prove very strong ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010) . Here, we consider land-only effects within a given 10° latitudinal band as this scale of impact is more indicative of the effects of regional or more incremental change on global temperature than the combined land/ocean effects. Finer scale, more realistic forest loss scenarios would not trigger massive cooling through albedo effects on the oceans. Area-scaled, land-only biophysical effects from deforestation provide the most realistic comparison with the effects of carbon stored by forests, and released through deforestation, at a given latitude. The biophysical response was derived from the results of Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré (2010) who simulated total deforestation and decomposed the temperature response, by 10° latitude bands, into the fraction due to albedo, evapotranspiration, roughness and a non-linear response (see Supplementary Table 1 ).

The biogeochemical response was estimated by accounting for the CO 2 effect of deforestation, using existing biomass data and known equilibrium temperature sensitivity to doubled CO 2 . The principal input to our analysis is a 2016 global extension of the 500-m resolution aboveground carbon density (ACD) change (2003–2016) product applied by Walker et al. (2020) to the Amazon basin. It is based on an approach to pantropical ACD change estimation developed by Baccini et al. (2017) . The pantropical product combined field measurements with colocated NASA ICESat GLAS spaceborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to calibrate a machine-learning algorithm that produced estimates of ACD using MODIS satellite imagery. This approach was modified for application to the extratropics, principally the temperate and boreal zones but also extratropical South America, Africa and Australia, using 47 allometric equations compiled from 27 unique literature sources for relating field-based measurements of aboveground biomass to airborne LiDAR metrics ( Chapman et al., 2020 ). These equations were used to predict ACD within the footprints of GLAS LiDAR acquisitions in each region with the result being a pseudo-inventory of LiDAR-based estimates of ACD spanning the extratropics. This dataset was then combined with the pantropical dataset first generated by Baccini et al. (2012) to produce a global database of millions of spatially explicit ACD predictions. This database was used to calibrate six ecoregional MODIS-based models for the purposes of generating a global 500-m resolution map of ACD for the year 2016. Additional details on these methods can be found in Chapman et al. (2020) .

The total aboveground carbon (GtC) was summed for each 10° latitude band and converted to CO 2 (GtC*44/12 = GtCO 2 , Supplementary Information 1 ). The mass of CO 2 was converted to ppm CO 2 in the atmosphere (2.12 Gt/ppm). The derived CO 2 concentration was reduced by 23% to account for ocean uptake ( Global Carbon Project, 2019 ). We assumed that no uptake occurred on land, as the carbon stock in vegetation was completely removed in our experiment to match what occurred in Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré (2010) . Next, we calculated the global temperature response to the increase in atmospheric CO 2 due to the CO 2 released by completely deforesting each 10° latitudinal band using the equilibrium temperature sensitivity derived from general circulation models. Given the accepted value of 3°C (±1.5°C) for a doubling of atmospheric CO 2 (an increase of 280 ppm) (IPCC, 2013), we determined that temperature sensitivity is equivalent to 0.107°C (±0.054°C) for every 10 ppm increase in atmospheric CO 2 content.

To determine the global temperature response to deforestation of a given band, we calculated the area-weighted values for each biophysical response within each latitude band. The area encompassed by 10° of latitude increases toward the equator. Thus, to determine the contribution of a given band to a global temperature response, scaling by the surface area within the band was essential. We used average temperature responses over the land only to avoid the strong bias associated with ocean feedbacks from global scale implementation of deforestation.

For the global analysis, we also determined the contribution of BVOC to global temperature change for deforestation of each 10° of latitude. Scott et al. (2018) described the warming from deforestation due to BVOC in relation to the amount of cooling due to changes in albedo. For the tropics, the BVOC effect on global temperature was 17% of the albedo effect. For the temperate zone, it was 18% and for the boreal, it was 2% of the albedo effect. We applied these scalars (with an opposite sign) to the albedo figures for each 10° latitude band.

Effects on Regional (Local) Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

To analyze the effect of deforesting 10° of latitude on the temperature within that latitude zone (‘local’ effect), we did not scale by area within the band. Rather we assessed the average temperature change across the band, locally felt, as reported in the original study. The CO 2 effect was calculated as above and then scaled to reflect the sensitivity of a given latitudinal band to a global forcing. Only the CO 2 emitted by the latitudinal band itself was considered when determining the locally felt effects of CO 2 in a given band. Our experimental design involved global deforestation and all emitted CO 2 would have had an effect in a given band, but the point of the analysis was to isolate the temperature change caused by forests in a given latitude. We determined the latitudinal sensitivity to warming in response to added CO 2 from a re-analysis of global 2 m temperature data (CERA-20C) obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/cera-20c . We compared average temperatures from 1901 to 1910 and 2001–2010, by latitude on land only (inadequate land only data for 50–60S and 80–90N; for those, we do not report a locally felt CO 2 effect). Then we divided the temperature change for each latitude band by the change in global temperature over the same period. We scaled the effect of CO 2 emitted by a given 10° latitude band by this sensitivity to represent the influence of non-linear responses such as polar amplification (see Supplementary Information 1 and Supplementary Table 2 ).

Biophysical Effects of Deforestation on Local Climate: A Broader Context

Our analysis is the first to compare regional scale biophysical and CO 2 impacts from regional scale deforestation but the literature is replete with data on local biophysical impacts. The results for local biophysical effects (100s of m to 100s of km) agree with our results at the regional scale (below). Figures 2 , 3 synthesize local biophysically-driven temperature responses to deforestation, as indicated by forest/no-forest comparisons or forest change over time, from the scientific literature. Satellite and flux tower data indicate that surface temperatures in tropical forests are significantly lower than in cleared areas nearby. On an annual basis, local surface cooling of 0.2–2.4°C has been observed (mean 0.96°C, Figure 2 and Supplementary Information 2 ). In the temperate zone, satellite studies of land surface temperature (which is more sensitive than the temperature of the air at 2 m) have shown biophysical cooling from forest cover, or biophysical warming from deforestation (0.02–1.0°C, mean of 0.4°C; see Figure 2 and Supplementary Information 2 ). Both in situ and satellite data generally indicate an average annual cooling of under 1°C from boreal deforestation ( Figure 2 ). Across latitudinal zones, warming from deforestation is generally greater during the day, and during the dry (hot) season ( Figure 3 ).

Figure 2. Local average annual temperature change in response to deforestation (black symbols) or afforestation (green symbols) as determined by comparing neighboring forested and open land (space for time approach) or measuring forest change over time in the tropics, temperate and boreal zones, by (A) in situ or (B) satellite based land surface temperature measurements (0 m, triangles) or air temperature measurements (2 m, circles). See Supplementary Information 2 for data sources.

Figure 3. Local temperature change in response to deforestation by season and time of day in the various climate zones as determined by comparing neighboring forested and open land (space for time approach) or measuring forest change over time. Warm/dry season response, averaged over the entire diurnal cycle, in red shading and cold/wet season response in blue shading. Daytime response, averaged over the entire annual cycle, in yellow shading and nighttime response in gray shading. See Supplementary Information 3 for data sources.

CO 2 -Induced Warming Versus Biophysical Effects on Regional (Local) Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

As expected, the regionally felt effect of regionally (10° band) produced CO 2 is very small compared to any individual biophysical effect or the sum of all non-CO 2 effects ( Figure 4 ). These results indicate that the net impact of all non-CO 2 effects is negligible between 20 and 30N. Beyond 30N the local biophysical response to deforestation is cooling. In the broader literature, this latitude of net zero biophysical effect on local temperature is generally between 30 and 40N ( Figure 1 ).

Figure 4. Effect of complete deforestation on local annual temperature by climate factor, averaged across the land surface within a 10° latitudinal band. Complete deforestation was implemented globally and analyzed by 10° latitudinal bands ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010) . The CO 2 effect was determined from total aboveground biomass in each 10° band after Walker et al. (2020) and scaled by CERA-derived sensitivity by latitude. Inset distinguishes the sum of all local biophysical effects from local CO 2 effects.

Biophysical Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

For most latitudinal bands, the strongest biophysical effect of deforestation is cooling from albedo changes. In the tropics, however, the warming effect of lost roughness is comparable to or greater than the albedo effect ( Figure 5A ). Adding the warming from lost evapotranspiration, the net biophysical effect from tropical deforestation is global warming, as much as 0.1°C contributed each by latitudes 0°–10°S and 0°–10°N. The net biophysical effect of intact tropical forest, therefore, is global cooling; slightly more cooling if BVOCs are also considered (see Figure 5B ). Roughness effects are generally greater than evapotranspiration effects across latitudes providing a strong counterbalance to albedo effects ( Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 ; Burakowski et al., 2018 ; Winckler et al., 2019b ; Figure 5A ). Albedo almost balances the combined effect of roughness, evapotranspiration, BVOC and non-linear effects between 20 and 30°N resulting in close to zero net biophysical effect on global temperature ( Figure 5B ). From 30–40°N and northward, albedo dominates, and the net biophysical effect of deforestation is cooling.

Figure 5. Effect of complete deforestation on global temperature by 10° band of latitude. (A) Contribution to global temperature change by climate forcing factor. Biophysical factors are from Davin and de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2010 , area-weighted. BVOC effects are estimated relative to albedo effects based on Scott et al., 2018 . CO 2 effect is based on aboveground live biomass for each 10° latitudinal band following Baccini et al., 2017 and Walker et al., 2020 . (B) Net biophysical and BVOC effect versus CO 2 effect. (C) Cooling or warming effects of deforestation by 10° latitudinal band (BVOC included). “Forests as mountains” map of aboveground biomass carbon in woody vegetation ca. 2016 courtesy of Woodwell Climate Research Center and shaded to indicate where deforestation results in net global warming. See Supplementary Information 1 for details.

CO 2 -Induced Warming Versus Biophysical Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band

From 30°S to 30°N, the biophysical effect of deforesting a given 10° latitudinal band is about half as great and in the same direction as the CO 2 effect: global warming. Biophysical warming is around 60% as great as warming from released CO 2 in the outer tropics (20°S–10°S and 10°N–20°N) and about 35% as great in the heart of the tropics (10°S–10°N). Biophysical cooling due to deforestation from 30°N to 40°N offsets about 40% of the warming associated with carbon loss from deforestation; from 40°N to 50°N biophysical effects offset 85% of CO 2 effects ( Figure 5B ). Above 50°N, biophysical global cooling is 3–6 times as great as CO 2 induced global warming. The net impact of deforestation (effects of CO 2 , biophysical processes and BVOC combined) is warming at all latitudes up to 50N ( Figure 5C ). Thus, from 50S to 50N, an area that encompasses approximately 65% of global forests ( FAO, 2020 ), deforestation results in global warming ( Figure 5C ).

All Forests Provide Local Climate Benefits Through Biophysical Effects

Ignoring biophysical effects on local climate means casting aside a powerful inducement to promote global climate goals and advance forest conservation: local self-interest. The biogeochemical effect of forests tends to dominate the biophysical effect at the global scale because physical effects in one region can cancel out effects in another. Nevertheless, biophysical effects are very important, and can be very large, at the local scale (e.g., Anderson-Teixeira et al., 2012 ; Bright et al., 2015 ; Jiao et al., 2017 ; Figures 2 – 4 ). The role of forests in maintaining critical habitat for biodiversity is well known, but new research on extinction confirms the role of forests in maintaining critical climates to support biodiversity. Changes in maximum temperature are driving extinction, not changes in average temperature ( Román-Palacios and Wiens, 2020 ). Deforestation is associated with an increase in the maximum daily temperature throughout the year in the tropics and during the summer in higher latitudes ( Lee et al., 2011 ; Zhang et al., 2014 ). Of course deforestation also increases average daytime temperatures in boreal, mid-latitude and tropical forests ( Figure 3 ). The biophysical effects of forests also moderate local and regional temperature extremes such that extremely hot days are significantly more common following deforestation even in the mid- and high latitudes ( Vogel et al., 2017 ; Stoy, 2018 ). Historical deforestation explains ∼1/3 of the present day increase in the intensity of the hottest days of the year at a given location ( Lejeune et al., 2018 ). It has also increased the frequency and intensity of hot dry summers two to four fold ( Findell et al., 2017 ). Local increases in extreme temperatures due to forest loss are of comparable magnitude to changes caused by 0.5°C of global warming ( Seneviratne et al., 2018 ). Forests provide local cooling during the hottest times of the year anywhere on the planet, improving the resilience of cities, agriculture, and conservation areas. Forests are critical for adapting to a warmer world.

Forests also minimize risks due to drought associated with heat extremes. Deep roots, high water use efficiency, and high surface roughness allow trees to continue transpiring during drought conditions and thus to dissipate heat and convey moisture to the atmosphere. In addition to this direct cooling, forest ET can influence cloud formation ( Stoy, 2018 ), enhancing albedo and potentially promoting rainfall. The production of BVOCs and organic aerosols by forests accelerates with increasing temperatures, enhancing direct or indirect (cloud formation) albedo effects. This negative feedback on temperature has been observed to counter anomalous heat events in the mid-latitudes ( Paasonen et al., 2013 ).

Some Forests Provide Global Climate Benefits Through Biophysical Effects

Disregarding the biophysical effects of specific forests on global climate means under-selling some forest actions and over-selling others. The response to local forest change is not equivalent for similar sized areas in different latitudes. According to Arora and Montenegro (2011) warming reductions per unit reforested area are three times greater in the tropics than in the boreal and northern temperate zone due to a faster carbon sequestration rate magnified by year-round biophysical cooling. Thus, considering biophysical effects significantly enhances both the local and global climate benefits of land-based mitigation projects in the tropics (see Figures 4 , 5 ).

Constraints on Forest Climate Benefits in the Future

Climate change is likely to alter the biophysical effect of forests in a variety of ways. Deforestation in a future (warmer) climate could warm the tropical surface 25% more than deforestation in a present-day climate due to stronger decreases in turbulent heat fluxes ( Winckler et al., 2017b ). In a warmer climate, reduced snow cover in the temperate and boreal regions will lead to a smaller albedo effect and thus less biophysical cooling with high latitude deforestation. In addition to snow cover change, future rainfall regimes will affect the response of climate to changes in forest cover ( Pitman et al., 2011 ) as rainfall limits the supply of moisture available for evaporative cooling. Increases in water use efficiency due to increasing atmospheric CO 2 may reduce evapotranspiration ( Keenan et al., 2013 ), potentially reducing the local cooling effect of forests and altering atmospheric moisture content and dynamics at local to global scales. Future BVOC production may increase due to warming and simultaneously decline due to CO 2 suppression ( Lathière et al., 2010 ; Unger, 2014 ; Hantson et al., 2017 ). The physiological and ecological responses of forests to warming, rising atmospheric CO 2 and changing precipitation contribute to uncertainty in the biophysical effect of future forests on climate.

Forest persistence is essential for maintaining the global benefits of carbon removals from the atmosphere and the local and global benefits of the physical processes described above. Changing disturbance regimes may limit forest growth and regrowth in many parts of the world. Dynamic global vegetation models currently show an increasing terrestrial carbon sink in the future. This sink is thought to be due to the effects of fertilization by rising atmospheric CO 2 and N deposition on plant growth as well as the effects of climate change lengthening the growing season in northern temperate and boreal areas ( Le Quéré et al., 2018 ). Free-air carbon dioxide enrichment (FACE) experiments often show increases in biomass accumulation under high CO 2 but results are highly variable due to nutrient limitations and climatic factors ( Feng et al., 2015 ; Paschalis et al., 2017 ; Terrer et al., 2018 ). Climate change effects on the frequency and intensity of pest outbreaks are poorly studied, but are likely to be significant, particularly at the margins of host ranges. Warmer springs and winters are already increasing insect-related tree mortality in boreal forests through increased stress on the tree hosts and direct effects on insect populations ( Volney and Fleming, 2000 ; Price et al., 2013 ).

Climate also affects fire regimes. In the tropics, fire regimes often follow El Niño cycles ( van der Werf et al., 2017 ). As temperatures increase, however, fire and rainfall are decoupled as the flammability of forests increases even in normal rainfall years ( Fernandes et al., 2017 ; Brando et al., 2019 ). Fire frequency is also increasing in some temperate and boreal forests, with a discernable climate change signal ( Abatzoglou and Williams, 2016 ). Modeling exercises indicate that this trend is expected to continue with increasing damage to forests as temperatures rise and fire intensity increases ( De Groot et al., 2013 ).

In addition to changes induced by warming, continued deforestation could severely stress remaining forests by warming and drying local and regional climates ( Lawrence and Vandecar, 2015 ; Costa et al., 2019 ; Gatti et al., 2021 ). In the tropics, a tipping point may occur, potentially resulting in a shift to shorter, more savannah-like vegetation and altering the impact of vast, previously forested areas on global climate ( Nobre et al., 2016 ; Brando et al., 2019 ). Some of these processes are included in climate models and some are not. The gaps leave considerable uncertainty. Nevertheless, a combination of observations, models, and theory gives us a solid understanding of the biophysical effects of forests on climate at local, regional and global scales. We can use that knowledge to plan forest-based climate mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigation Potential of Forests: Byond the Carbon/Biophysical Divide

If instead of focusing on the contrast between biophysical and biochemical impacts of forests and forest loss, we focus on the potential of forests to cool the planet through both pathways, another picture emerges. By our conservative estimate, through the combined effects on CO 2 , BVOC, roughness and evapotranspiration, forests up to 50°N provide a net global cooling that is enough to offset warming associated with their low albedo. Given the most realistic pathways of forest change in the future (not complete deforestation of a 10° latitudinal band, or an entire biome), global climate stabilization benefits likely extend beyond 50°N. For the 29% of the global land surface that lies beyond 50°N, forests may warm the planet, but only as inferred from assessing the effects of complete zonal deforestation with all the associated, and powerful, land-ocean feedbacks spawned by largescale forest change in the boreal zone. Forests above 50°N, like forests everywhere, provide essential local climate stabilization benefits by reducing surface temperatures during the warm season as well as periods of extreme heat or drought. Indeed, they also reduce extreme cold.

Creating a fair and effective global arena for market-based solutions to climate change requires attention to all the ways that forests affect climate, including the biophysical effects. Future metrics of forest climate impacts should consider the effects of deforestation beyond CO 2 . Only recently have modelers begun to include BVOC. Doing so means that the albedo of intact forests (or the atmosphere above them) is higher due to the creation of SOA and subsequent cloud formation. Modeled deforestation thus results in less of a change in albedo, reducing the biophysical cooling effect. Similarly, accounting for the ozone and methane effects of BVOC reduces the biogeochemical warming from deforestation ( Scott et al., 2018 ). In addition, especially in the tropics, deforestation reduces the strength of the soil CH 4 sink ( Dutaur and Verchot, 2007 ). While a small change relative to the atmospheric pool of CH 4 (the second most important greenhouse gas), the loss of this sink is equivalent to approximately 13% of the current rate of increase in atmospheric CH 4 ( Saunois et al., 2016 ). We already have the data ( Figure 5 ) to begin conceptualizing measures to coarsely scale CO 2 impacts of forest change by latitude. Finer resolution of latitude, background climate (current and future) and forest type would improve any such new, qualifying metric for the climate mitigation value of forests.

The role of forests in addressing climate change extends beyond the traditional concept of CO 2 mitigation which neglects the local climate regulation services they provide. The biophysical effects of forest cover can contribute significantly to solving local adaptation challenges, such as extreme heat and flooding, at any latitude. The carbon benefits of forests at any latitude contribute meaningfully to global climate mitigation. In the tropics, however, where forest carbon stocks and sequestration rates are highest, the biophysical effects of forests amplify the carbon benefits, thus underscoring the critical importance of protecting, expanding, and improving the management of tropical forests. Perhaps it is time to think more broadly about what constitutes global climate mitigation. If climate mitigation means limiting global warming, then clearly the biophysical effects of deforestation must be considered in addition to its effects on atmospheric CO 2 . We may further consider whether mitigation is too narrow a scope for considering the climate benefits provided by forests. Climate policy often separates mitigation from adaptation, but the benefits of forests clearly extend into both realms.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

DL conceived the presented idea. All authors helped perform the computations, discussed the results, and contributed to the final manuscript.

Financial support from the University of Virginia and the Climate and Land Use Alliance grant #G-1810-55876.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Frances Seymour, Michael Wolosin, Billie L. Turner, Ruth DeFries, and the reviewers for feedback on this manuscript and to the University of Virginia and the Climate and Land Use Alliance grant #G-1810-55876 for financial support.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.756115/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords : forest, biophysical effects, temperature, climate policy, deforestation/afforestation

Citation: Lawrence D, Coe M, Walker W, Verchot L and Vandecar K (2022) The Unseen Effects of Deforestation: Biophysical Effects on Climate. Front. For. Glob. Change 5:756115. doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2022.756115

Received: 10 August 2021; Accepted: 02 March 2022; Published: 24 March 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Lawrence, Coe, Walker, Verchot and Vandecar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Deborah Lawrence, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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• School Education /

Essay on Deforestation: 100 Words, 300 Words

• Updated on  
• Apr 1, 2024

Deforestation means the widespread clearing of forests which has become a topic of global concern due to its severe environmental concerns. Deforestation as a topic is discussed and given as assignments to students for their better understanding. In this blog, we will learn the various facets of deforestation, its causes, consequences, and solutions. Also, there are some sample essay on deforestation to help students with their assignments.

Table of Contents

• 1 What is Deforestation?
• 2 Causes of Deforestation
• 3 Consequences of Deforestation
• 4 Solutions to Deforestation
• 5 Sample Essay on Deforestation in 100 words
• 6 Sample Essay on Deforestation in 300 words
• 7 FAQs 

What is Deforestation?

Cutting down of trees on a large scale thus clearing forests which is then converted to land for human use is known as deforestation. The human use of land includes agriculture, making houses, commercial uses, etc. Almost 71.22 million hectare area of the total land of India is covered by forest. In the tropical and subtropical forests, deforestation is much more extreme. These areas are then converted into land for economical uses.

Causes of Deforestation

• Logging – Trees are cut down to make furniture, paper, and other products.
• Agriculture – Forests are cleared to make space for farming.
• Urbanization –  Cities expand, leading to the destruction of forests.
• Mining – Trees are removed to extract minerals and resources.

Also Read – Essay on Environment: Examples & Tips

Consequences of Deforestation

• Loss of Biodiversity –  Animals lose their homes, and many become endangered or extinct.
• Climate Change – Trees absorb carbon dioxide, so fewer trees mean more pollution and global warming .
• Soil Erosion – Without trees, soil washes away, making it hard to grow crops.
• Disruption of the Water Cycle -Trees help to control water, and without them, floods and droughts become more common.

Solutions to Deforestation

• Planting Trees – People can plant new trees to replace the ones that were cut down.
• Using Less Paper – If we use less paper, fewer trees will be cut for making paper.
• Protecting Forest s – Governments can make rules to stop cutting down too many trees.
• Supporting Sustainable Products – Buying things that don’t harm forests can help.

Sample Essay on Deforestation in 100 words

Deforestation is when trees are cut down and forests disappear. Trees give us clean air to breathe. Imagine if someone took away your home – that’s what happens to animals when forests are destroyed. It is a major environmental problem that has many negative consequences, such as climate change, soil erosion, and loss of biodiversity.

When we cut too many trees, it’s bad for nature. Animals lose their homes, and the air becomes dirty. When there are no trees, floods and droughts happen more often. We can help by planting new trees and taking care of the ones we have. Let’s protect the forests and the Earth!

Also Read- Essay on Waste Management

Sample Essay on Deforestation in 300 words

Deforestation is when people cut down a lot of trees from forests. Trees are important because they make the air fresh and give animals a place to live. When we cut down too many trees, it’s not good for the Earth. Animals lose their homes, and the air gets polluted. 

There are many causes of deforestation and one of the causes is Agriculture. Forests are cleared to make way for cropland and livestock grazing. Another reason is timber harvesting. Trees are cut down for timber, paper, and other wood products. Mining is also another cause and forests are cleared to access minerals and other resources. Even due to urbanization, trees are cut down to make way for roads, cities, and other developments.

Deforestation is the permanent removal of forests to make way for other land uses, such as agriculture, mining, and urban development. It is a major environmental problem that has many negative consequences. One of them is climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, so deforestation contributes to climate change. Another consequence is soil erosion, when trees are removed, the soil is more easily eroded by wind and rain which can lead to flooding and landslides. Loss of biodiversity: Forests are home to a wide variety of plants and animals. Deforestation can lead to the loss of these species.

There are many things that can be done to reduce deforestation. Such as we must plant trees, they can help to offset the effects of deforestation by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Secondly, reduce our consumption of wood products by using less paper, buying furniture made from recycled materials, and avoiding disposable products. Thirdly, by supporting sustainable agricultural practices that do not require the clearing of forests. Lastly, by conserving forests, we can create protected areas and support sustainable forest management practices.

Deforestation is a serious issue that affects the whole planet. But there’s hope! By planting trees, using less paper, and taking care of nature, we can make the Earth a better place for everyone. Remember, even though we are small, our actions can make a big difference.

Related Reads

Deforestation is cutting down trees and wiping out wide areas of forest. The major reasons behind these cutting down is because of human activities that are increasing the space for human usage like agricultural expansion, logging, agriculture,  expansion of infrastructure, etc.

Deforestation means the large-scale cutting down of trees or forests causing great concern and environmental hazards. It is predicted that if humans continue wiping the forest areas, we will no longer be able to breathe in a greener world. So, plant trees and make people aware of the concerns of deforestation.

There are many ways through which we can try to stop deforestation some of which are – planting trees, less use of paper, judicious buying, selling, and use of products, incorporating various recycling methods, aware and educating people, etc 

Hence, we hope that this blog has assisted you in comprehending what an essay on deforestation must include. If you are struggling with your career choices and need expert guidance, our Leverage Edu mentors are here to guide you at any point of your academic and professional journey thus ensuring that you take informed steps towards your dream career.

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Essay on Deforestation for Students and Children

500+ words essay on deforestation.

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees in the forest in a large number. Deforestation has always been a threat to our environment. But still many humans are continuing this ill practice. Moreover, Deforestation is causing ecological imbalance. Yet, some selfish people have to fill their pockets. Therefore they do not even think about it once. So, the government is trying countermeasures to avert the harm to the environment .

The main purpose of deforestation is to increase the land area. Also, this land area is to set up new industries. And, this all is because of the increase in population. As the population increases the demand for products also increase. So rich businessmen set up these industries to increase profit.

Harmful Effects of Deforestation

There are many harmful effects of deforestation. Some of them are below: Soil erosion: Soil erosion is the elimination of the upper layer of the soil. It takes place when there is removing of trees that bind the soil. As a result wind and water carries away the top layer of the soil.

Moreover, disasters like landslides take place because of this. Furthermore, soil erosion is responsible for various floods. As trees are not present to stop the waters from heavy rainfall’s gush directly to the plains. This results in damaging of colonies where people are living.

Global Warming: Global warming is the main cause of the change in our environment. These seasons are now getting delayed. Moreover, there is an imbalance in their ratios. The temperatures are reaching its extreme points. This year it was 50 degrees in the plains, which is most of all. Furthermore, the glaciers in the Himalayan ranges are melting.

As a result, floods are affecting the hilly regions of our country and the people living there. Moreover, the ratio of water suitable for drinking is also decreasing.

Impact on the water cycle: Since through transpiration, trees release soil water into the environment. Thus cutting of them is decreasing the rate of water in the atmosphere. So clouds are not getting formed. As a result, the agricultural grounds are not receiving proper rainfall. Therefore it is indirectly affecting humans only.

A great threat to wildlife: Deforestation is affecting wildlife as well. Many animals like Dodo, Sabre-toothed Cat, Tasmanian Tiger are already extinct. Furthermore, some animals are on the verge of extinction. That’s because they have lost habitat or their place of living. This is one of the major issues for wildlife protectors.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Avert Deforestation?

Deforestation can be averted by various countermeasures. First of all, we should afforestation which is growing of trees in the forest. This would help to resolve the loss of the trees cut down. Moreover, the use of plant-based products should increase.

This would force different industries to grow more trees. As a result, the environment will also get benefit from it. Furthermore, people should grow small plants in their houses. That will help the environment to regain its ability. At last, the government should take strict actions against people. Especially those who are illegally cutting down trees.

FAQs on Essay on Deforestation

Q1. Why is deforestation harmful to our environment?

A1. Deforestation is harmful to our environment because it is creating different problems. These problems are soil erosion, global warming. Moreover, it is also causing different disasters like floods and landslides.

Q2. How are animals affected by deforestation?

A2. Deforestation affects animals as they have lost their habitat. Moreover, herbivores animals get their food from plants and trees. As a result, they are not getting proper food to eat, which in turn is resulting in their extinction

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ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Deforestation.

Deforestation is the intentional clearing of forested land.

Biology, Ecology, Conservation

Trees are cut down for timber, waiting to be transported and sold.

Photograph by Esemelwe

Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Throughout history and into modern times, forests have been razed to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.

Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested; today the figure is 34 percent. In North America, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down from the 1600s to the 1870s for timber and agriculture. China has lost great expanses of its forests over the past 4,000 years and now just over 20 percent of it is forested. Much of Earth’s farmland was once forests.

Today, the greatest amount of deforestation is occurring in tropical rainforests, aided by extensive road construction into regions that were once almost inaccessible. Building or upgrading roads into forests makes them more accessible for exploitation. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a big contributor to deforestation in the tropics. With this agricultural method, farmers burn large swaths of forest, allowing the ash to fertilize the land for crops. The land is only fertile for a few years, however, after which the farmers move on to repeat the process elsewhere. Tropical forests are also cleared to make way for logging, cattle ranching, and oil palm and rubber tree plantations.

Deforestation can result in more carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. That is because trees take in carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis , and carbon is locked chemically in their wood. When trees are burned, this carbon returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide . With fewer trees around to take in the carbon dioxide , this greenhouse gas accumulates in the atmosphere and accelerates global warming.

Deforestation also threatens the world’s biodiversity . Tropical forests are home to great numbers of animal and plant species. When forests are logged or burned, it can drive many of those species into extinction. Some scientists say we are already in the midst of a mass-extinction episode.

More immediately, the loss of trees from a forest can leave soil more prone to erosion . This causes the remaining plants to become more vulnerable to fire as the forest shifts from being a closed, moist environment to an open, dry one.

While deforestation can be permanent, this is not always the case. In North America, for example, forests in many areas are returning thanks to conservation efforts.

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Essay on Deforestation

Deforestation is cutting down a large number of trees and clearing out forest areas. The various reasons behind these human activities are increasing the space for human usage like logging or wood extraction, agricultural expansion, infrastructure expansion etc. Deforestation is harmful to the environment because it causes a lot of carbon emissions and alters the natural ecosystem. It also contributes to global warming and climate change because plants release the stored carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide when they are cutting down. The deforestation essay urges us to learn the causes, effects and preventive measures of deforestation.

Deforestation is a severe problem, and we must stop cutting down precious trees. Trees are destroyed to make way for urban development and the cultivation of crops. To expand the land area and construct buildings, production houses and manufacturing plants, we are cutting down trees, and the government is trying its best to avoid deforestation. The process of deforestation also increases the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change on the planet. Once the kids have understood the causes and effects of this issue, you can engage them in writing an essay on deforestation by referring to BYJU’S deforestation essay pdf.

Table of Contents

Causes of deforestation, effects of deforestation, preventive measures to avoid deforestation.

Deforestation is a global phenomenon, and one of the leading causes of deforestation is the expansion of cities. People want to live in cities, but they often don’t realise how dangerous this can be to the environment and contributes to environmental pollution . Let us learn the causes that have led to deforestation and destroying the planet by reading the deforestation essay in English.

Other causes of deforestation are urbanisation, farming and a massive population explosion at a global level. As the population increases at a tremendous rate, the space for people to live is shrinking. Hence, people destroy forests to create living space, roads and excellent infrastructure.

As our wants and greed have increased, it has destroyed the environment. Mining is one of the main causes of deforestation and is destroying mother Earth . Another cause of deforestation is wood harvesting or logging for domestic fuel (charcoal).

As we have learned about the causes of deforestation, let us move on to the next segment – the effects of deforestation by reading the deforestation effects essay.

Deforestation has had many adverse effects on the planet. Significant effects of deforestation are climate change, soil erosion, global warming , wildlife extinction and underground water depletion. Besides, there are other consequences such as flooding, shrinking wildlife habitats, and reduced water quality. The essay on deforestation explains the negative effects of deforestation on the Earth.

The decrease in trees and vegetation can lead to an increase in the emission of greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution . Moreover, trees are essential and provide habitats for countless species, and they lose their habitats because of these human activities. They also store large amounts of carbon that can be used as a renewable energy source. When forests are destroyed, carbon is released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change and global warming.

After learning about the adverse effects of deforestation by reading BYJU’S deforestation effects essay , let us move on to learn how to prevent deforestation.

To maintain the ecological balance, we need to take preventative measures to avoid deforestation. Deforestation can be eradicated by taking the necessary steps to save Earth . The government has to take strict action against deforestation and encourage people to plant more trees. This certainly helps in resolving the after-effects of the loss of trees. In addition, we can start growing plants at home and help our environment heal from the loss of trees and forests .

To conclude, deforestation is a major concern. Hence, we all must join hands in eradicating this issue and help our planet retain its ability to thrive. Provide the little ones with a deforestation essay pdf, and for more kids learning activities, visit BYJU’S website.

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What is deforestation and how does it impact wildlife?

Deforestation is one of the most critical issues threatening biodiversity and the health of our planet. The loss of forests jeopardizes the survival of countless plant and animal species worldwide. In this blog post, we explore everything you need to know about the causes and effects of deforestation and what urgent conservation action is needed to protect our planet’s rich biodiversity.

IFAW is an international organization that works to protect wildlife and their habitats around the world. As deforestation is one of the biggest threats to wildlife, some of our projects involve tree-planting and protecting forests where endangered and threatened species live. Read on to learn more about deforestation’s impact on wild animals and how IFAW is working to mitigate it.

What is deforestation?

Deforestation is the process of clearing or thinning forests by humans to make the land available for other uses. This can involve cutting down trees, clearing land for agriculture, or building roads and neighborhoods. It is a significant environmental issue, impacting the balance of ecosystems, climate, and biodiversity.

We have a responsibility to understand its causes and consequences and to develop effective strategies to protect our remaining forests.

What causes deforestation?

Deforestation is driven by a variety of human activities and natural events, each contributing to the rapid loss of forest cover around the world. Let’s look at some of the primary causes in more depth.

Agriculture

Expanding agricultural activities—including large-scale commercial farming and small-scale farms—is the leading cause of deforestation. Forests are often cleared to plant crops or graze livestock. For instance, vast areas of the Amazon Rainforest have been cleared for soybean farming .

Palm oil is a prime example of a crop that is causing mass deforestation and impacting wildlife. The growing demand for palm oil, used in a wide range of products from food to cosmetics, has led to the establishment of large palm oil plantations. Indonesia and Malaysia, in particular, have seen significant deforestation as a result of palm oil production.

Clearance for livestock

Raising livestock requires large tracts of land, so significant portions of natural forests are cleared to create pastures for cattle. But this livestock doesn’t just need space to graze. Animal agriculture also needs space to grow crops to feed these farmed animals.

The demand for wood and wooden products leads to extensive logging operations, causing widespread deforestation as trees are cut down at a far faster rate than they can grow. Illegal logging is also an issue, accounting for 15% to 30% of global timber production.

Fires, both natural and human-caused, contribute to deforestation. Natural wildfires can spread rapidly in dry conditions, while humans often set fires intentionally to clear land for agriculture or development. In recent years, uncontrolled fires in the Amazon have garnered global attention for their destructive impact. In late 2023, IFAW supported the rescue and rehabilitation work of local organisation Tamanduá Institute in Brazil, which saved wild animals from these fires.

Extractive activities such as mining for minerals, oil, and gas require clearing forests to access the resources beneath them. The Amazon and Congo basins in particular have both seen extensive deforestation due to mining operations .

In addition to the forest that has to be cleared to build a road, studies show that the construction of roads and highways facilitates further deforestation, as it provides easy access to previously remote forest areas. This often leads to increased logging, agricultural expansion, and settlement.

Urbanization

As urban areas expand, forests are cleared to make way for new homes, commercial buildings, and infrastructure. Rapid urbanization in countries like India and China has resulted in a significant loss of forest land to accommodate growing cities.

The effects of deforestation on climate change

Deforestation significantly contributes to climate change by disrupting the global carbon cycle and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Removes carbon sinks

Forests act as carbon sinks , absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it in their biomass. When trees are cut down or burned, this stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere. More CO2 in the air contributes to the atmosphere’s greenhouse effect, trapping heat and increasing global temperature.

Deforestation accounts for about 10% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation also reduces the number of trees available on earth to absorb carbon dioxide in the air, worsening the problem and accelerating climate change.

Disrupts the water cycle

The loss of forests also impacts soil carbon storage and disrupts local water cycles. Forests play a crucial role in the water cycle by regulating rain, evaporation from the soil, and groundwater recharge. Deforestation disrupts these processes, causing changes in weather patterns, reduced rainfall, and altered climate conditions.

Creates negative cycles

The effects of deforestation can create feedback loops that worsen climate change. For instance, increased temperatures from global warming can lead to more frequent and severe forest fires, which in turn cause more deforestation and release more CO2, further increasing global temperatures.

These interconnected processes underscore the critical role of forests in maintaining climate stability. To mitigate the effects of climate change, we need to drastically reduce the amount of deforestation that is currently occurring around the globe.

Deforestation is not just a local environmental issue but a global problem with far-reaching consequences for climate stability and the health of our planet. 

The impacts of deforestation on wildlife

Deforestation causes significant problems for wildlife by leading to habitat loss, habitat fragmentation , and increased human-wildlife conflict .

When forests are cleared, countless species lose their homes and the resources they need to survive, leading to population declines and, in some cases, extinction. Habitat fragmentation divides continuous forests into smaller, isolated patches, which can limit species’ movement, reduce genetic diversity, and disrupt breeding patterns.

Additionally, as human activities encroach on natural habitats, the likelihood of human-wildlife conflict increases, often resulting in harm to both animals and humans.

What animals are most affected by deforestation?

Let’s look at some of the species that are currently most impacted by deforestation, on every continent across the world.

Palm oil production in Borneo and Sumatra, where orangutans are found, poses a major threat to orangutans’ habitats, as the demand for this cheap and versatile oil has skyrocketed.

As their forest habitats are cleared, orangutans lose their homes and sources of food, leading to sharp population declines. As they are forced into closer proximity with humans, there has been an increase in orangutans being injured or killed, and young orangutans are sometimes captured for the illegal pet trade . 

Sumatran rhinos

This endangered rhino species is native to Southeast Asia, with only about 30 individuals left in the wild. Just like the orangutans, as forests are cleared for palm oil on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, these rhinos lose the dense, tropical forests that provide them with food, shelter, and breeding grounds.

Additionally, deforestation opens up previously inaccessible areas, increasing the risk of poaching.

Chimpanzees

Deforestation is a major cause of habitat loss for chimpanzees . They live in trees and rely on them for food, shelter, and protection from predators. In West Africa, where many chimpanzees live, more than 80% of native forests had been totally cleared for agricultural expansion by the 2000s.

As forests are cleared, chimpanzees lose their natural habitats, and venture closer to human settlements in search of food, increasing the likelihood of human-wildlife conflict and the transmission of diseases.

Pygmy sloths

Pygmy sloths are found only on the tiny Isla Escudo de Veraguas off the coast of Panama. This small island’s mangrove forests provide the pygmy sloths with their primary habitat, offering food and shelter. Deforestation for development and timber extraction significantly reduces the limited forest area available to these sloths, leading to habitat loss and fragmentation.

As their habitat shrinks, pygmy sloths are driven out of their nesting sites, leaving them vulnerable to hunters and predators. Their population has collapsed from around 500 in 2001 to only 70 at the last official count in 2012.

Monarch butterflies

Beautiful monarch butterflies are known for their impressive migrations, but not many people realise that the species’ status was recently updated to endangered by the IUCN because of threats from habitat destruction and climate change.

These butterflies rely on specific forest areas, such as the oyamel fir forests in the mountains of central Mexico, to survive the winter months. Deforestation makes it more difficult for monarchs to find the sheltered, cool conditions they need to survive the winter.

Additionally, they face habitat loss in their breeding and migratory routes across North America. Pesticides and herbicides used in intensive agriculture across this range kill the butterflies and the milkweed plants its larvae feed on.

These iconic marsupials may be a symbol of Australia, but they’re significantly threatened by deforestation of the eucalyptus trees they depend on for food and shelter.

Deforestation reduces the available habitat for koalas , fragmenting their populations and limiting their ability to find suitable food and mates. Additionally, it increases the risk of koalas encountering predators and road traffic as they search for new habitats. The loss of eucalyptus trees also reduces the availability of food, leading to malnutrition and starvation among koala populations.

These primates are found only on the island of Madagascar, where forests are rapidly disappearing due to agricultural expansion, logging, mining, and charcoal production. Between 2000 and 2016, it is estimated that over 3 million hectares of forest were lost, causing the extinction of 61 species of lemurs .

Lemurs face increased competition for resources and predation risk as they are forced into smaller and more fragmented areas. The loss of forests also exposes lemurs to human activities, such as hunting and capture for the pet trade.

Jaguars , the largest big cats in the Americas, are one of the many species under threat from extensive deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. These apex predators rely on large, contiguous forest habitats for hunting and breeding, which are rapidly disappearing.

Furthermore, habitat loss forces jaguars into closer proximity to human settlements, encouraging them to target farmers’ crops and livestock for food, and increasing the risk of retaliatory killings and poaching .

African elephants

The deforestation of their habitats for agriculture and livestock farming poses a major threat to African elephants , which rely on large swathes of land for finding food, water, mates, and adequate breeding ground. The habitats of elephants across Africa are increasingly becoming fragmented, leading to a lack of resources and space for these large animals. This pushes elephants closer and closer to humans and sparks human-wildlife conflict .

How is IFAW helping animals impacted by deforestation?

IFAW is actively involved in numerous projects that aim to relieve animals of the devastating impacts of deforestation around the world.

Our Room to Roam initiative focuses on reconnecting fragmented habitats to facilitate the movement of elephants and other wildlife in Africa. By restoring and protecting critical corridors and landscapes, IFAW’s Room to Roam initiative helps ensure that animals can access essential resources such as food, water, and breeding grounds.

Over 330,000 elephants benefit from Room to Roam, which is implemented in 10 key landscapes across East and southern Africa.

Additionally, IFAW collaborates with local communities, governments, and other stakeholders to implement sustainable land-use practices and conservation strategies. For example, in Assam, India, we have supported the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in helping families become less dependent on the forest.

A decade ago, it wasn’t uncommon for villagers to lose their lives when coming face-to-face with elephants in the forests. WTI trained locals to install stoves in home kitchens that allow villagers to cook food without needing to go into the forest to collect wood. Not only has the introduction of these stoves saved more than 10,000 trees from being felled for fuel but the cleaner fuel has also reduced in-house smoke significantly.

IFAW also works with partners in Australia to rescue and protect the habitats of koalas. Our projects involve community engagement, landscape conservation, and policy work to ensure koalas’ long-term welfare and conservation. We collaborate with organizations including Friends of the Koala and Mosswood Wildlife to provide veterinary treatment to hundreds of animals every year, and with the Koala Clancy Foundation and Bangalow Koalas to restore wildlife corridors where they live. We also partner with the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Detection Dogs for Conservation to seek out sick and injured koalas and perform health and habitat surveys. Our work involves planting trees to help restore their habitat and providing access to more food sources, as well as rescuing koalas impacted by bushfires .

IFAW is working across the globe to safeguard vulnerable species and their habitats from the adverse impacts of deforestation. And we can’t do it without your help.

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Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Environmental Issues — The Importance of Deforestation

The Importance of Deforestation

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Words: 604 |

Published: Mar 6, 2024

Words: 604 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

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The environmental impact, the economic benefits, the importance of sustainable practices, the role of government and international cooperation.

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The Impact of Deforestation on Desertification: an Urgent Environmental Challenge

This essay discusses the crucial role of forests in maintaining biodiversity, climate stability, and soil fertility, and highlights the severe consequences of deforestation, particularly its contribution to desertification. It explains how deforestation disrupts ecological balances, leading to soil erosion, reduced rainfall, and increased temperatures, which in turn degrade arable land. The essay emphasizes the social and environmental impacts, including food insecurity and global dust storms, and advocates for comprehensive strategies like reforestation, sustainable land management, and agroforestry to mitigate these challenges and preserve ecosystems.

How it works

In the intricate choreography of Earth’s ecosystems, every element performs a unique role, contributing to the harmonious symphony of life. Among these, forests stand as majestic guardians of biodiversity, climate stability, and soil fertility. Yet, in the relentless march of human progress, vast swathes of these green giants are sacrificed at an alarming pace. Deforestation, driven by a complex web of factors including agricultural expansion, logging, and urban sprawl, unleashes a ripple effect with consequences that reverberate far beyond the borders of cleared land.

One of the most pressing repercussions is the exacerbation of desertification, an insidious environmental challenge that threatens to transform fertile landscapes into barren wastelands.

Desertification, the gradual degradation of once-arable land into parched desert, poses a formidable threat to global sustainability. While often associated with naturally dry regions like the Sahel in Africa or the arid expanses of the American Southwest, desertification knows no boundaries, creeping stealthily into fertile landscapes and transforming them into inhospitable terrain. Deforestation emerges as a key catalyst in this process, disrupting delicate ecological balances and setting in motion a chain of destructive events.

The nexus between deforestation and desertification is intricate, intertwined with the complex dynamics of climate, soil, and vegetation. Trees, with their sprawling root systems, serve as anchors, holding soil in place and protecting it from erosion. Yet, as forests are razed, this natural defense mechanism is stripped away, leaving soil vulnerable to the erosive forces of wind and water. The consequences are dire, with topsoil—the lifeblood of ecosystems—being washed away, leading to land degradation and diminished fertility.

Moreover, forests play a crucial role in regulating local climates, influencing rainfall patterns and atmospheric moisture levels. The loss of tree cover disrupts these finely tuned systems, often resulting in decreased precipitation and heightened temperatures in affected areas. This climatic upheaval further exacerbates the challenges posed by deforestation, pushing ecosystems to the brink of collapse and hastening the encroachment of deserts.

The repercussions of deforestation-induced desertification extend far beyond environmental realms, exacting a heavy toll on human societies. Communities reliant on agriculture for sustenance and livelihoods find themselves increasingly vulnerable as fertile land succumbs to encroaching deserts. Crop yields dwindle, water sources run dry, and once-vibrant ecosystems teeter on the brink of collapse. The resulting food insecurity, compounded by heightened competition for dwindling resources, can fuel social unrest and deepen existing inequalities.

Furthermore, desertification transcends political boundaries, emerging as a global challenge with far-reaching implications. Dust storms, born from degraded landscapes, can traverse continents, carrying with them not only soil but also pollutants and pathogens. These atmospheric migrations have been linked to respiratory ailments, agricultural losses, and disruptions in global climate patterns, underscoring the interconnectedness of Earth’s ecosystems.

Addressing the intertwined crises of deforestation and desertification demands a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach. Efforts to curb deforestation must be prioritized, encompassing both conservation measures and sustainable land management practices. Reforestation initiatives, aimed at restoring degraded landscapes and preserving biodiversity hotspots, offer a glimmer of hope in the fight against desertification.

Moreover, holistic land management strategies, informed by indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge, can help mitigate the impacts of desertification while bolstering ecosystem resilience. Agroforestry practices, which integrate trees into agricultural systems, not only enhance soil fertility and water retention but also provide additional sources of income for rural communities. Similarly, restoring degraded ecosystems through afforestation and rewilding efforts can help reverse the tide of desertification while sequestering carbon and mitigating climate change.

At the core of these endeavors lies a profound appreciation for the intrinsic value of Earth’s ecosystems and a steadfast commitment to their preservation. By forging partnerships across sectors and harnessing the collective wisdom of diverse stakeholders, we can chart a course toward a more sustainable future—one where forests flourish, deserts recede, and the delicate balance of life is preserved. The impact of deforestation on desertification serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent need to redefine our relationship with the natural world and embrace stewardship over exploitation. Only through concerted action and unwavering dedication can we hope to address this pressing environmental challenge and secure a thriving planet for generations to come.

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Deforestation Dangers: Critical Facts You Need to Know

• August 8, 2024

Joel Cunningham

Deforestation is an environmental crisis that demands our attention. Each year, millions of acres of vital forests are cleared, threatening biodiversity, disrupting ecosystems, and exacerbating climate change. Before you overlook the profound impacts of deforestation, it’s crucial to understand the irreversible harm it causes to our planet and future generations.

What is Deforestation?

Deforestation refers to the large-scale removal of forested areas, often clearing away trees and vegetation to make room for agricultural activities, urban development, or timber extraction. This process has profound effects on the environment, stripping the Earth of its natural forests, which play a critical role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating weather patterns, and absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Forests cover about 31% of the planet’s land area, and while they are renewable resources, the current rate of deforestation is unsustainable. Primary drivers include commercial agriculture and logging, infrastructure expansion, and the conversion of forests into agricultural land, all fueled by global demand and economic pressures.

The consequences of deforestation are far-reaching and can lead to a cascade of ecological and climatic shifts. It contributes significantly to the global increase in carbon emissions, as trees that once stored carbon are transformed into carbon sources when they are burned or decompose. This deforestation is also a major threat to biodiversity, as many of the world’s plants and animals lose their habitats. Moreover, forests play a crucial role in water cycles; their destruction can lead to altered rainfall patterns and increased soil erosion, jeopardizing agriculture and freshwater supplies. As such, understanding and addressing the factors behind deforestation are crucial for global sustainability and climate stability.

Impact of Deforestation on Climate Change

Deforestation significantly elevates global greenhouse gas emissions, firmly establishing it as a key driver of climate change. When forests are removed, the carbon stored within, particularly in tropical forests which hold over 210 gigatons of carbon, is released as carbon dioxide (CO2) through methods like slash-and-burn or natural decomposition. This not only sends vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere but also destroys natural carbon sinks. Additionally, deforestation can release methane from peat lands, a greenhouse gas roughly 25 times more potent than CO2, intensifying climate change effects.

Forests play a crucial role as carbon sinks by absorbing CO2 through photosynthesis, which helps reduce greenhouse gases and stabilize the Earth’s climate. The conservation and regeneration of forests are vital for maintaining the global carbon cycle and mitigating climate change, as underscored by international agreements like the Paris Agreement. Yet, the repercussions of deforestation reach further, leading to rising sea levels, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and severe biodiversity loss, posing significant threats to environmental health and human survival.

What are the 7 Disadvantages of Deforestation?

1. biodiversity loss.

Forests, the biodiversity powerhouses of our planet, host over 80% of all terrestrial species of animals, plants, and insects. The process of deforestation devastates these habitats, forcing species into smaller, fragmented patches that cannot sustain large populations, thereby pushing many towards extinction. This results in a significant loss of biodiversity, which is critical for maintaining ecological balances that support pollination, seed dispersal, and other vital ecosystem functions.

The reduction in biodiversity weakens the resilience of ecosystems, making them less capable of recovering from environmental stresses such as diseases and fires. As diverse species vanish, the intricate web of food, shelter, and breeding relationships breaks down, leading to a diminished ecosystem that is less able to support any form of life, including human communities that depend on these natural systems for their well-being and survival.

2. Climate Change

Forests are indispensable in combating climate change as natural carbon sinks, absorbing vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. When trees are felled, not only is this significant carbon storage capacity lost, but the carbon previously stored in the trees is also released back into the atmosphere, greatly increasing CO2 levels and enhancing the greenhouse effect. This exacerbates global warming, altering weather patterns and increasing global temperatures.

The acceleration of climate change due to deforestation leads to a cascade of environmental changes, including more severe and frequent natural disasters like hurricanes and droughts. These changes disrupt ecosystems and human communities alike, compounding the challenges of adapting to a rapidly changing global climate. The loss of forests therefore not only impacts local environments but also has far-reaching effects on global climatic stability.

3. Soil Erosion

Trees are natural protectors of soil, helping to cushion the impact of raindrops and bind the soil with their extensive root systems. Deforestation removes this protective barrier, exposing soil to erosion by wind and water. This erosion significantly reduces soil fertility, which is essential for agriculture, and leads to increased sedimentation in rivers and streams, clogging waterways and affecting aquatic life.

The loss of soil integrity due to deforestation compromises agricultural productivity and threatens food security. As topsoil is washed or blown away, the land becomes less capable of supporting crops, which can lead to increased reliance on chemical fertilizers and further environmental degradation. This vicious cycle of soil loss and degradation presents severe challenges to sustainable land management.

4. Disruption of the Water Cycle

Forests contribute crucially to the water cycle by releasing water vapor into the atmosphere through the process of transpiration, which plays a significant role in cloud formation and precipitation. The removal of trees through deforestation disrupts this cycle, significantly reducing the amount of moisture released into the atmosphere, which can lead to decreased precipitation and drier climates.

This reduction in water availability has profound impacts not only on human populations but also on agricultural practices and wildlife habitats. As climates become drier and water resources become scarcer, both natural ecosystems and human communities face increased pressure, leading to conflicts over water and further environmental strain.

5. Impact on Indigenous and Local Communities

Forests are vital for the survival and cultural heritage of many indigenous and rural communities, providing essential resources such as food, medicinal plants, and fuel wood. Deforestation threatens these resources, endangering the livelihoods and cultural practices of these communities. The loss of forestland often leads to displacement and a loss of identity for these groups, forcing them into unfamiliar and often impoverished conditions.

As traditional knowledge and practices that have been honed over generations to live sustainably with nature are lost, these communities suffer not just materially but also spiritually and culturally. The disruption of their traditional ways of life can lead to significant social upheaval, as communities struggle to adapt to new realities and conflicts arise over remaining resources and land.

6. Economic Consequences

While deforestation may seem economically beneficial initially providing raw materials like timber and clearing land for agricultural use the long-term economic impacts are often detrimental. Forests provide essential ecosystem services such as water regulation, climate regulation, and pollination, which are critical for other sectors like agriculture. The degradation of these services can lead to economic instability and increased costs as communities and countries struggle to replace the natural services that forests provide.

This economic impact is felt most acutely in regions that depend heavily on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods. As these natural assets are depleted, the economic foundation of these regions can become unstable, leading to increased poverty and reduced opportunities for economic development. Thus, the short-term gains from deforestation are frequently overshadowed by long-term losses and increased vulnerability to environmental and economic shocks.

7. Increased Air Pollution

The practice of burning forests for land clearing is a significant source of air pollution, releasing a variety of harmful pollutants such as particulate matter and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. This pollution can severely degrade air quality, leading to increased respiratory problems, cardiovascular diseases, and other health issues in human populations. The smoke and pollutants can also travel great distances, affecting air quality far beyond the immediate area of deforestation.

Moreover, the release of these pollutants contributes to broader environmental issues such as acid rain and climate change, further degrading natural ecosystems and human health. The health impacts of increased air pollution from deforestation are extensive, affecting millions of people and overwhelming public health systems, especially in developing countries where medical resources are already scarce.

What Can Be Done Prevention and Reversal Strategies

Efforts to combat deforestation and restore ecosystems include reforestation and afforestation. Reforestation involves replanting trees in areas that have lost forest cover due to activities like logging or natural events such as fires, helping to recapture atmospheric carbon dioxide and mitigate climate change. Afforestation, meanwhile, involves planting trees in previously non-forested areas, expanding global forest cover, increasing biodiversity, and establishing new ecosystems. These practices are crucial for enhancing soil quality, reestablishing wildlife habitats, and supporting the water cycle.

In addition to these strategies, promoting sustainable land management is essential for balancing environmental preservation with economic needs. Techniques like forestry, which combines crop cultivation with tree farming, enhance soil structure, increase biodiversity, and reduce chemical dependencies. Practices such as crop rotation and the use of organic fertilizers also contribute to maintaining soil health. Advanced technologies like satellite imaging and artificial intelligence are vital for monitoring these efforts, providing real-time data on forest changes, detecting illegal activities, and aiding conservation planning. Collaboration among governments, environmental groups, and local communities is necessary to leverage these technologies and practices effectively, ensuring sustainable forest management and reversing the damage caused by deforestation.

In conclusion, the severe impacts of deforestation from biodiversity loss and climate change to soil degradation and water cycle disruption cannot be overlooked. Effective responses, including reforestation, sustainable land management, and technological innovations, are essential to combat these threats. Global cooperation and action must preserve our forests, not only to protect nature but also to ensure a sustainable future for all. We must recognize the urgency and take proactive measures to safeguard the health and longevity of our planet’s vital ecosystems.

• What is deforestation? Deforestation refers to the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to non-forest use. Examples include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use.
• Why is deforestation considered a critical environmental issue? Deforestation contributes to climate change, reduces biodiversity, disrupts water cycles, leads to soil erosion, and impacts the lives and livelihoods of local communities and indigenous populations.
• How does deforestation contribute to climate change? Trees absorb carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, during photosynthesis. When forests are cut down, not only is this carbon-absorbing capacity lost, but the stored carbon is also released back into the atmosphere, enhancing the greenhouse effect.
• What are the main causes of deforestation? The primary drivers of deforestation include agricultural expansion, logging, infrastructure development, and fires. Often, these are driven by the need for land and resources due to population growth and economic factors.
• Can deforestation be reversed? Yes, through reforestation and afforestation efforts planting trees in deforested areas and creating new forests in areas that previously did not have them along with sustainable land management practices.
• What are some effective strategies to prevent deforestation? Strategies include enforcing stricter laws against illegal logging, promoting sustainable land use practices, using advanced technologies for forest monitoring, and supporting policies that incentivize forest conservation.
• How does deforestation affect biodiversity? Deforestation leads to habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation, which are the leading causes of biodiversity loss. This threatens a wide range of plant and animal species with extinction.
• What role do local communities play in combating deforestation? Local communities play a crucial role as stewards of forest resources. Their involvement in conservation and sustainable management practices is key to preventing deforestation and promoting forest restoration.
• How can individuals contribute to reducing deforestation? Individuals can contribute by reducing paper and wood consumption, supporting sustainable products, participating in reforestation projects, and raising awareness about the importance of forests.
• What are the economic impacts of deforestation? While deforestation can provide short-term economic benefits from agriculture and logging, it can also lead to long-term economic costs due to the loss of ecosystem services such as water regulation, climate regulation, and biodiversity, which are crucial for sustainable development.

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Resource extraction

The extraction of resources refers to the withdrawing of materials from the environment for human use, including fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal), rocks and minerals, biomass via deforestation and fishing and hunting , and water . Since the first coal-fired steam engines of the 1700s, we continue to increase the rate at which we extract and transport resources for use across the globe. Human innovations have also allowed us to expand where we extract resources, including miles below the Earth’s surface, from the deep sea, and remote regions from the tropics to the poles. Due to the demands of the growing global human population and expectations of higher standards of living, we will need to continue find sustainable and renewable resources to support modern life.

Examples of resource extraction: Coal mining in Wyoming (left) and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest (right). Credits: USGS (left); Matt Zimmerman via Flickr (right)

The effects of resource extraction are having far-reaching impacts on the Earth system. Some of these effects include:

• The destruction of habitats , which affects species populations , ranges , biodiversity , and interactions between organisms. However, the method we use to extract a resource can determine how much we disrupt a habitat. For example, wholesale deforestation typically fragments ecosystems, which can cause species extinctions . In contrast, methods of sustainable logging often have minimal impact on local biodiversity and species populations. Similarly, fishing methods, such as bottom trawls and longlines trap everything in their path, often unnecessarily killing other organisms including seabirds, turtles, and marine mammals (called bycatch). Using different kinds of traps can significantly reduce bycatch.
• Increasing the amount of pollutants and waste released into the environment, which reduces air , water , and soil quality , potentially harming the health of humans and other species.
• Decreasing soil quality . Mining and d eforestation can destabilize soils, increase erosion , and reduce the nutrient levels in terrestrial ecosystems. Increasing erosion can also decrease water quality by increasing sediment and pollutants in rivers and streams.
• Reducing freshwater availability , both for human consumption and for ecosystems. Ground water extraction can also cause the sinking of land (called subsidence).
• Increasing seismic activity (earthquakes) in some regions from the use of hydraulic fracking to remove oil and gas. Fracking uses water, sand, and chemicals to create new or expand existing cracks in rocks that allow oil and gas to flow into drillholes for extraction.Increasing human population growth . With the extraction of resources and with industrialization, energy, food , water , and medical care became more available and reliable, allowing the global human population to increase, which has dramatic impacts on global climate and ecosystems.
• Climate change. The use of extracted fossil fuels is the primary cause of current climate change, which is altering the Earth’s ecosystems and causing global human and environmental health problems.

Can you think of additional cause and effect relationships between the extraction of resources and other parts of the Earth system?

Visit the burning of fossil fuels, freshwater use , deforestation and reforestation , and habitat loss and restoration pages to learn more about how resource and land use affects global climate and ecosystems.

Links to Learn More

• USGS: Mining and Water Quality
• USGS: Groundwater Decline and Depletion
• Scientific American: Even if Injection of Fracking Wastewater Stops, Quakes Won’t
• Monterey Bay Aquarium: Wild Seafood

Deforestation Effects and Solutions Essay

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Carbon cycle

Counter-measures.

Over the past several centuries, humans have turned the world into a forest of concrete buildings scattered across the globe. Urban areas are constantly expanding, and this translates into the development of vast areas with tall buildings replacing natural vegetation. Human settlements are also a contributing factor in the changes witnessed in the earth’s biosphere. While the earth appears as a shining planet from space, with green patches of vegetation being visible from space, this characteristic may not hold for long. In his quest for survival, man eliminates indigenous forests and natural vegetation from vast land masses to settle.

This has a negative impact to the ecology because it eliminates survival factors for animals and plants that naturally inhabit the lands. Industrious cities in the developed nations like China and Japan occupy large masses of land, leaving limited space for the natural vegetation to thrive. This phenomenon alters the balance of nature for vegetation and animals, and it is the main cause of extinction in living organisms.

The earth’s biosphere is constantly losing its vegetation cover because of human activities, and this has dire impacts on other parts of the earth like the atmosphere. Vegetation cover is responsible for converting carbon dioxide to oxygen to balance the constituents of the atmosphere. Excessive clearing of vegetation on the earth’s service results to an alteration of the equilibrium in gaseous volumes in the atmosphere, and the current levels of greenhouse gases are alarming, especially in the urban areas. Man has single-handedly made the biosphere inhabitable for other living organisms, and this trend will continue as long as man continues to develop settlement areas (Raven, Berg & Hassenzahl, 2011).

Excessive clearing of indigenous vegetation in the vast lands across the world affects the earth’s carbon cycle. Clearing forests, farming land, and grasslands results to an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Trees and other plants making up the earth’s vegetation are responsible for reducing the levels of carbon dioxide in the air through photosynthesis. Urban areas experience escalated levels of carbon dioxide, which leads to global warming and climate change.

Disrupting the carbon cycle in the quest for industrialization and modernization is likely to cause negative effects on the survival of vegetation in the future because of the adverse effects of climate change. Some parts of the world are already experiencing the consequences of disrupting the earth’s carbon cycle, which in turn affects the hydro cycle of the planet (Bala et al., 2007).

The global society is aware of the effects of human settlement and deforestation, and the relevant authorities have set some measures to counter the effects on the carbon cycle. Planting forests around urban areas and by the roadsides in urban areas is one of the measures that seem to help in alleviating the issue. NGOs dealing with environmental issues, conduct advocacy campaigns across the globe to prevent developments leading to deforestation. Some of the environmentalists like the late Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner, impacted the African society to plant trees to reclaim the lost forest cover in the continent (Maathai, 2004).

The society also plays a big role in influencing the authorities to plan for sustainable developments with minimal negative effects to the ecosystem. For instance, the UK society contends with the government against the construction of roads passing through natural forests in some of the urban areas.

Bala, G., Caldeira, K., Wickett, M., Phillips, T. J., Lobell, D. B., Delire, C., & Mirin, A. (2007). Combined climate and carbon-cycle effects of large-scale deforestation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 104 (16), 6550-6555. Web.

Maathai, W. (2004). The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the approach and the experience . New York: Lantern Books. Web.

Raven, P. H., Berg, L. R., & Hassenzahl, D. M. (2011). Environment , 8th Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Web.

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Deforestation in brazil's amazon rainforest is down to lowest level since 2016, government says.

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Environment Ministry Executive Secretary Joao Paulo Capobianco presents Amazon and Cerrado deforestation data at the ministry headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

BRASILIA – Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest slowed by nearly half compared to the year before, according to government satellite data released Wednesday. It’s the largest reduction since 2016, when officials began using the current method of measurement.

In the past 12 months, the Amazon rainforest lost 4,300 square kilometers (1,700 square miles), an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. That's a nearly 46% decrease compared to the previous period. Brazil’s deforestation surveillance year runs from August 1 to July 30.

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Still, much remains to be done to end the destruction and the month of July showed a 33% increase in tree cutting over July 2023. A strike by officials at federal environmental agencies contributed to this surge, said João Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary for the Environment Ministry, during a press conference in Brasília.

The figures are preliminary and come from the Deter satellite system, managed by the National Institute for Space Research and used by environmental law enforcement agencies to detect deforestation in real-time. The most accurate deforestation calculations are usually released in November.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged “deforestation zero” by 2030. His current term ends in January 2027. Amazon deforestation has steeply declined since the end of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's rule in 2022. Under that government, forest loss reached a 15-year high.

About two-thirds of the Amazon lies within Brazil. It remains the world’s largest rainforest, covering an area twice the size of India. The Amazon absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, preventing the climate from warming even faster than it would otherwise. It also holds about 20% of the world’s fresh water, and biodiversity that scientists have not yet come close to understanding, including at least 16,000 tree species.

During this same period, deforestation in Brazil´s vast savannah, known as the Cerrado , increased by 9%. The native vegetation loss reached 7,015 square kilometers (2,708 square miles) – an area 63% larger than the destruction in the Amazon.

The Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse savannah, but less of it enjoys protected status than the rainforest to its north. Brazil´s boom in soybeans, the country’s second-largest export, have largely come from privately-owned areas in the Cerrado.

“The Cerrado has become a ‘sacrificed biome.’ Its topography lends itself to mechanized, large-scale commodity production,” Isabel Figueiredo, a spokesperson with the nonprofit Society, Population and Nature Institute told The Associated Press. Both Brazilians and the international community are more concerned about forests than savanna and open landscapes, she said, even though these ecosystems are also extremely biodiverse and essential for climate balance.

To control deforestation in the long term, monitoring, such as with satellites, and law enforcement are not enough, said Paulo Barreto via email, a researcher with the nonprofit Amazon Institute of People and the Environment. New protected areas are needed, both within and outside Indigenous territory, as well as more transparency so that slaughterhouses track where their cattle are coming from. Cattle ranching is the leading driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Degraded pasture lands also need to be replanted as forest, Barreto said, and there must be stricter rules for the financial sector to prevent the funding of deforestation.

Interviewed in in Brasilia, Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva conceded said that so far, law enforcement has been the main tool against deforestation, but government action must and will be broader. “From now on, we need to combine continued law enforcement with support for sustainable productive activities, which is one of the pillars of our plan."

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• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121993
• Corpus ID: 271592404

Impacts of deforestation and land use/land cover change on carbon stock dynamics in Jomoro District, Ghana.

• Elisa Grieco , E. Vangi , +1 author A. Collalti
• Published in Journal of Environmental… 30 July 2024
• Environmental Science, Geography

55 References

Dynamics of land use land cover and its impact on carbon stocks in sub-saharan africa: an overview, simulated dynamics of carbon stocks driven by changes in land use, management and climate in a tropical moist ecosystem of ghana, impact of tropical land‐use change on soil organic carbon stocks – a meta‐analysis, emissions of carbon from land use change in sub‐saharan africa, above-ground carbon stocks and timber value of old timber plantations, secondary and primary forests in southern ghana, the dynamics and potential of carbon stocks as an indicator of sustainable development for forest bioeconomy in ghana, deforestation‐free land‐use change and organic matter‐centered management improve the c footprint of oil palm expansion, carbon accumulation in the biomass and soil of different aged secondary forests in the humid tropics of costa rica, the carbon sequestration potential of tree crop plantations, carbon stock in rubber tree plantations in western ghana and mato grosso (brazil), related papers.

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