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Millions of people rely directly on forests as their home or for making a living. But the risks from deforestation go even wider. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide. If forests are cleared, or even disturbed, they release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Forest loss and damage is the cause of around 10% of global warming.
- What Is Deforestation?
- What Are The Causes of Deforestation?
- What Are The Effects of Deforestation?
- What Animals Are Affected by Deforestation?
- How Can We Stop Deforestation?
- What Has Been Done So Far?
- What You Can Do
Deforestation is the mass removal of trees over a wide area. The term most often refers to the clearing of trees by humans, but natural processes such as flooding or fire can take down trees, too. Most frequently, deforestation occurs to clear land for other purposes, like farming, or to collect timber from the fallen trees. Regardless of what driv...
In general, human activity is the driving force behind deforestation. Several industries clear and develop forested land for their own purposes, including agriculture, paper, mining, and logging.
Forests don’t just provide home to millions of wild animal and plant species—their ability to capture greenhouse gas emissions makes the earth livable for us all. When humans harm forests for short-term economic gains, we harm our species’ chances for survival in the long-term.
Deforestation pushes entire species from their homes, driving them to the brink of extinction. One of the most heartbreaking examples of this is the plight of the orangutan. Orangutans only live on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, where palm oil production has leveled entire forests. Orangutans suffered a population decline of 25% in a single dec...
Researchers warn that, if deforestation continues at current levels, the planet will face an extinction crisis that will “jeopardize the health and wellbeing of future generations.” In order to avoid irreversible damage from habitat loss and climate change, we need to both halt the loss of forests and promote their restoration. Taking these meaning...
Local, rural communities are already acting to protectthe forested land that they depend on for their survival, and governments are enacting more policies to protect forests. As a result, we are making some progress to reduce the harmful effects of deforestation worldwide. In 2020, seven countries reported decreased deforestation to the United Nati...
Widespread deforestation doesn’t just harm forests and the animals that live in them: it harms our entire planet. Thankfully, you can help limit the damage. When you shift your diet away from meat and dairy, you take away financial support from the industrial animal agriculture operations that clear forested land for their own interests—a crucial s...
- The Humane League
Dec 4, 2018 · The primary causes of forest degradation are logging activities, livestock grazing, and the construction of roads. Deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rain forests because these forests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. In the Amazon alone, around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, mainly due to ...
Sep 4, 2021 · Environment reporter. In our monthly feature, Then and Now, we reveal some of the ways that planet Earth has been changing against the backdrop of a warming world. For decades, deforestation has ...
Dec 7, 2022 · Large scale destruction of trees—deforestation—affects ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading to humans.
- Christina Nunez
Deforestation and forest degradation impact the lives of 1.6 billion people whose livelihoods depend on forests. One billion of them are among the world’s poorest. Nature-based Solutions such as forest landscape restoration (FLR) can reverse the effects of deforestation and degradation and regain the ecological, social, climatic and economic ...
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Deforestation is the process of clearing or removing forests or wooded areas by human activities. The deforestation definition is the purposeful clearing of forested land. It happens when we clear land for farming or livestock and use timber for fuel, construction, or manufacturing. Sometimes deforestation occurs on a small scale, like when ...
