DeforestationChris Zysk

“Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land” (National Geographic).

Although the majority of deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests, it is not limited to them.

Whenever large amounts of trees are removed without replacing them, this constitutes deforestation.

This has become a major environmental issue.

What is it?

There are many reasons to cut down rainforests across the globe including….

Causes

To provide land for grazing or planting crops. This includes “slash and burn” farming, this is bad….

Agriculture!

Urban sprawl! This is the clearing of

forests in order to create room for more livable land

Logging operations! Much of the world’s paper supply comes

from logging corporations. Many of these logging companies illegally build roads into the forest to reach more and more trees.

Unintentional factors! These can include things like wildfires or

unintentional overgrazing, preventing new trees from maturing.

One of the most profound effects deforestation has is the reduction in biodiversity.

Tropical rainforests have the most diverse collection of plants and animals found on the planet.

The removal of these forests deprives many organisms of a suitable habitat.

This can cause entire species to become extinct.

Effects

The trees that are cut down are part of the canopy layer and they help to reflect heat during the day as well as trap heat at night.

Without these trees, the forests experience more dramatic climate swings and many animals and plants are not adapted to deal with this.

Effects

We have talked about deforestation in the past, the burning of living organisms leads to an increase of carbon in the atmosphere.

Less plants in the environment also means that there is less conversion of carbon in the atmosphere to living organisms.

This can lead to global warming This is bad…

Effects

Woods Houseplants Spices Fruits Vegetables Fibers Pharmaceuticals Oils Gums Resins Paper(Rainforest Alliance, 2008).

We use products of deforestation every day.

The easiest and most direct solution would be to stop cutting down trees altogether, but this makes no economical sense so it is unlikely to happen….

One alternative is to more carefully manage forest resources and by planting an equal amount of trees to the ones taken out.

Solution

Major hot spots

ChileBrazil

Central America Indonesia

SiberiaCongo