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Deforestation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Forest clearing" redirects here. For a gap in a forest, see Glade (geography).
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from
land that is then converted to non-forest use.[3] Deforestation can involve conversion
of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation
occurs in tropical rainforests.[4] About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered
by forests at present.[5] This is one-third less than the forest cover before the
expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century. [6] Between
15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Bangladesh, are
destroyed every year. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute.[7]
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines deforestation
as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-
induced). "Deforestation" and "forest area net change" are not the same: the latter is
the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a
given period. Net change, therefore, can be positive or negative, depending on
whether gains exceed losses, or vice versa.[8]
The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in habitat
damage, biodiversity loss, and aridity. Deforestation causes extinction, changes to
climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations, as observed by
current conditions and in the past through the fossil record.[9] Deforestation also
reduces biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, increasing negative
feedback cycles contributing to global warming. Global warming also puts increased
pressure on communities who seek food security by clearing forests for agricultural
use and reducing arable land more generally. Deforested regions typically incur
significant other environmental effects such as adverse soil erosion and degradation
into wasteland.
The resilience of human food systems and their capacity to adapt to future change is
linked to biodiversity – including dryland-adapted shrub and tree species that help
combat desertification, forest-dwelling insects, bats and bird species that pollinate
crops, trees with extensive root systems in mountain ecosystems that prevent soil
erosion, and mangrove species that provide resilience against flooding in coastal
areas.[10] With climate change exacerbating the risks to food systems, the role of
forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change is important for
the agricultural sector.[10]

Recent history (1970 onwards)

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in

Brazil's Maranhão state, 2016
The FAO estimates that the global forest carbon stock has decreased 0.9%, and tree
cover 4.2% between 1990 and 2020.[11] The forest carbon stock in Europe (including
Russia) increased from 158.7 to 172.4 Gt between 1990 and 2020. In North
America, the forest carbon stock increased from 136.6 to 140 Gt in the same period.
However, carbon stock decreased from 94.3 to 80.9 Gt in Africa, 45.8 to 41.5 Gt in
South and Southeast Asia combined, 33.4 to 33.1 Gt in Oceania, 5 to 4.1 Gt in
Central America, and from 161.8 to 144.8 Gt in South America.
[12]
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) states that there is
disagreement about whether the global forest is shrinking or not, and quote research
indicating that tree cover has increased 7.1% between 1982 and 2016. [a] IPCC also
writes: "While above-ground biomass carbon stocks are estimated to be declining in
the tropics, they are increasing globally due to increasing stocks in temperate and
boreal forest.[13]
Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest
fragmentation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity. [10] Large-scale
commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean and oil
palm) accounted for 40 percent of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010,
and local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent. [10] Trees are cut down for
use as building material, timber or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form
of charcoal or timber), while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and
agricultural crops. The vast majority of agricultural activity resulting in deforestation
is subsidized by government tax revenue.[14] Disregard of ascribed value, lax forest
management, and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that lead to
large-scale deforestation. Deforestation in many countries—both naturally
occurring[15] and human-induced—is an ongoing issue.[16] Between 2000 and 2012,
2.3 million square kilometres (890,000 sq mi) of forests around the world were cut
down.[17] Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming
rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity.[10]

The amount of globally needed agricultural land

would be reduced by three quarters if the entire population adopted a vegan diet. [18]

Deforestation is more extreme in tropical and subtropical forests in emerging

economies. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live
in tropical forests.[19] As a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres
(2.4 million square miles) remain of the original 16 million square kilometres
(6 million square miles) of tropical rainforest that formerly covered the Earth. [17] An
area the size of a football pitch is cleared from the Amazon rainforest every minute,
with 136 million acres (55 million hectares) of rainforest cleared for animal agriculture
overall.[20] More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018.
[21]
Consumption and production of beef is the primary driver of deforestation in the
Amazon, with around 80% of all converted land being used to rear cattle. [22][23] 91% of
Amazon land deforested since 1970 has been converted to cattle ranching. [24][25] The
global annual net loss of trees is estimated to be approximately 10 billion. [26]
[27]
According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 the global average
annual deforested land in the 2015–2020 demi-decade was 10 million hectares and
the average annual forest area net loss in the 2000–2010 decade was 4.7 million
hectares.[8] The world has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, which is an area
about the size of Libya.[8]
According to a 2020 study published in Scientific Reports, if deforestation continues
at current rates it can trigger a total or almost total extinction of humanity in the next
20 to 40 years. They conclude that "from a statistical point of view . . . the probability
that our civilisation survives itself is less than 10% in the most optimistic scenario."
To avoid this collapse, humanity should pass from a civilization dominated by the
economy to "cultural society" that "privileges the interest of the ecosystem above the
individual interest of its components, but eventually in accordance with the overall
communal interest."[28][29]
In 2014, about 40 countries signed the New York Declaration on Forests, a voluntary
pledge to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. The agreement was not
legally binding, however, and some key countries, such as Brazil, China, and Russia,
did not sign onto it. As a result, the effort failed, and deforestation increased from
2014 to 2020.[30][31] In November 2021, 141 countries (with around 85% of the
world's primary tropical forests and 90% of global tree cover) agreed at the COP26
climate summit in Glasgow to the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and
Land Use, a pledge to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. [31][32][33] The agreement
was accompanied by about $19.2 billion in associated funding commitments. [32] The
2021 Glasgow agreement improved on the New York Declaration by now including
Brazil and many other countries that did not sign the 2014 agreement. [31][32] Some key
nations with high rates of deforestation (including Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos,
Paraguay, and Myanmar) have not signed the Glasgow Declaration. [32] Like the earlier
agreement, the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration was entered into outside the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change and is thus not legally binding.[32] In
November 2021, the EU executive outlined a draft law requiring companies to prove
that the agricultural commodities beef, wood, palm oil,
soy, coffee and cocoa destined for the EU's 450 million consumers were not linked
to deforestation.[34] In September 2022, the EU Parliament supported and
strengthened the plan from the EU’s executive with 453 votes to 57.[35]

Causes

Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by

region, 2000–2010, from FAO publication The State of the World's Forests 2020.
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is
agriculture. Subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation; commercial
agriculture is responsible for 32%; logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood
removals make up 5%.[37]
Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to
global deforestation.[38][39] Some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest
because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the
materials and labour needed to clear forest.[38]
Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government
institutions,[40][41][42] the inequitable distribution of wealth and power,[43] population
growth[44] and overpopulation,[45][46] and urbanization.[47][48] The impact of population
growth on deforestation has been contested. One study found that population
increases due to high fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in
only 8% of cases.[49] In 2000 the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) found that "the role of population dynamics in a local setting may
vary from decisive to negligible", and that deforestation can result from "a
combination of population pressure and stagnating economic, social and
technological conditions".[44]
Globalization is often viewed as another root cause of deforestation, [50][51] though there
are cases in which the impacts of globalization (new flows of labor, capital,
commodities, and ideas) have promoted localized forest recovery.[52]
Another cause of deforestation is climate change. 23% of tree cover losses result
from wildfires and climate change increase their frequency and power. [53] The rising
temperatures cause massive wildfires especially in the Boreal forests. One possible
effect is the change of the forest composition. [54]Deforestation can also cause forests
to become more fire prone through mechanisms such as logging[55]

Illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru.

The degradation of forest ecosystems has also been traced to economic incentives
that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. [56] Many
important forest functions have no markets, and hence, no economic value that is
readily apparent to the forests' owners or the communities that rely on forests for
their well-being.[56] From the perspective of the developing world, the benefits of forest
as carbon sinks or biodiversity reserves go primarily to richer developed nations and
there is insufficient compensation for these services. Developing countries feel that
some countries in the developed world, such as the United States of America, cut
down their forests centuries ago and benefited economically from this deforestation,
and that it is hypocritical to deny developing countries the same opportunities, i.e.
that the poor should not have to bear the cost of preservation when the rich created
the problem.[57]
Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past
30 years.[58] Whereas deforestation was primarily driven by subsistence activities and
government-sponsored development projects like transmigration in countries
like Indonesia and colonization in Latin America, India, Java, and so on, during the
late 19th century and the earlier half of the 20th century, by the 1990s the majority of
deforestation was caused by industrial factors, including extractive industries, large-
scale cattle ranching, and extensive agriculture.[59] Since 2001, commodity-driven
deforestation, which is more likely to be permanent, has accounted for about a
quarter of all forest disturbance, and this loss has been concentrated in South
America and Southeast Asia.[60]
The importance of mining as a cause of deforestation increased quickly in the
beginning the 21st century, among other because of increased demand for minerals.
The direct impact of mining is relatively small, but the indirect impacts are much
more significant. More than a third of the earth's forests are possibly impacted, at
some level and in the years 2001-2021, "755,861 km2... ...had been deforested by
causes indirectly related to mining activities alongside other deforestation drivers
(based on data from WWF)"[61]