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{{short description|Conversion of forest to non-forest for human use}}{{redirect|Forest clearing|a gap in a forest|Glade (geography)}}{{redirect|Deforest|other uses|DeForest (disambiguation)}}{{for|“deforestation� in computer science|Deforestation (computer science)}}{{pp-semi-indef}}{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}File:Operação Hymenaea, Julho-2016 (29399454651).jpg|thumb|Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s MaranhãoMaranhãoFile:Riau palm oil 2007.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in Riau province, Sumatra, Indonesia to make way for an oil palmoil palmFile:Hillside deforestation in Rio de Janeiro.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil’s Rio de JaneiroRio de JaneiroDeforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use.SAFnet Dictionary|Definition For [deforestation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725234528dictionaryofforestry.org/dict/term/deforestation |date=25 July 2011 }}. Dictionary of forestry.org (29 July 2008). Retrieved 15 May 2011. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About 31% of Earth’s land surface is covered by forests at present.Deforestation | Threats | WWF. Worldwildlife.org. Retrieved 13 November 2016. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century.JOURNAL, Ritchie, Hannah, Roser, Max, 2021-02-09, Forests and Deforestation,ourworldindata.org/forest-area, Our World in Data, 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.WEB, On Water,www.eib.org/en/essays/on-water, 2020-10-13, European Investment Bank, en, Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics. In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests. These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage.The direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture by far. More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018. Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, palm oil, rubber and various other popular products. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the wood industry (logging), urbanization and mining. The effects of climate change are another cause via the increased risk of wildfires (see deforestation and climate change).Deforestation results in habitat destruction which in turn leads to biodiversity loss. Deforestation also leads to extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and displacement of indigenous people who live in forests. Deforested regions often also suffer from other environmental problems such as desertification and soil erosion.Another problem is that deforestation reduces the uptake of carbon dioxide (carbon sequestration) from the atmosphere. This reduces the potential of forests to assist with climate change mitigation. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change is also important for the agricultural sector.BOOK,doi.org/10.4060/ca8985en, The State of the World’s Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief, FAO & UNEP, 2020, 978-92-5-132707-4, Rome, 10.4060/ca8985en, 241416114, The reason for this linkage is because the effects of climate change on agriculture pose new risks to global food systems.Since 1990, it is estimated that some 420 million hectares of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses, although the rate of deforestation has decreased over the past three decades. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990. More than 100 million hectares of forests are adversely affected by forest fires, pests, diseases, invasive species, drought and adverse weather events.BOOK, The State of the World’s Forests 2020. In brief – Forests, biodiversity and people, FAO & UNEP, 978-92-5-132707-4, Rome, 9–10,

Definition

(File:Screenshot_of_Our_World_in_Data_Map.png|alt=This screen shot shows a map that highlights countries based on their net change rate of forest area. Areas that appear more blue have a higher net change rate than areas that appear tan. Brown areas indicate a net loss of forest area.|thumb|Forest area net change rate per country in 2020)Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-induced).WEB, Global Forest Resource Assessment 2020,www.fao.org/forest-resources-assessment/2020/en/, 20 September 2020, www.fao.org, en, 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.

Current status

{{See also|Deforestation by continent}}(File:Annual-deforestation.svg|thumb|Annual deforestation)(File:Annual-change-forest-area.svg|thumb|Annual change in forest area)The FAO estimates that the global forest carbon stock has decreased 0.9%, and tree cover 4.2% between 1990 and 2020.WEB, FAO, Global Forest Resources Assessment,www.fao.org/3/ca9825en/CA9825EN.pdf, 2020, {{rp|16, 52}}{| class=“wikitable�52, table 43}}!Region!!1990!!2020As of 2019 there is still disagreement about whether the global forest is shrinking or not: “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.WEB, Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Chapter 4. Land Degradation., IPCC, 2019a,www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2019/11/07_Chapter-4.pdf,web.archive.org/web/20191220131010/https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2019/11/07_Chapter-4.pdf, 2019-12-20, live, {{rp|385}}Deforestation in many countries—both naturally occurringWEB, The causes of deforestation,www.eniscuola.net/en/argomento/rain-forest/deforestation/the-causes-of-deforestation/, 2020-08-06, Eniscuola, and human-induced—is an ongoing issue.WEB, 2019-11-24, The five: areas of deforestation,www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/24/the-five-areas-of-deforestation-amazon-ethiopia-siberia-papua-south-sudan, 2020-06-05, The Guardian, en, Between 2000 and 2012, {{convert|2.3|e6km2|mi2|abbr=off}} of forests around the world were cut down.“Facts About Rainforests� {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022034531www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/rainforests/rainforests-facts.xml|date=22 October 2015}}. The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved 19 October 2015. Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity.File:Land-use-of-different-diets-Poore-Nemecek.png|thumb|right|The amount of globally needed agricultural land would be reduced by three quarters if the entire population adopted a vegan diet.JOURNAL, Poore, J., Nemecek, T., Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers, Science, 1 June 2018, 360, 6392, 987–992, 10.1126/science.aaq0216, 29853680, 2018Sci...360..987P, free, ]]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.Rainforest Facts {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022034531www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/rainforests/rainforests-facts.xml|date=22 October 2015}}. Nature.org (1 November 2016). Retrieved 13 November 2016. As a result of deforestation, only {{convert|6.2|e6km2|e6mi2|abbr=off}} remain of the original {{convert|16|e6km2|e6mi2|abbr=off|sigfig=1}} of tropical rainforest that formerly covered the Earth. More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018.Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth’s natural life. Scientists reveal 1 million species at risk of extinction in damning UN report 6 May 2019 Guardian weblinkThe global annual net loss of trees is estimated to be approximately 10 billion.NEWS, 2 September 2015, Earth has 3 trillion trees but they’re falling at alarming rate, en, Reuters,www.reuters.com/article/us-science-trees-idUSKCN0R21Z620150902, 26 May 2020, WEB, Carrington, Damian, 4 July 2019, Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis,www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions, 26 May 2020, The Guardian, 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. The world has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, which is an area about the size of Libya.An analysis of global deforestation patterns in 2021 showed that patterns of trade, production, and consumption drive deforestation rates in complex ways. While the location of deforestation can be mapped, it does not always match where the commodity is consumed. For example, consumption patterns in G7 countries are estimated to cause an average loss of 3.9 trees per person per year. In other words, deforestation can be directly related to imports—for example, coffee.NEWS, 29 March 2021, Average westerner’s eating habits lead to loss of four trees every year, en, the Guardian,www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/29/average-westerners-eating-habits-lead-to-loss-of-four-trees-every-year, 19 April 2021, JOURNAL, Hoang, Nguyen Tien, Kanemoto, Keiichiro, 29 March 2021, Mapping the deforestation footprint of nations reveals growing threat to tropical forests,www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01417-z, Nature Ecology & Evolution, en, 5, 6, 845–853, 10.1038/s41559-021-01417-z, 2397-334X, 33782576, 2021NatEE...5..845H, 232420306, 19 April 2021, In 2023, the Global Forest Watch reported a 9% decline in tropical primary forest loss compared to the previous year, with significant regional reductions in Brazil and Colombia overshadowed by increases elsewhere, leading to a 3.2% rise in global deforestation. Massive wildfires in Canada, exacerbated by climate change, contributed to a 24% increase in global tree cover loss, highlighting the ongoing threats to forests essential for carbon storage and biodiversity. Despite some progress, the overall trends in forest destruction and climate impacts remain off track.WEB, Spring, Jake, April 4, 2024, Dunham, Will, Tropical forest loss eased in 2023 but threats remain, analysis shows,www.reuters.com/world/tropical-forest-loss-eased-2023-threats-remain-analysis-shows-2024-04-04/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=Daily-Briefing&utm_term=040424&user_email=6bc715b3fd56b766900ace1f93bf9c8b38d3b44d9557f041acbc54ed318c154f, 4 April 2024, www.reuters.com,

Rates of deforestation

{{multiple image| total_width = 450| image1 = 1700- Tropical rainforest and woodland loss - Int’l Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).svgLAST2=SANDERSON LAST3=TYSON LAST4=JäGER LAST5=MATSON LAST6=MOORE III LAST7=OLDFIELD LAST8=RICHARDSON LAST9=SCHELLNHUBER LAST10=TURNER II LAST11=WASSON DISPLAY-AUTHORS=4 URL=HTTP://WWW.IGBP.NET/DOWNLOAD/18.56B5E28E137D8D8C09380001694/1376383141875/SPRINGERIGBPSYNTHESISSTEFFENETAL2004_WEB.PDF ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20170319052247/HTTP://WWW.IGBP.NET/DOWNLOAD/18.56B5E28E137D8D8C09380001694/1376383141875/SPRINGERIGBPSYNTHESISSTEFFENETAL2004_WEB.PDF PAGES=131, 133 QUOTE=FIG. 3.67(J): LOSS OF TROPICAL RAINFOREST AND WOODLAND, AS ESTIMATED FOR TROPICAL AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA AND SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA., live, caption2= Through 2018, humans have reduced forest area by ~30% and grasslands/shrubs by ~68%, to make way for livestock grazing and crops for humans.DEFORESTATION AND FOREST LOSS / HUMANITY DESTROYED ONE THIRD OF THE WORLD’S FORESTS BY EXPANDING AGRICULTURAL LAND >URL=HTTPS://OURWORLDINDATA.ORG/DEFORESTATION ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://ARCHIVE.TODAY/20221107180838/HTTPS://OURWORLDINDATA.ORG/DEFORESTATION QUOTE=DATA: HISTORICAL DATA ON FORESTS FROM WILLIAMS (2003) - DEFORESTING THE EARTH. HISTORICAL DATA ON AGRICULTURE FROM THE HISTORY DATABASE OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT (HYDE). MODERN DATA FROM THE FAO, live, }}Global deforestationDuke Press policy studies / Global deforestation and the nineteenth-century world economy / edited by Richard P. Tucker and J. F. Richards sharply accelerated around 1852.E. O. Wilson, 2002, The Future of Life, Vintage {{ISBN|0-679-76811-4}}.Map reveals extent of deforestation in tropical countries, guardian.co.uk, 1 July 2008. As of 1947, the planet had {{convert|15|to|16|e6km2|e6mi2|abbr=unit}} of mature tropical forests,Maycock, Paul F. Deforestation{{Dead link|date=November 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}. WorldBookOnline. but by 2015, it was estimated that about half of these had been destroyed.WEB, Nunez, Christina, 7 February 2019, Deforestation and Its Effect on the Planet,www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/,www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/," title="web.archive.org/web/20170117004102www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/,">web.archive.org/web/20170117004102www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/, dead, 17 January 2017, 2020-06-02, National Geographic, en, Ron Nielsen, The Little Green Handbook: Seven Trends Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Picador, New York (2006) {{ISBN|978-0-312-42581-4}}. Total land coverage by tropical rainforests decreased from 14% to 6%. Much of this loss happened between 1960 and 1990, when 20% of all tropical rainforests were destroyed. At this rate, extinction of such forests is projected to occur by the mid-21st century.BOOK, Henkel, Marlon,books.google.com/books?id=s2HxCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA108, 21st Century Homestead: Sustainable Agriculture III: Agricultural Practices, Lulu.com, 2015, 9781312939752, en, {{self-published source|date=February 2020}}{{self-published source|date=January 2021}}In the early 2000s, some scientists predicted that unless significant measures (such as seeking out and protecting old growth forests that have not been disturbed) are taken on a worldwide basis, by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining, with another 10% in a degraded condition. 80% will have been lost, and with them hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable species.Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=f-LfXBOL_7sC&pg=PA270, Tropical Rainforests and Agroforests Under Global Change, Springer, 2010, 978-3-642-00492-6, Teja Tscharntke, 270–271, Christoph Leuschner, Edzo Veldkamp, Heiko Faust, Edi Guhardja, REPORT,www.ipcc.ch/report/land-use-land-use-change-and-forestry/, Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry, Watson, Robert T., Noble, Ian R., 2000, Cambridge University Press, Bolin, Bert, Ravindranath, N. H., Verardo, David J., Dokken, David J., In 2019, the world lost nearly 12 million hectares of tree cover. Nearly a third of that loss, 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests, areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage. This is equivalent to losing an area of primary forest the size of a football pitch every six seconds.WEB, Guy, Jack, Ehlinger, Maija, 2 June 2020, The world lost a football pitch-sized area of tropical forest every six seconds in 2019,www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/world/tropical-forest-six-seconds-scli-intl/index.html, 2020-06-02, CNN, JOURNAL, Weisse, Mikaela, Goldman, Elizabeth Dow, 2020-06-02, We Lost a Football Pitch of Primary Rainforest Every 6 Seconds in 2019,www.wri.org/blog/2020/06/global-tree-cover-loss-data-2019, en, 2020-06-04, World Resources Institute,

Rates of change

(File:1990- Average annual forest area net change, globally, and by region and decade.svg |thumb|In decades since 1990, South America and Africa have shown the greatest loss of forest area, with global net loss in the 2010s still about 60% of the 1990s value.BOOK, Global Forest Resources Assessment / 2020 / Key findings,www.fao.org/3/ca8753en/ca8753en.pdf, FAO.org, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2, 3,web.archive.org/web/20230922053533/https://www.fao.org/3/ca8753en/ca8753en.pdf, 22 September 2023, 10.4060/ca8753en, 2020, 978-92-5-132581-0, live, ){{multiple image| align = right| direction = horizontal| total_width = 450| image1 = 20210331 Global tree cover loss - World Resources Institute.svgTITLE=GLOBAL FOREST LOSS INCREASES IN 2020 WORK=MONGABAY ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20210401022404/HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/2021/03/GLOBAL-FOREST-LOSS-INCREASES-IN-2020-BUT-PANDEMICS-IMPACT-UNCLEAR/ URL-STATUS=LIVE, � Mongabay publishing data from FOREST LOSS / HOW MUCH TREE COVER IS LOST GLOBALLY EACH YEAR? >URL=HTTPS://RESEARCH.WRI.ORG/GFR/FOREST-EXTENT-INDICATORS/FOREST-LOSS PUBLISHER=WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE — GLOBAL FOREST REVIEW ARCHIVE-DATE=2 AUGUST 2023 URL-STATUS=LIVE, | image2 = 2002- Tropical primary forest loss - annual - World Resources Institute.svgOld-growth forest>primary (old-growth) forest in the tropics has continued its upward trend, with fire-related losses contributing an increasing portion.FOREST PULSE: THE LATEST ON THE WORLD’S FORESTS >URL=HTTPS://RESEARCH.WRI.ORG/GFR/LATEST-ANALYSIS-DEFORESTATION-TRENDS PUBLISHER=WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE ARCHIVE-DATE=27 JUNE 2023 URL-STATUS=LIVE, � 2022 Global Forest Watch data quoted by MCGRATH >FIRST1=MATT FIRST2=MARK URL=HTTPS://WWW.BBC.COM/NEWS/SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-66013854 DATE=27 JUNE 2023 ARCHIVE-DATE=29 JUNE 2023, live, }}A 2002 analysis of satellite imagery suggested that the rate of deforestation in the humid tropics (approximately 5.8 million hectares per year) was roughly 23% lower than the most commonly quoted rates.JOURNAL, Achard, F, Eva, H. D., Stibig, H. J., Mayaux, P, Gallego, J, Richards, T, Malingreau, J. P., 2002, Determination of deforestation rates of the world’s humid tropical forests,publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC23428, Science, 297, 5583, 999–1003, 2002Sci...297..999A, 10.1126/science.1070656, 12169731, 46315941, A 2005 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that although the Earth’s total forest area continued to decrease at about 13 million hectares per year, the global rate of deforestation had been slowing.WEB, Pan-tropical Survey of Forest Cover Changes 1980–2000,www.fao.org/docrep/004/y1997e/y1997e1f.htm, Forest Resources Assessment, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy, Committee On Forestry. FAO (16 March 2001). Retrieved 29 August 2010. On the other hand, a 2005 analysis of satellite images reveals that deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is twice as fast as scientists previously estimated.NEWS, Jha, Alok, 21 October 2005, Amazon rainforest vanishing at twice rate of previous estimates, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/oct/21/brazil.conservationandendangeredspecies, Satellite images reveal Amazon forest shrinking faster, csmonitor.com, 21 October 2005.From 2010 to 2015, worldwide forest area decreased by 3.3 million ha per year, according to FAO. During this five-year period, the biggest forest area loss occurred in the tropics, particularly in South America and Africa. Per capita forest area decline was also greatest in the tropics and subtropics but is occurring in every climatic domain (except in the temperate) as populations increase.FAO. 2016. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. How are the world’s forests changing?An estimated 420 million ha of forest has been lost worldwide through deforestation since 1990, but the rate of forest loss has declined substantially. In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million ha, down from 12 million ha in 2010–2015.{{multiple image| align = right| direction = horizontal| total_width = 450| image3 = 2021 Top ten countries for tropical primary forest loss - World Resources Institute.svgAmazon rainforest, Brazil’s tropical Old-growth forest>primary (old-growth) forest loss greatly exceeds that of other countries.| image4 = 20220910 Amazon deforestation and degradation, by country - Amazon Watch.svgWEBSITE=AMAZON WATCH ARCHIVE-DATE=10 SEPTEMBER 2022 DATE=SEPTEMBER 2022 URL-STATUS=LIVE, }}Africa had the largest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010–2020, at 3.9 million ha, followed by South America, at 2.6 million ha. The rate of net forest loss has increased in Africa in each of the three decades since 1990. It has declined substantially in South America, however, to about half the rate in 2010–2020 compared with 2000–2010. Asia had the highest net gain of forest area in 2010–2020, followed by Oceania and Europe. Nevertheless, both Europe and Asia recorded substantially lower rates of net gain in 2010–2020 than in 2000–2010. Oceania experienced net losses of forest area in the decades 1990–2000 and 2000–2010.Some claim that rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace.Worldwatch: Wood Production and Deforestation Increase & Recent Content {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025184730www.worldwatch.org/node/4521|date=25 October 2008}}, Worldwatch Institute The London-based Rainforest Foundation notes that “the UN figure is based on a definition of forest as being an area with as little as 10% actual tree cover, which would therefore include areas that are actually savanna-like ecosystems and badly damaged forests�.WEB, Butler, Rhett A., 16 November 2005, World deforestation rates and forest cover statistics, 2000–2005,news.mongabay.com/2005/1115-forests.html, mongabay.com, Other critics of the FAO data point out that they do not distinguish between forest types,The fear is that highly diverse habitats, such as tropical rainforest, are vanishing at a faster rate that is partly masked by the slower deforestation of less biodiverse, dry, open forests. Because of this omission, the most harmful impacts of deforestation (such as habitat loss) could be increasing despite a possible decline in the global rate of deforestation. and that they are based largely on reporting from forestry departments of individual countries,WEB, Remote sensing versus self-reporting,news.mongabay.com/2008/0629-deforestation.html, which do not take into account unofficial activities like illegal logging.The World Bank estimates that 80% of logging operations are illegal in Bolivia and 42% in Colombia, while in Peru, illegal logging accounts for 80% of all logging activities. (World Bank (2004). Forest Law Enforcement.) (The Peruvian Environmental Law Society (2003). Case Study on the Development and Implementation of Guidelines for the Control of Illegal Logging with a View to Sustainable Forest Management in Peru.) Despite these uncertainties, there is agreement that destruction of rainforests remains a significant environmental problem.The rate of net forest loss declined from 7.8 million ha per year in the decade 1990–2000 to 5.2 million ha per year in 2000–2010 and 4.7 million ha per year in 2010–2020. The rate of decline of net forest loss slowed in the most recent decade due to a reduction in the rate of forest expansion.

Reforestation and afforestation

In many parts of the world, especially in East Asian countries, reforestation and afforestation are increasing the area of forested lands.JOURNAL, Foley, J. A., Defries, R, Asner, G. P., Barford, C, Bonan, G, Carpenter, S. R., Chapin, F. S., Coe, M. T., Daily, G. C., Gibbs, H. K., Helkowski, J. H., Holloway, T, Howard, E. A., Kucharik, C. J., Monfreda, C, 2005, Global Consequences of Land Use,rcin.org.pl/Content/31092, Science, 309, 5734, 570–574, 2005Sci...309..570F, 10.1126/science.1111772, 16040698, 5711915, Patz, J. A., Prentice, I. C., Ramankutty, N, Snyder, P. K., {{Dead link|date=September 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} The amount of forest has increased in 22 of the world’s 50 most forested nations. Asia as a whole gained 1 million hectares of forest between 2000 and 2005. Tropical forest in El Salvador expanded more than 20% between 1992 and 2001. Based on these trends, one study projects that global forestation will increase by 10%—an area the size of India—by 2050.James Owen, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061113-forests.html" title="web.archive.org/web/20170907212622news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061113-forests.html">“World’s Forests Rebounding, Study Suggests�. National Geographic News, 13 November 2006. 36% of globally planted forest area is in East Asia - around 950,000 square kilometers. From those 87% are in China.JOURNAL, Abbasi, Akane O., Tang, Xiaolu, Harris, Nancy L., Goldman, Elizabeth D., Gamarra, Javier G. P., Herold, Martin, Kim, Hyun Seok, Luo, Weixue, Silva, Carlos Alberto, Tchebakova, Nadezhda M., Mitra, Ankita, Finegold, Yelena, Jahanshahi, Mohammad Reza, Alvarez, Cesar Ivan, Kim, Tae Kyung, 22 July 2023, Spatial database of planted forests in East Asia, Scientific Data, 10, 1, 480, 10.1038/s41597-023-02383-w, 10363164, 37481639, Ryu, Daun, Liang, Jingjing, 2023NatSD..10..480A,

Status by region

Rates of deforestation vary around the world. Up to 90% of West Africa’s coastal rainforests have disappeared since 1900.WEB, Forest Holocaust,www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html, National Geographic, 16 October 2008, 22 April 2009,www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20090422132805www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html,">web.archive.org/web/20090422132805www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestation/effect.html, dead, Madagascar has lost 90% of its eastern rainforests.IUCN – Three new sites inscribed on World Heritage List {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114052147www.iucn.org/where/global/index.cfm?uNewsID=87 |date=14 January 2009 }}, 27 June 2007.WEB, Madagascar’s rainforest map,www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/1717/17173001.jpg, New Scientist, 26 August 2017, 20 September 2016,web.archive.org/web/20160920083715/https://www.newscientist.com/data/images/archive/1717/17173001.jpg, dead, In South Asia, about 88% of the rainforests have been lost.WEB, THE SIZE OF THE RAINFORESTS,www.csupomona.edu/~admckettrick/projects/ag101_project/html/size.html, dead,www.csupomona.edu/~admckettrick/projects/ag101_project/html/size.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120930064512www.csupomona.edu/~admckettrick/projects/ag101_project/html/size.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120930064512www.csupomona.edu/~admckettrick/projects/ag101_project/html/size.html, 30 September 2012, csupomona.edu, Mexico, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, have lost large areas of their rainforest.Chart – Tropical Deforestation by Country & Region. Mongabay.com. Retrieved 4 December 2011.rainforestweb.org/Rainforest_Destruction/" title="web.archive.org/web/20090205200836rainforestweb.org/Rainforest_Destruction/">Rainforest Destruction. rainforestweb.orgFile:Amazon fire satellite image.png|thumb|Satellite imagery of locations of the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires as detected by MODISMODISFile:Pichincha1a.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in EcuadorEcuadorMuch of what remains of the world’s rainforests is in the Amazon basin, where the Amazon Rainforest covers approximately 4 million square kilometres.The Amazon Rainforest, BBC, 14 February 2003. Some 80% of the deforestation of the Amazon can be attributed to cattle ranching,NEWS, Schlanger, Zoë, Wolfe, Daniel, 21 August 2019, The fires in the Amazon were likely set intentionally, Quartz (publication), Quartz,qz.com/1692804/fires-in-the-amazon-rainforests-were-likely-intentional, 22 August 2019, as Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world.NEWS, Mackintosh, Eliza, 23 August 2019, The Amazon is burning because the world eats so much meat, CNN,www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/americas/brazil-beef-amazon-rainforest-fire-intl/index.html, 23 August 2019, The Amazon region has become one of the largest cattle ranching territories in the world.NEWS, Liotta, Edoardo, 23 August 2019, Feeling Sad About the Amazon Fires? Stop Eating Meat, Vice Media, Vice,www.vice.com/en_in/article/bjwzk4/feeling-sad-about-the-amazon-fires-stop-eating-meat, 30 August 2019, The regions with the highest tropical deforestation rate between 2000 and 2005 were Central America—which lost 1.3% of its forests each year—and tropical Asia. In Central America, two-thirds of lowland tropical forests have been turned into pasture since 1950 and 40% of all the rainforests have been lost in the last 40 years.WEB, Revington, John, The Causes of Tropical Deforestation,www.ru.org/ecology-and-environment/the-causes-of-tropical-deforestation.html, New Renaissance Magazine, Brazil has lost 90–95% of its Mata Atlântica forest.WEB, What is Deforestation?,kids.mongabay.com/lesson_plans/lisa_algee/deforestation.html, kids.mongabay.com, Deforestation in Brazil increased by 88% for the month of June 2019, as compared with the previous year.NEWS, 3 July 2019, Brazil registers huge spike in Amazon deforestation, Deutsche Welle,www.dw.com/en/brazil-registers-huge-spike-in-amazon-deforestation/a-49462773, However, Brazil still destroyed 1.3 million hectares in 2019. Brazil is one of several countries that have declared their deforestation a national emergency.Amazon deforestation rises sharply in 2007, USATODAY.com, 24 January 2008.NEWS, Vidal, John, 31 May 2005, Rainforest loss shocks Brazil, The Guardian, London,www.theguardian.com/brazil/story/0,,1488468,00.html, 1 April 2010, Paraguay was losing its natural semi-humid forests in the country’s western regions at a rate of 15,000 hectares at a randomly studied 2-month period in 2010.WEB, Paraguay es principal deforestador del Chaco,www.abc.com.py/nota/103480-Paraguay-es-principal-deforestador-del-Chaco, 13 August 2011, ABC Color newspaper, Paraguay, {{Dead link|date=August 2019|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}} In 2009, Paraguay’s parliament refused to pass a law that would have stopped cutting of natural forests altogether.WEB, Paraguay farmland,www.ventacamposparaguay.com/farmland.html, dead,www.ventacamposparaguay.com/farmland.html," title="archive.today/20120918031615www.ventacamposparaguay.com/farmland.html,">archive.today/20120918031615www.ventacamposparaguay.com/farmland.html, 18 September 2012, 13 August 2011, As of 2007, less than 50% of Haiti’s forests remained.WEB, Haiti Is Covered with Trees,www.envirosociety.org/2016/05/haiti-is-covered-with-trees/, 14 November 2016, EnviroSociety, 19 May 2016, Tarter, Andrew, From 2015 to 2019, the rate of deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo doubled.NEWS,www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49679883, World ‘losing battle against deforestation’, Kinver, Mark, 2019-09-12, BBC News, In 2021, deforestation of the Congolese rainforest increased by 5%.NEWS, Analysis: The next Amazon? Congo Basin faces rising deforestation threat,www.reuters.com/business/cop/next-amazon-congo-basin-faces-rising-deforestation-threat-2022-11-11/, Reuters, 11 November 2022, The World Wildlife Fund’s ecoregion project catalogues habitat types throughout the world, including habitat loss such as deforestation, showing for example that even in the rich forests of parts of Canada such as the Mid-Continental Canadian forests of the prairie provinces half of the forest cover has been lost or altered.In 2011, Conservation International listed the top 10 most endangered forests, characterized by having all lost 90% or more of their original habitat, and each harboring at least 1500 endemic plant species (species found nowhere else in the world).WEB, February 2, 2011, The World’s 10 Most Threatened Forest Hotspots,www.conservation.org/newsroom/pressreleases/Pages/The-Worlds-10-Most-Threatened-Forest-Hotspots.aspx, dead,www.conservation.org/newsroom/pressreleases/Pages/The-Worlds-10-Most-Threatened-Forest-Hotspots.aspx," title="web.archive.org/web/20110205040801www.conservation.org/newsroom/pressreleases/Pages/The-Worlds-10-Most-Threatened-Forest-Hotspots.aspx,">web.archive.org/web/20110205040801www.conservation.org/newsroom/pressreleases/Pages/The-Worlds-10-Most-Threatened-Forest-Hotspots.aspx, February 5, 2011, Conservation.org, Conservation International, {{As of|2015}}, it is estimated that 70% of the world’s forests are within one kilometer of a forest edge, where they are most prone to human interference and destruction.JOURNAL, 10.1126/sciadv.1500052, Habitat fragmentation and its lasting impact on Earth’s ecosystems, Nick M. Haddad, Lars A. Brudvig, Jean Clobert, et al., 2015, Science Advances, 1, 2, e1500052, 26601154, 4643828, 2015SciA....1E0052H, ! Endangered forest! Region! Remaining habitat! Predominate vegetation type! Notes| Indo-Burma| Asia-Pacific| 5%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Myanmar>Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, India.Indo-Burma, Conservation International.

| New Caledonia| Asia-Pacific| 5%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests| See note for region covered.New Caledonia, Conservation International.| Sundaland| Asia-Pacific| 7%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Deforestation in Borneo>Borneo and Sumatra.www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/sundaland/Pages/default.aspx" title="web.archive.org/web/20070714080542www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/sundaland/Pages/default.aspx">Sundaland, Conservation International.

| Philippines| Asia-Pacific| 7%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests| Forests over the entire country including 7,100 islands.Philippines, Conservation International.| Atlantic Forest| South America| 8%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Brazil’s Atlantic coast, extends to parts of Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.Atlantic Forest {{webarchive >url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111212005601www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/atlantic_forest/Pages/default.aspx |date=12 December 2011 }}, Conservation International.

| Mountains of Southwest China| Asia-Pacific| 8%| Temperate coniferous forest| See note for region covered.Mountains of Southwest China, Conservation International.| California Floristic Province| North America| 10%| Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests

California Floristic Province {{webarchive >url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414053932www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/hotspots/california_floristic/Pages/default.aspx |date=14 April 2011 }}, Conservation International.

| Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa| Africa| 10%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests| Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia.www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots/coastal_forests/Pages/default.aspx" title="web.archive.org/web/20070714051028www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots/coastal_forests/Pages/default.aspx">Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa, Conservation International.| Madagascar & Indian Ocean Islands| Africa| 10%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion (island)>Reunion, Seychelles, Comoros.Madagascar & Indian Ocean Islands, Conservation International.

| Eastern Afromontane| Africa| 11%| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forestsMontane grasslands and shrublands| Forests scattered along the eastern edge of Africa, from Saudi Arabia in the north to Zimbabwe in the south.Eastern Afromontane, Conservation International.

By country

Deforestation in particular countries:{{World topic|Deforestation in|title=Deforestation by country|noredlinks=yes|state=expanded}}

Causes

{{See also|Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest#Causes of deforestation|Deforestation in Brazil#Causes}}(File:Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by region, 2000–2010.svg|thumb|Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by region, 2000–2010)(File:Drivers of tropical deforestration.png|thumb|Drivers of tropical deforestration)File:Riau deforestation 2006.jpg|thumb|The last batch of sawnwood from the peat forest in Indragiri Hulu, Sumatra, Indonesia. Deforestation for oil palm plantation.]]Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest fragmentation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity. 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. 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.WEB, September 3, 2015, Government Subsidies for Agriculture May Exacerbate Deforestation, says new UN report,www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/09/government-subsidies-for-agriculture-may-exacerbate-deforestation-says-new-un-report/, live,www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/09/government-subsidies-for-agriculture-may-exacerbate-deforestation-says-new-un-report/," title="web.archive.org/web/20160803153015www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/09/government-subsidies-for-agriculture-may-exacerbate-deforestation-says-new-un-report/,">web.archive.org/web/20160803153015www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2015/09/government-subsidies-for-agriculture-may-exacerbate-deforestation-says-new-un-report/, 3 August 2016, 2021-07-10, United Nations Sustainable Development, en-US, Disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management, and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that lead to large-scale deforestation.The types of drivers vary greatly depending on the region in which they take place. The regions with the greatest amount of deforestation for livestock and row crop agriculture are Central and South America, while commodity crop deforestation was found mainly in Southeast Asia. The region with the greatest forest loss due to shifting agriculture was sub-Saharan Africa.JOURNAL, Curtis, Philip G., Slay, Christy M., Harris, Nancy L., Tyukavina, Alexandra, Hansen, Matthew C., 2018-09-14, Classifying drivers of global forest loss, Science, en, 361, 6407, 1108–1111, 2018Sci...361.1108C, 10.1126/science.aau3445, 0036-8075, 30213911, free,

Agriculture

{{further|Agricultural expansion}}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%.WEB,unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/pub_07_financial_flows.pdf,unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/pub_07_financial_flows.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20080510090003unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/pub_07_financial_flows.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20080510090003unfccc.int/files/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/application/pdf/pub_07_financial_flows.pdf, 2008-05-10, live, Investment and financial flows to address climate change, unfccc.int, UNFCCC, 81, 2007, More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018.NEWS, Agriculture is the direct driver for worldwide deforestation, en, ScienceDaily,www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120925091608.htm, 2018-04-29, Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, tea, palm oil, rice, rubber, and various other popular products.NEWS, Forest Conversion, WWF,wwf.panda.org/our_work/our_focus/forests_practice/deforestation_causes2/forest_conversion/, 22 October 2020, The rising demand for certain products and global trade arrangements causes forest conversions, which ultimately leads to soil erosion.JOURNAL, Starkel, Leszek, 2018, Role Of Climatic And Anthropogenic Factors Accelerating Soil Erosion And Fluvial Activity In Central Europe,www.studia.quaternaria.pan.pl/pdfs/sq22/s_27_33.pdf, Studia Quaternaria, 22, The top soil oftentimes erodes after forests are cleared which leads to sediment increase in rivers and streams.(File:Anthropogenic_Biomes_of_the_World,_Version_2,_2000_Global_(13603947015).jpg|thumb|Anthropogenic biomes of the world)Most deforestation also occurs in tropical regions. The estimated amount of total land mass used by agriculture is around 38%.JOURNAL, Longobardi, Patrick, April 21, 2016, Deforestation induced Climate Change: Effects of Spatial Scale, PLOS ONE, 11, 4, e0153357, 2016PLoSO..1153357L, 10.1371/journal.pone.0153357, 4839769, 27100667, free, Since 1960, roughly 15% of the Amazon has been removed with the intention of replacing the land with agricultural practices.WEB, Cattle ranching in the Amazon rainforest,www.fao.org/3/XII/0568-B1.htm#P10_167, 2020-02-25, www.fao.org, It is no coincidence that Brazil has recently become the world’s largest beef exporter at the same time that the Amazon rainforest is being clear cut.WEB, 2019-08-23, Growth of Brazil’s Beef Industry Fueling Fires Destroying Amazon Rainforest,ktla.com/2019/08/23/growth-of-brazils-beef-industry-fueling-fires-destroying-amazon-rainforest/, 2020-02-25, KTLA, en, Another prevalent method of agricultural deforestation is slash-and-burn agriculture, which was primarily used by subsistence farmers in tropical regions but has now become increasingly less sustainable. The method does not leave land for continuous agricultural production but instead cuts and burns small plots of forest land which are then converted into agricultural zones. The farmers then exploit the nutrients in the ashes of the burned plants.WEB, slash-and-burn agriculture {{!, Definition & Impacts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/slash-and-burn-agriculture |access-date=2020-04-28 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}WEB, What is Slash and Burn Agriculture,www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-slash-and-burn-agriculture.html, 2020-04-28, World Atlas, en, As well as, intentionally set fires can possibly lead to devastating measures when unintentionally spreading fire to more land, which can result in the destruction of the protective canopy.WEB, Deforestation and Climate Change,climate.org/deforestation-and-climate-change/, 28 September 2023, 15 March 2023,climate.org/deforestation-and-climate-change/," title="web.archive.org/web/20230315141809climate.org/deforestation-and-climate-change/,">web.archive.org/web/20230315141809climate.org/deforestation-and-climate-change/, dead, The repeated cycle of low yields and shortened fallow periods eventually results in less vegetation being able to grow on once burned lands and a decrease in average soil biomass.JOURNAL, Houghton, R.A, December 2012, Carbon emissions and the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4, 6, 597–603, 2012COES....4..597H, 10.1016/j.cosust.2012.06.006, 1877-3435, In small local plots sustainability is not an issue because of longer fallow periods and lesser overall deforestation. The relatively small size of the plots allowed for no net input of {{CO2}} to be released.JOURNAL, Tinker, P. Bernard, Ingram, John S. I., Struwe, Sten, 1996-06-01, Effects of slash-and-burn agriculture and deforestation on climate change, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn Agriculture, en, 58, 1, 13–22, 10.1016/0167-8809(95)00651-6, 1996AgEE...58...13T, 0167-8809,

Livestock ranching

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.NEWS, Wang, George C., 9 April 2017, Go vegan, save the planet, CNN,www.cnn.com/2017/04/08/opinions/go-vegan-save-the-planet-wang/, 25 August 2019, NEWS, Liotta, Edoardo, 23 August 2019, Feeling Sad About the Amazon Fires? Stop Eating Meat, Vice Media, Vice,www.vice.com/en_in/article/bjwzk4/feeling-sad-about-the-amazon-fires-stop-eating-meat, 25 August 2019, 91% of Amazon land deforested since 1970 has been converted to cattle ranching.BOOK, Steinfeld, Henning,www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm, Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, Gerber, Pierre, Wassenaar, T. D., Castel, Vincent, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2006, 978-92-5-105571-7, 19 August 2008, BOOK, Margulis, Sergio,www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/02/02/000090341_20040202130625/Rendered/PDF/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf, Causes of Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, World Bank Working Paper No. 22, The World Bank, 2004, 0-8213-5691-7, Washington D.C., 9, 4 September 2008,www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/02/02/000090341_20040202130625/Rendered/PDF/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20080910042549www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/02/02/000090341_20040202130625/Rendered/PDF/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20080910042549www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/02/02/000090341_20040202130625/Rendered/PDF/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf, 10 September 2008, live, Livestock ranching requires large portions of land to raise herds of animals and livestock crops for consumer needs. According to the World Wildlife Fund, “Extensive cattle ranching is the number one culprit of deforestation in virtually every Amazon country, and it accounts for 80% of current deforestation.“WEB, Unsustainable Cattle Ranching,wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/amazon/amazon_threats/unsustainable_cattle_ranching/, 22 October 2022, World Wildlife Fund, The cattle industry is responsible for a significant amount of methane emissions since 60% of all mammals on earth are livestock cows.NEWS, 2009-01-31, How cattle ranches are chewing up the Amazon rainforest {{!, Greenpeace UK |language=en-GB |work=Greenpeace UK |url=https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/how-cattle-ranching-chewing-amazon-rainforest-20090129/ |access-date=2018-04-29}}NEWS, Carrington, Damian, 2018-05-21, Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study, en-GB, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/21/human-race-just-001-of-all-life-but-has-destroyed-over-80-of-wild-mammals-study, 2020-04-28, 0261-3077, Replacing forest land with pastures creates a loss of forest stock, which leads to the implication of increased greenhouse gas emissions by burning agriculture methodologies and land-use change.JOURNAL, Sanquetta, Carlos R., Bastos, Alexis De S., Sanquetta, Mateus N. I., Barberena, Iara M., Corte, Ana P. Dalla, Queiroz, Alexandre, Almeida, Luiz Felipe P. U., 2022-08-05, Assessing the carbon stock of cultivated pastures in Rondônia, southwestern Brazilian Amazon, Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, en, 94, 4, e20210262, 10.1590/0001-3765202220210262, 0001-3765, 35946750, 251429424, free,

Wood industry

{{further|Wood industry}}A large contributing factor to deforestation is the lumber industry. A total of almost {{convert|4|e6ha|e6acre|abbr=off}} of timber,NEWS, Rates of Deforestation & Reforestation in the U.S.,education.seattlepi.com/rates-deforestation-reforestation-us-3804.html, 2018-04-11, or about 1.3% of all forest land, is harvested each year. In addition, the increasing demand for low-cost timber products only supports the lumber company to continue logging.WEB, Logging {{!, Global Forest Atlas |url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/forest-use-logging/logging |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605190507globalforestatlas.yale.edu/forest-use-logging/logging |archive-date=2019-06-05 |access-date=2020-04-28 |website=globalforestatlas.yale.edu}}Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation.JOURNAL,ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbrobs/v14y1999i1p73-98.html, Angelsen, Arild, Kaimowitz, David, Rethinking the causes of deforestation: Lessons from economic models, 12322119, 10.1093/wbro/14.1.73, 3986539, The World Bank Research Observer, 14, 1, Oxford University Press, 73–98, February 1999, JOURNAL,studentresearch.wcp.muohio.edu/BiogeogDiversityDisturbance/ReflectionsDeforestCrisis.pdf,studentresearch.wcp.muohio.edu/BiogeogDiversityDisturbance/ReflectionsDeforestCrisis.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20060908032336studentresearch.wcp.muohio.edu/BiogeogDiversityDisturbance/ReflectionsDeforestCrisis.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20060908032336studentresearch.wcp.muohio.edu/BiogeogDiversityDisturbance/ReflectionsDeforestCrisis.pdf, dead, 8 September 2006, William F., Laurance, Reflections on the tropical deforestation crisis, Biological Conservation, 91, 2–3, December 1999, 109–117, 10.1016/S0006-3207(99)00088-9, 1999BCons..91..109L, 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.

Economic development

Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions,NEWS,newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=110193, Corruption blamed for deforestation, T.J., Burgonio, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 3 January 2008, {{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}WEB,www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/74/Uganda.html, WRM Bulletin Number 74, World Rainforest Movement, September 2003, 17 October 2008,www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/74/Uganda.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20081004225352www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/74/Uganda.html,">web.archive.org/web/20081004225352www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/74/Uganda.html, 4 October 2008, dead, JOURNAL, Cozma, Adeline-Cristina, Cotoc, Corina-Narcisa (Bodescu), Vaidean, Viorela Ligia, Achim, Monica Violeta, 2021, Corruption, Shadow Economy and Deforestation: Friends or Strangers?,ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jrisks/v9y2021i9p153-d621556.html, Risks, en, 9, 9, 153, 10.3390/risks9090153, free, 10419/258237, free, the inequitable distribution of wealth and power,WEB,www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html, Global Deforestation, Global Change Curriculum, University of Michigan Global Change Program, 4 January 2006, dead,www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20110615044847www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html,">web.archive.org/web/20110615044847www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html, 15 June 2011, population growthWEB, Marcoux, Alain, August 2000, Population and deforestation,www.fao.org/sd/WPdirect/WPan0050.htm, dead,www.fao.org/sd/WPdirect/WPan0050.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110628184520www.fao.org/sd/WPdirect/WPan0050.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20110628184520www.fao.org/sd/WPdirect/WPan0050.htm, 28 June 2011, SD Dimensions, Sustainable Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and overpopulation,WEB,rainforests.mongabay.com/0816.htm, Impact of Population and Poverty on Rainforests, Rhett A, Butler, Mongabay.com / A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face, 13 May 2009, WEB,www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm, The Choice: Doomsday or Arbor Day, Stock, Jocelyn, Rochen, Andy, umich.edu, dead,www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090416161300www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20090416161300www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm, 16 April 2009, and urbanization.WEB,www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/7/4/8/p107488_index.html, Demographics, Democracy, Development, Disparity and Deforestation: A Crossnational Assessment of the Social Causes of Deforestation, Ehrhardt-Martinez, Karen, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta Hilton Hotel, Atlanta, GA, 16 August 2003, 13 May 2009,www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/7/4/8/p107488_index.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20081210160729www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/7/4/8/p107488_index.html,">web.archive.org/web/20081210160729www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/7/4/8/p107488_index.html, 10 December 2008, dead, WEB, Urbanisation {{!, DEFORESTATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA |url=https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/hp3203-1718-s2-04/causes/urbanisation/ |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=blogs.ntu.edu.sg}} 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.JOURNAL, Geist, Helmut J., Lambin, Eric F., February 2002, Proximate Causes and Underlying Driving Forces of Tropical Deforestation, BioScience, 52, 2, 143–150, 10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0143:PCAUDF]2.0.CO;2, free, 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 negligibleâ€�, and that deforestation can result from “a combination of population pressure and stagnating economic, social and technological conditionsâ€�.Globalization is often viewed as another root cause of deforestation,WEB,yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=9366, The Double Edge of Globalization, Yale University Press, June 2007, YaleGlobal Online, WEB,rainforests.mongabay.com/0805.htm, Human Threats to Rainforests—Economic Restructuring, Rhett A, Butler, Mongabay.com / A Place Out of Time: Tropical Rainforests and the Perils They Face, 13 May 2009, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization (new flows of labor, capital, commodities, and ideas) have promoted localized forest recovery.JOURNAL,www.spa.ucla.edu/cgpr/docs/sdarticle1.pdf, Globalization, Forest Resurgence, and Environmental Politics in El Salvador, World Development, 34, 2, 308–323, 2006, 10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.09.005, Hecht, Susanna B., Kandel, Susan, Gomes, Ileana, Cuellar, Nelson, Rosa, Herman, 17 October 2008,www.spa.ucla.edu/cgpr/docs/sdarticle1.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20081029090622www.spa.ucla.edu/cgpr/docs/sdarticle1.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20081029090622www.spa.ucla.edu/cgpr/docs/sdarticle1.pdf, 29 October 2008, dead, File:Garimpo de ouro ilegal na Amazônia em Madre de Dios, Perú.jpg|thumb|Illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, PeruPeruThe degradation of forest ecosystems has also been traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation.JOURNAL,www.cbd.int/doc/external/academic/forest-es-2003-en.pdf,web.archive.org/web/20080511061430/https://www.cbd.int/doc/external/academic/forest-es-2003-en.pdf, 2008-05-11, live, Pearce, David W, The Economic Value of Forest Ecosystems, Ecosystem Health, 7, 4, December 2001, 284–296, 10.1046/j.1526-0992.2001.01037.x, 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. 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.JOURNAL, Is there too much or too little natural forest in the Atlantic Zone of Costa Rica?, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 30, 3, 10.1139/x99-225, 2000, 495–506, Bulte, Erwin H, Joenje, Mark, Jansen, Hans GP, Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years.JOURNAL,news.mongabay.com/Butler_and_Laurance-TREE.pdf,news.mongabay.com/Butler_and_Laurance-TREE.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20091211082735news.mongabay.com/Butler_and_Laurance-TREE.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20091211082735news.mongabay.com/Butler_and_Laurance-TREE.pdf, 2009-12-11, live, Butler, Rhett A., Laurance, William F., New strategies for conserving tropical forests, August 2008, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23, 9, 469–472, 10.1016/j.tree.2008.05.006, 18656280, 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 first 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.Rudel, T.K. (2005) Tropical Forests: Regional Paths of Destruction and Regeneration in the Late 20th Century. Columbia University Press {{ISBN|0-231-13195-X}} 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.JOURNAL, Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., Hansen, M. C., 52273353, Classifying drivers of global forest loss, Science, 361, 6407, 2018, 1108–1111, 10.1126/science.aau3445, 30213911, 2018Sci...361.1108C, free, As the human population grows, new homes, communities, and expansions of cities will occur, leading to an increase in roads to connect these communities. Rural roads promote economic development but also facilitate deforestation.WEB, Chomitz, Kenneth, Gray, David A., 1999, Roads, lands, markets, and deforestation: a spatial model of land use in Belize,www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/04/01/000009265_3970311121720/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf, live, Policy Research Working Papers, 10.1596/1813-9450-1444, 129453055,www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/04/01/000009265_3970311121720/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20170815065239www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/04/01/000009265_3970311121720/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20170815065239www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1995/04/01/000009265_3970311121720/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf, 2017-08-15, About 90% of the deforestation has occurred within 100 km of roads in most parts of the Amazon.JOURNAL, Ferraz, Silvio Frosini de Barros, Vettorazzi, Carlos Alberto, Theobald, David M., 2009, Using indicators of deforestation and land-use dynamics to support conservation strategies: A case study of central Rondônia, Brazil, Forest Ecology and Management, 257, 7, 1586–1595, 10.1016/j.foreco.2009.01.013, 2009ForEM.257.1586F, The European Union is one of the largest importer of products made from illegal deforestation.JOURNAL, 17 March 2015, Stolen Goods: The EU’s complicity in illegal tropical deforestation,www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Stolen%20Goods_EN.pdf, dead, Forests and the European Union Resource Network,www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Stolen%20Goods_EN.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20150402181435www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Stolen%20Goods_EN.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20150402181435www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Stolen%20Goods_EN.pdf, 2 April 2015, 31 March 2015, {{Obsolete source|reason=not sure this is still true as I understand imports of palm oil are more tightly controlled nowadays|date=October 2023}}Some have argued that deforestation trends may follow a Kuznets curve,JOURNAL, Culas, Richard J., 2007, Deforestation and the environmental Kuznets curve: An institutional perspective,www.aseanenvironment.info/Abstract/41014849.pdf, dead, Ecological Economics, 61, 2–3, 429–437, 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.03.014, 2007EcoEc..61..429C,aseanenvironment.info/abstract/41014849.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20160304235124aseanenvironment.info/abstract/41014849.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20160304235124aseanenvironment.info/abstract/41014849.pdf, 4 March 2016, 8 December 2018, which if true would nonetheless fail to eliminate the risk of irreversible loss of non-economic forest values (for example, the extinction of species).Whitehead, John (22 November 2006) Environmental Economics: A deforestation Kuznets curve?, env-econ.net .JOURNAL, Koop, Gary, Tole, Lise, amp, 1999, Is there an environmental Kuznets curve for deforestation?, Journal of Development Economics, 58, 231–244, 10.1016/S0304-3878(98)00110-2,

Mining

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)“BOOK, EXTRACTED FORESTS UNEARTHING THE ROLE OF MINING-RELATED DEFORESTATION AS A DRIVER OF GLOBAL DEFORESTATION, 2023, World Wildlife Fund, 3, 6, 7, 22,www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/Publikationen-PDF/Wald/WWF-Studie-Extracted-Forests.pdf, 23 April 2023,

Climate change

File:Emerging_signals_of_declining_forest_resilience_under_climate_change.webp|thumb|215x215px|Emerging signals of declining forest resilience under climate changeJOURNAL, Forzieri, Giovanni, Dakos, Vasilis, McDowell, Nate G., Ramdane, Alkama, Cescatti, Alessandro, August 2022, Emerging signals of declining forest resilience under climate change, Nature, en, 608, 7923, 534–539, 10.1038/s41586-022-04959-9, 1476-4687, 9385496, 35831499, free,

(
• News article: NEWS, Forests are becoming less resilient because of climate change, New Scientist,www.newscientist.com/article/2328268-forests-are-becoming-less-resilient-because-of-climate-change/, 21 August 2022, )

(File:Temporal_variations_of_forest_resilience_and_its_key_drivers.webp|thumb|120x120px|Temporal variations of forest resilience and its key drivers)Another cause of deforestation is due to the effects of climate change: More wildfires,JOURNAL, Heidari, Hadi, Arabi, Mazdak, Warziniack, Travis, August 2021, Effects of Climate Change on Natural-Caused Fire Activity in Western U.S. National Forests, Atmosphere, en, 12, 8, 981, 2021Atmos..12..981H, 10.3390/atmos12080981, free, insect outbreaks, invasive species, and more frequent extreme weather events (such as storms) are factors that increase deforestation.JOURNAL, Seymour, Frances, Gibbs, David, 2019-08-08, Forests in the IPCC Special Report on Land Use: 7 Things to Know,www.wri.org/blog/2019/08/forests-ipcc-special-report-land-use-7-things-know, en, 2020-03-20, World Resources Institute, A study suggests that “tropical, arid and temperate forests are experiencing a significant decline in resilience, probably related to increased water limitations and climate variability� which may shift ecosystems towards critical transitions and ecosystem collapses. By contrast, “boreal forests show divergent local patterns with an average increasing trend in resilience, probably benefiting from warming and {{CO2}} fertilization, which may outweigh the adverse effects of climate change�. It has been proposed that a loss of resilience in forests “can be detected from the increased temporal autocorrelation (TAC) in the state of the system, reflecting a decline in recovery rates due to the critical slowing down (CSD) of system processes that occur at thresholds�.23% of tree cover losses result from wildfires and climate change increase their frequency and power.JOURNAL, Harris, Nancy, Dow Goldman, Elizabeth, Weisse, Mikaela, Barrett, Alyssa, 13 September 2018, When a Tree Falls, Is It Deforestation?,www.wri.org/blog/2018/09/when-tree-falls-it-deforestation, 30 August 2019, World Resources Institute, The rising temperatures cause massive wildfires especially in the Boreal forests. One possible effect is the change of the forest composition.NEWS, Dapcevich, Madison, 28 August 2019, Disastrous Wildfires Sweeping Through Alaska Could Permanently Alter Forest Composition, Ecowatch,www.ecowatch.com/alaska-wildfires-forests-trees-2640081853.html, 30 August 2019, Deforestation can also cause forests to become more fire prone through mechanisms such as logging.JOURNAL, Woods, Paul, 1989, Effects of Logging, Drought, and Fire on Structure and Composition of Tropical Forests in Sabah, Malaysia,www.jstor.org/stable/2388278, Biotropica, 21, 4, 290–298, 10.2307/2388278, 0006-3606, 2388278, 1989Biotr..21..290W,

Military causes

{{See also|Environmental impact of war}}File:US-Huey-helicopter-spraying-Agent-Orange-in-Vietnam.jpg|thumb|U.S. Army Huey helicopter spraying Agent Orange during the Vietnam WarVietnam WarOperations in war can also cause deforestation. For example, in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, bombardment and other combat operations reduced a lush tropical landscape into “a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots�.Higa, Takejiro. Battle of Okinawa {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720144740nisei.hawaii.edu/object/11_takejiro.html|date=20 July 2011}}, The Hawaii Nisei ProjectDeforestation can also result from the intentional tactics of military forces. Clearing forests became an element in the Russian Empire’s successful conquest of the Caucasus in the mid-19th century.BOOK, Arreguín-Toft, Ivan,books.google.com/books?id=gbweTAoZ_3YC, How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict, 8 December 2005, Cambridge University Press, 9780521839761, Cambridge Studies in International Relations ISSN 0959-6844, 99, Cambridge, 61, [...] Voronzov [...] then set about organizing a more methodical destruction of Shamil and the subsequent conquest of the Caucasus. Over the next decade, this involved nothing more complicated or less deadly than the deforestation of Chechnia., 17 June 2018, The British (during the Malayan Emergency) and the United States (in the Korean WarNEWS, 29 May 2011, DEFOLIANT DEVELOPED BY US WAS FOR KOREAN WAR, States News Services, and in the Vietnam War) used defoliants (like Agent Orange or others).BOOK, Pesticide Dilemma in the Third World: A Case Study of Malaysia, Phoenix Press, 1984, 23, BOOK,archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000unse, Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, Routledge, 2004, 978-0-415-93732-0, Krech III, Shepard, Merchant, Carolyn, McNeill, John Robert, BOOK, Marchak, M. Patricia,books.google.com/books?id=Oi-xLllDK8oC&pg=PA157, Logging the globe, 18 September 1995, McGill-Queen’s Press – MQUP, 978-0-7735-1346-4, 157–, 4 December 2011, {{request quotation|date=June 2018}} The destruction of forests in Vietnam War is one of the most commonly used examples of ecocide, including by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, lawyers, historians and other academics.BOOK, Zierler, David, The invention of ecocide: agent orange, Vietnam, and the scientists who changed the way we think about the environment, 2011, Univ. of Georgia Press, 978-0-8203-3827-9, Athens, Ga., JOURNAL, Falk, Richard A., 1973, Environmental Warfare and Ecocide — Facts, Appraisal, and Proposals,www.jstor.org/stable/44480206, Bulletin of Peace Proposals, 4, 1, 80–96, 10.1177/096701067300400105, 0007-5035, 44480206, 144885326, JOURNAL, Giovanni, Chiarini, 2022-04-01, Ecocide: From the Vietnam War to International Criminal Jurisdiction? Procedural Issues In-Between Environmental Science, Climate Change, and Law,papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072727, Cork Online Law Review, en, 4072727,

Impacts

On atmosphere and climate

{{further|Deforestation and climate change}}(File:Biophysical Effects on Global Temperature From Deforestation by 10° Latitude Band.jpg|thumb|Biophysical mechanisms by which forests influence climate.JOURNAL, Lawrence, Deborah, Coe, Michael, Walker, Wayne, Verchot, Louis, Vandecar, Karen, 2022, The Unseen Effects of Deforestation: Biophysical Effects on Climate, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 5, 10.3389/ffgc.2022.756115, 2022FrFGC...5.6115L, 2624-893X, free, )(File:Per-capita-co2-food-deforestation (1).svg|thumb|Per capita {{CO2}} emissions from deforestation for food production)File:Manantenina bushfire.jpg|thumb|Illegal “slash-and-burnâ€� practice in MadagascarMadagascar(File:Spatial pattern of forest carbon loss across the tropics.webp|thumb|Mean annual carbon loss from tropical deforestation.JOURNAL, Feng, Yu, Zeng, Zhenzhong, Searchinger, Timothy D., Ziegler, Alan D., Wu, Jie, Wang, Dashan, He, Xinyue, Elsen, Paul R., Ciais, Philippe, Xu, Rongrong, Guo, Zhilin, Peng, Liqing, Tao, Yiheng, Spracklen, Dominick V., Holden, Joseph, 28 February 2022, Doubling of annual forest carbon loss over the tropics during the early twenty-first century, Nature Sustainability, en, 5, 5, 444–451, 10.1038/s41893-022-00854-3, 2398-9629, 247160560, free, Liu, Xiaoping, Zheng, Yi, Xu, Peng, Chen, Ji, Jiang, Xin, Song, Xiao-Peng, Lakshmi, Venkataraman, Wood, Eric F., Zheng, Chunmiao, 2022NatSu...5..444F, 2346/92751, free, )Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change.Deforestation causes global warming {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090805131750www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000385/index.html|date=5 August 2009}}, FAOWEB, Tropical Deforestation and Global Warming {{!, Union of Concerned Scientists |url=https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/tropical-deforestation-and-global-warming |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=www.ucsusa.org |language=en}}JOURNAL, Ripple, William J., William J. Ripple, Wolf, Christopher, van Vuuren, Detlef P., Gregg, Jillian W., Lenzen, Manfred, January 9, 2024, An environmental and socially just climate mitigation pathway for a planet in peril, Environmental Research Letters, 19, 2, 021001, 10.1088/1748-9326/ad059e, ...land use change, particularly deforestation (driven by agricultural land expansion and wood demand), has also been one of the major contributors to climate change., free, 2024ERL....19b1001R, It is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect. Recent calculations suggest that CO2 emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (excluding peatland emissions) contribute about 12% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions, with a range from 6% to 17%.JOURNAL, Van Der Werf, G. R., Morton, D. C., Defries, R. S., Olivier, J. G. J., Kasibhatla, P. S., Jackson, R. B., Collatz, G. J., Randerson, J. T., 2009, CO2 emissions from forest loss, Nature Geoscience, 2, 11, 737–738, 2009NatGe...2..737V, 10.1038/ngeo671, 129188479, A 2022 study shows annual carbon emissions from tropical deforestation have doubled during the last two decades and continue to increase: by 0.97 ± 0.16 PgC (petagrams of carbon, i.e. billions of tons) per year in 2001–2005 to 1.99 ± 0.13 PgC per year in 2015–2019.NEWS, 28 February 2022, Deforestation emissions far higher than previously thought, study finds, en, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/28/deforestation-emissions-far-higher-than-previously-thought-study-finds-aoe, 16 March 2022, According to a review, north of 50°N, large scale deforestation leads to an overall net global cooling; but deforestation in the tropics leads to substantial warming: not just due to {{CO2}} impacts, but also due to other biophysical mechanisms (making carbon-centric metrics inadequate). Moreover, it suggests that standing tropical forests help cool the average global temperature by more than 1 Â°C.NEWS, 24 March 2022, Forests help reduce global warming in more ways than one, Science News,www.sciencenews.org/article/forest-trees-reduce-global-warming-climate-cooling-carbon, 19 April 2022, The incineration and burning of forest plants to clear land releases large amounts of CO2, which contributes to global warming.JOURNAL, Fearnside, Philip M., Laurance, William F., 2004, Tropical Deforestation and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, Ecological Applications, 14, 4, 982, 10.1890/03-5225, 2004EcoAp..14..982F, Scientists also state that tropical deforestation releases 1.5 billion tons of carbon each year into the atmosphere.JOURNAL, Defries, Ruth, Achard, Frédéric, Brown, Sandra, Herold, Martin, Murdiyarso, Daniel, Schlamadinger, Bernhard, De Souza, Carlos, 2007, Earth observations for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries,www.gofc-gold.uni-jena.de/documents/other/EO_for_GHG_emissions.pdf, dead, Environmental Science Policy, 10, 4, 385–394, 10.1016/j.envsci.2007.01.010, 2007ESPol..10..385D,www.gofc-gold.uni-jena.de/documents/other/EO_for_GHG_emissions.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20120118225748www.gofc-gold.uni-jena.de/documents/other/EO_for_GHG_emissions.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20120118225748www.gofc-gold.uni-jena.de/documents/other/EO_for_GHG_emissions.pdf, 18 January 2012,

Carbon sink or source

{{See also|Carbon sequestration|Carbon sink|Biomass (energy)#Climate impacts|Sustainable energy#Bioenergy}}A study suggests logged and structurally degraded tropical forests are carbon sources for at least a decade – even when recovering{{clarify|date=February 2023|reason=does this include reforestation like the news article suggests?}} – due to larger carbon losses from soil organic matter and deadwood, indicating that the tropical forest carbon sink (at least in South Asia) “may be much smaller than previously estimated�, contradicting that “recovering logged and degraded tropical forests are net carbon sinks�.JOURNAL, Mills, Maria B., Malhi, Yadvinder, Ewers, Robert M., Kho, Lip Khoon, Teh, Yit Arn, Both, Sabine, Burslem, David F. R. P., Majalap, Noreen, Nilus, Reuben, Huaraca Huasco, Walter, Cruz, Rudi, Pillco, Milenka M., Turner, Edgar C., Reynolds, Glen, Riutta, Terhi, 17 January 2023, Tropical forests post-logging are a persistent net carbon source to the atmosphere, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, en, 120, 3, e2214462120, 2023PNAS..12014462M, 10.1073/pnas.2214462120, 0027-8424, 9934015, 36623189, free, File:SouthEast Asia fires Oct 2006.jpg|thumb|Fires on Borneo and Sumatra, 2006. People use slash-and-burnslash-and-burn{{excerpt|Carbon sink#Forests}}

On the environment

According to a 2020 study, 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.“WEB, Nafeez, Ahmed, 28 July 2020, Theoretical Physicists Say 90% Chance of Societal Collapse Within Several Decades,www.vice.com/en_us/article/akzn5a/theoretical-physicists-say-90-chance-of-societal-collapse-within-several-decades, 9 August 2020, Vice, JOURNAL, Bologna, M., Aquino, G., 2020, Deforestation and world population sustainability: a quantitative analysis, Scientific Reports, 10, 7631, 7631, 2006.12202, 2020NatSR..10.7631B, 10.1038/s41598-020-63657-6, 7203172, 32376879,

Changes to the water cycle

The water cycle is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer transpire this water, resulting in a much drier climate. Deforestation reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. The dry soil leads to lower water intake for the trees to extract.WEB,www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/UNreport.html, Underlying Causes of Deforestation, UN Secretary-General’s Report, dead,wrm.org.uy/deforestation/UNreport.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20010411092448wrm.org.uy/deforestation/UNreport.html,">web.archive.org/web/20010411092448wrm.org.uy/deforestation/UNreport.html, 11 April 2001, Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that erosion, flooding and landslides ensue.WEB,people.uwec.edu/jolhm/eh2/rogge/index.htm, Rogge, Daniel, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Deforestation and Landslides in Southwestern Washington, China’s floods: Is deforestation to blame? BBC News. 6 August 1999.Shrinking forest cover lessens the landscape’s capacity to intercept, retain and transpire precipitation. Instead of trapping precipitation, which then percolates to groundwater systems, deforested areas become sources of surface water runoff, which moves much faster than subsurface flows. Forests return most of the water that falls as precipitation to the atmosphere by transpiration. In contrast, when an area is deforested, almost all precipitation is lost as run-off.Raven, P. H. and Berg, L. R. (2006) Environment, 5th ed, John Wiley & Sons. p. 406. {{ISBN|0471704385}}. That quicker transport of surface water can translate into flash flooding and more localized floods than would occur with the forest cover. Deforestation also contributes to decreased evapotranspiration, which lessens atmospheric moisture which in some cases affects precipitation levels downwind from the deforested area, as water is not recycled to downwind forests, but is lost in runoff and returns directly to the oceans. According to one study, in deforested north and northwest China, the average annual precipitation decreased by one third between the 1950s and the 1980s.BOOK, The Economic Costs of China’s Environmental Degradation: Project on Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity, and Civil Violence, a Joint Project of the University of Toronto and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/state/chinaeco/forest.htm,www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/state/chinaeco/forest.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20091230071928www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/state/chinaeco/forest.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20091230071928www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/state/chinaeco/forest.htm, dead, 30 December 2009, Committee on Internat. Security Studies, American Acad. of Arts and Sciences, 1 January 1998, Wang, Hongchang, Deforestation and Desiccation in China A Preliminary Study, Schwartz, Jonathan Matthew, File:Madagascar highland plateau.jpg|thumb|Deforestation of the Highland Plateau in Madagascar has led to extensive siltationsiltationTrees, and plants in general, affect the water cycle significantly:

• their canopies intercept a proportion of precipitation, which is then evaporated back to the atmosphere (canopy interception);
• their litter, stems and trunks slow down surface runoff;
• their roots create macropores – large conduits – in the soil that increase infiltration of water;
• they contribute to terrestrial evaporation and reduce soil moisture via transpiration;
• their litter and other organic residue change soil properties that affect the capacity of soil to store water.
• their leaves control the humidity of the atmosphere by transpiring. 99% of the water absorbed by the roots moves up to the leaves and is transpired.“Soil, Water and Plant Characteristics Important to Irrigationâ€�. North Dakota State University.

As a result, the presence or absence of trees can change the quantity of water on the surface, in the soil or groundwater, or in the atmosphere. This in turn changes erosion rates and the availability of water for either ecosystem functions or human services. Deforestation on lowland plains moves cloud formation and rainfall to higher elevations.JOURNAL, Ray, Deepak K., Nair, Udaysankar S., Lawton, Robert O., Welch, Ronald M., Pielke, Roger A., Impact of land use on Costa Rican tropical montane cloud forests: Sensitivity of orographic cloud formation to deforestation in the plains, Journal of Geophysical Research, 2006, 111, D2, D02108, 10.1029/2005JD006096, 2006JGRD..111.2108R, free, The forest may have little impact on flooding in the case of large rainfall events, which overwhelm the storage capacity of forest soil if the soils are at or close to saturation.Tropical rainforests produce about 30% of Earth’s fresh water.NEWS, 8 October 2006, How can you save the rain forest. 8 October 2006. Frank Field, The Times, London,www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article664544.ece, 1 April 2010, Deforestation disrupts normal weather patterns creating hotter and drier weather thus increasing drought, desertification, crop failures, melting of the polar ice caps, coastal flooding and displacement of major vegetation regimes.NEWS, Deforestation as a major threat,www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/465873/Deforestation-as-a-major-threat, 2022-02-26, Daily Sun, Opinion, en,

Soil erosion

File:Erp - 20111006 (6).jpg|thumb|Deforestation in FranceFranceDue to surface plant litter, forests that are undisturbed have a minimal rate of erosion. The rate of erosion occurs from deforestation, because it decreases the amount of litter cover, which provides protection from surface runoff.BOOK, Soil Erosion and Conservation, Morgan, R.P.C, John Wiley & Sons, 2009, 9781405144674, 343, The rate of erosion is around 2 metric tons per square kilometre.BOOK, 21st Century Homestead: Sustainable Agriculture III: Agricultural Practices, Henkel, Marlon, 22 February 2015, Lulu.com, 9781312939752, 110, {{self-published source|date=February 2020}}{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}} This can be an advantage in excessively leached tropical rain forest soils. Forestry operations themselves also increase erosion through the development of (forest) roads and the use of mechanized equipment.Deforestation in China’s Loess Plateau many years ago has led to soil erosion; this erosion has led to valleys opening up. The increase of soil in the runoff causes the Yellow River to flood and makes it yellow-colored.Greater erosion is not always a consequence of deforestation, as observed in the southwestern regions of the US. In these areas, the loss of grass due to the presence of trees and other shrubbery leads to more erosion than when trees are removed.Soils are reinforced by the presence of trees, which secure the soil by binding their roots to soil bedrock. Due to deforestation, the removal of trees causes sloped lands to be more susceptible to landslides.BOOK, Fundamental Concept in Environmental Studies, Mishra, D.D., S. Chand Publishing, 2010, 978-8121929370, 14–15,

Other changes to the soil

Clearing forests changes the environment of the microbial communities within the soil, and causes a loss of biodiversity in regards to the microbes since biodiversity is actually highly dependent on soil texture.NEWS, 2014-04-01, Deforestation of sandy soils a greater threat to climate change, en, YaleNews,news.yale.edu/2014/04/01/deforestation-sandy-soils-greater-threat-climate-change, 2018-02-09, Although the effect of deforestation has much more profound consequences on sandier soils compared to clay-like soils, the disruptions caused by deforestation ultimately reduces properties of soil such as hydraulic conductivity and water storage, thus reducing the efficiency of water and heat absorption.JOURNAL, Shukla, J., Nobre, C., Sellers, P., 1990-03-16, Amazon Deforestation and Climate Change, Science, en, 247, 4948, 1322–1325, 1990Sci...247.1322S, 10.1126/science.247.4948.1322, 0036-8075, 17843795, 8361418, free, 10535/2838, In a simulation of the deforestation process in the Amazon, researchers found that surface and soil temperatures increased by 1 to 3 degrees Celsius demonstrating the loss of the soil’s ability to absorb radiation and moisture. Furthermore, soils that are rich in organic decay matter are more susceptible to fire, especially during long droughts.Changes in soil properties could turn the soil itself into a carbon source rather than a carbon sink.WEB, Rebecca, Lindsey, 2007-03-30, Tropical Deforestation: Feature Articles,earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/deforestation_update2.php, 2018-02-09, earthobservatory.nasa.gov, en,

Biodiversity loss

{{Further|Biodiversity loss}}Deforestation on a human scale results in decline in biodiversity,Nilsson, Sten (March 2001). Do We Have Enough Forests? {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607205907www.actionbioscience.org/environment/nilsson.html |date=7 June 2019 }}, American Institute of Biological Sciences. and on a natural global scale is known to cause the extinction of many species.JOURNAL, Sahney, S., Benton, M.J., Falcon-Lang, H.J., amp, 2010, Rainforest collapse triggered Pennsylvanian tetrapod diversification in Euramerica, Geology, 38, 12, 1079–1082, 2010Geo....38.1079S, 10.1130/G31182.1, NEWS, Lewis, Sophie, September 9, 2020, Animal populations worldwide have declined by almost 70% in just 50 years, new report says,www.cbsnews.com/news/biodiversity-endangered-species-animal-population-decline-world-wildlife-fund-report-2020-09-09/, CBS News, September 10, 2020, “The report points to land-use change — in particular, the destruction of habitats like rainforests for farming — as the key driver for loss of biodiversity, accounting for more than half of the loss in Europe, Central Asia, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.�, The removal or destruction of areas of forest cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity. Forests support biodiversity, providing habitat for wildlife;Rainforest Biodiversity Shows Differing Patterns, ScienceDaily, 14 August 2007. moreover, forests foster medicinal conservation.WEB,www.bmbf.de/en/12484.php, Research for Biodiversity Editorial Office, Medicine from the rainforest, dead,www.bmbf.de/en/12484.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20081206015033www.bmbf.de/en/12484.php,">web.archive.org/web/20081206015033www.bmbf.de/en/12484.php, 6 December 2008, With forest biotopes being irreplaceable source of new drugs (such as taxol), deforestation can destroy genetic variations (such as crop resistance) irretrievably.Single-largest biodiversity survey says primary rainforest is irreplaceable {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814233654www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Single-largest-biodiversity-survey-says-primary-rainforest-is-irreplaceable-1218-1/ |date=14 August 2009 }}, Bio-Medicine, 14 November 2007.File:Illegal export of rosewood 001.jpg|thumb|Illegal logging in Madagascar. In 2009, the vast majority of the illegally obtained rosewood was exported to ChinaChinaSince the tropical rainforests are the most diverse ecosystems on Earthwww.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/ecosystems/ecosystemsrainforestrev1.shtml" title="web.archive.org/web/20090302154517www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/ecosystems/ecosystemsrainforestrev1.shtml">Tropical rainforests – The tropical rainforest, BBClibrary.thinkquest.org/11353/trforest.htm" title="web.archive.org/web/20000302033338library.thinkquest.org/11353/trforest.htm">Tropical Rain Forest. thinkquest.org and about 80% of the world’s known biodiversity can be found in tropical rainforests,U.N. calls on Asian nations to end deforestation {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134044www.reuters.com/article/2008/06/20/us-philippines-biodiversity-idUSMAN18800220080620 |date=24 September 2015 }}, Reuters, 20 June 2008.WEB,www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm, Facts and information on the Amazon Rainforest, www.rain-tree.com, removal or destruction of significant areas of forest cover has resulted in a degradedTropical rainforests – Rainforest water and nutrient cycles {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213160024www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/ecosystems/ecosystemsrainforestrev4.shtml |date=13 February 2009 }}, BBC environment with reduced biodiversity.Butler, Rhett A. (2 July 2007) Primary rainforest richer in species than plantations, secondary forests, mongabay.com, Road construction and development of adjacent land, which greatly reduces the area of intact wilderness and causes soil erosion, is a major contributing factor to the loss of biodiversity in tropical regions.REPORT,www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_Chapter07.pdf, Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU), Nabuurs, G-J., R. Mrabet, A. Abu Hatab, M. Bustamante, H. Clark, P. Havlík, J. House, C. Mbow, K.N. Ninan, A. Popp, S. Roe, B. Sohngen, S. Towprayoon, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022, Cambridge University Press, 10.1017/9781009157926.009, 768–769, 9781009157926, A study in Rondônia, Brazil, has shown that deforestation also removes the microbial community which is involved in the recycling of nutrients, the production of clean water and the removal of pollutants.WEB, Flowers, April, Deforestation in the Amazon Affects Microbial Life As Well As Ecosystems,www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112753888/amazon-deforestation-microbial-communities-122512/, Science News, Redorbit.com, 12 March 2013,www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112753888/amazon-deforestation-microbial-communities-122512/," title="web.archive.org/web/20130502223155www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112753888/amazon-deforestation-microbial-communities-122512/,">web.archive.org/web/20130502223155www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112753888/amazon-deforestation-microbial-communities-122512/, 2 May 2013, dead, It has been estimated that 137 plant, animal and insect species go extinct every day due to rainforest deforestation, which equates to 50,000 species a year.Rainforest Facts. Rain-tree.com (20 March 2010). Retrieved 29 August 2010. Others state that tropical rainforest deforestation is contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction.Leakey, Richard and Roger Lewin, 1996, The Sixth Extinction : Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind, Anchor, {{ISBN|0-385-46809-1}}.The great rainforest tragedy {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912071556www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-great-rainforest-tragedy-542135.html |date=12 September 2011 }}, The Independent, 28 June 2003. The known extinction rates from deforestation rates are very low, approximately one species per year from mammals and birds, which extrapolates to approximately 23,000 species per year for all species. Predictions have been made that more than 40% of the animal and plant species in Southeast Asia could be wiped out in the 21st century.Biodiversity wipeout facing South East Asia, New Scientist, 23 July 2003. Such predictions were called into question by 1995 data that show that within regions of Southeast Asia much of the original forest has been converted to monospecific plantations, but that potentially endangered species are few and tree flora remains widespread and stable.File:Rain forest location map.png|thumb|Location of tropical (dark green) and temperate/subtropical (light green) rainforestrainforestScientific understanding of the process of extinction is insufficient to accurately make predictions about the impact of deforestation on biodiversity.JOURNAL, 1995, The future of biodiversity, Science, 269, 5222, 347–50, 10.1126/science.269.5222.347, 17841251, Pimm, S. L., Russell, G. J., Gittleman, J. L., Brooks, T. M., 1995Sci...269..347P, 35154695, Most predictions of forestry related biodiversity loss are based on species-area models, with an underlying assumption that as the forest declines species diversity will decline similarly.BOOK, Whitmore, Timothy Charles, Sayer, Jeffrey, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. General Assembly, IUCN Forest Conservation Programme, Tropical deforestation and species extinction,books.google.com/books?id=Et4opq8dn4MC, 15 February 1992, Springer, 978-0-412-45520-9, However, many such models have been proven to be wrong and loss of habitat does not necessarily lead to large scale loss of species. Species-area models are known to overpredict the number of species known to be threatened in areas where actual deforestation is ongoing, and greatly overpredict the number of threatened species that are widespread.JOURNAL, 10.1126/science.269.5222.347, The Future of Biodiversity, 1995, Pimm, S. L., Russell, G. J., Gittleman, J. L., Brooks, T. M., Science, 269, 5222, 347–350, 17841251, 1995Sci...269..347P, 35154695, In 2012, a study of the Brazilian Amazon predicts that despite a lack of extinctions thus far, up to 90 percent of predicted extinctions will finally occur in the next 40 years.WEB, Sohn, Emily, More extinctions expected in Amazon, Discovery,news.discovery.com/earth/amazon-extinctions-to-come-120712.html, 12 July 2012, 13 July 2012, 7 November 2012,news.discovery.com/earth/amazon-extinctions-to-come-120712.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20121107175209news.discovery.com/earth/amazon-extinctions-to-come-120712.html,">web.archive.org/web/20121107175209news.discovery.com/earth/amazon-extinctions-to-come-120712.html, dead,

Oxygen-supply misconception

Rainforests are widely believed by lay persons to contribute a significant amount of the world’s oxygen, although it is now accepted by scientists that rainforests contribute little net oxygen to the atmosphere and deforestation has only a minor effect on atmospheric oxygen levels.Broeker, Wallace S. (2006). “Breathing easy: Et tu, O2�. Columbia UniversityJOURNAL, Moran, Emilio F., 1993, Deforestation and land use in the Brazilian Amazon, Human Ecology, 21, 1–21, 10.1007/BF00890069, 153481315, In fact about 50 percent of oxygen on Earth is produced by algae.JOURNAL, Chapman, Russell Leonard, 2013-01-01, Algae: the world’s most important “plants“—an introduction, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, en, 18, 1, 5–12, 10.1007/s11027-010-9255-9, 2013MASGC..18....5C, 1573-1596, 85214078, free,

On human health

Infectious diseases

The degradation and loss of forests disrupts nature’s balance. Indeed, deforestation eliminates a great number of species of plants and animals which also often results in an increase in disease,Biodiversity and Infectious Diseases {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512175341www.chgeharvard.org/topic/biodiversity-and-infectious-diseases |date=12 May 2016 }}, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University (last accessed 15 May 2017). and exposure of people to zoonotic diseases.WEB, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration,www.decadeonrestoration.org/, NEWS, New UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration offers unparalleled opportunity for job creation, food security and addressing climate change,www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1182090/icode/, 9 December 2020, 23 June 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220623202225/https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1182090/icode/, dead, BOOK,doi.org/10.4060/ca9456en, Global emergence of infectious diseases: links with wild meat consumption, ecosystem disruption, habitat degradation and biodiversity loss, FAO, 2020, 978-92-5-132818-7, Rome, 10.4060/ca9456en, 240645073, Deforestation can also create a path for non-native species to flourish such as certain types of snails, which have been correlated with an increase in schistosomiasis cases.JOURNAL, Impacts of an Invasive Snail, PLOS ONE, 7, 6, e38806, 10.1371/journal.pone.0038806, 22761706, 2012, Moslemi, Jennifer M., Snider, Sunny B., MacNeill, Keeley, Gilliam, James F., Flecker, Alexander S., 3382606, 2012PLoSO...738806M, free, Forest-associated diseases include malaria, Chagas disease (also known as American trypanosomiasis), African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), leishmaniasis, Lyme disease, HIV and Ebola. The majority of new infectious diseases affecting humans, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, are zoonotic and their emergence may be linked to habitat loss due to forest area change and the expansion of human populations into forest areas, which both increase human exposure to wildlife.Deforestation is occurring all over the world and has been coupled with an increase in the occurrence of disease outbreaks. In Malaysia, thousands of acres of forest have been cleared for pig farms. This has resulted in an increase in the spread of the Nipah virus.Deforestation and emerging diseases | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Thebulletin.org (15 February 2011). Retrieved 13 November 2016.JOURNAL, Lam, Sai Kit, Chua, Kaw Bing, 2002, Nipah Virus Encephalitis Outbreak in Malaysia, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 34, S48–51, 10.1086/338818, 11938496, free, In Kenya, deforestation has led to an increase in malaria cases which is now the leading cause of morbidity and mortality the country.African Politics Portal | Tag Archive | Environmental impact of deforestation in Kenya {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413022408www.african-politics.com/tag/environmental-impact-of-deforestation-in-kenya/ |date=13 April 2016 }}. African-politics.com (28 May 2009). Retrieved 13 November 2016.2014 Kenya Economic Survey Marks Malaria As Country’s Leading Cause Of Death | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kff.org (1 May 2014). Retrieved 13 November 2016. A 2017 study in the American Economic Review found that deforestation substantially increased the incidence of malaria in Nigeria.JOURNAL, Julia, Berazneva, Byker, Tanya S., 1 May 2017, Does Forest Loss Increase Human Disease? Evidence from Nigeria, American Economic Review, en, 107, 5, 516–521, 10.1257/aer.p20171132, 29557569, 0002-8282, Another pathway through which deforestation affects disease is the relocation and dispersion of disease-carrying hosts. This disease emergence pathway can be called “range expansion�, whereby the host’s range (and thereby the range of pathogens) expands to new geographic areas.JOURNAL, Range Expansion and Population Dynamics of an Invasive Species: The Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto), PLOS ONE, 9, 10, e111510, 10.1371/journal.pone.0111510, 25354270, 2014, Scheidt, Spencer N., Hurlbert, Allen H., 4213033, 2014PLoSO...9k1510S, free, Through deforestation, hosts and reservoir species are forced into neighboring habitats. Accompanying the reservoir species are pathogens that have the ability to find new hosts in previously unexposed regions. As these pathogens and species come into closer contact with humans, they are infected both directly and indirectly. Another example of range expansion due to deforestation and other anthropogenic habitat impacts includes the Capybara rodent in Paraguay.Deforestation sparks giant rodent invasions. News.mongabay.com (15 December 2010). Retrieved 13 November 2016.Deforestation reduces safe working hours for millions of people in the tropics, especially for those performing heavy labour outdoors. Continued global heating and forest loss is expected to amplify these impacts, reducing work hours for vulnerable groups even more.WEB, Quaglia, Sofia, 2021-12-17, Deforestation making outdoor work unsafe for millions, says study,www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/17/deforestation-making-outdoor-work-unsafe-for-millions-says-study, live, 2021-12-18, The Guardian, en,web.archive.org/web/20211217163119/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/17/deforestation-making-outdoor-work-unsafe-for-millions-says-study, 17 December 2021, A study conducted from 2002 to 2018 also determined that the increase in temperature as a result of climate change, and the lack of shade due to deforestation, has increased the mortality rate of workers in Indonesia.JOURNAL, Wolff, Nicholas H., Zeppetello, Lucas R. Vargas, Parsons, Luke A., Aggraeni, Ike, Battisti, David S., Ebi, Kristie L., Game, Edward T., Kroeger, Timm, Masuda, Yuta J., Spector, June T., 2021-12-01, The effect of deforestation and climate change on all-cause mortality and unsafe work conditions due to heat exposure in Berau, Indonesia: a modelling study, The Lancet Planetary Health, English, 5, 12, e882–e892, 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00279-5, 2542-5196, 34774222, 244068407, free, A link between deforestation and infant mortality was found in Indonesia as well. The study shows documentation of deforestation and pregnancy order,JOURNAL, Chakrabarti, Averi, 2021, Deforestation and infant mortality: Evidence from Indonesia,www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X20302136, Economics & Human Biology, 40, 100943, 10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100943, 33242794, 227181993, October 18, 2022, as children born from first pregnancies face higher mortality risks due to in-utero exposure. The study’s results suggest that women during their first pregnancy could have been affected by deforestation-induced malaria. It has been affirmed that in preserved regions, likely reasons including commercial activity, perinatal health care, alongside air pollution are not identifiable triggers of the weighty impression left by deforestation on newborn fatality.According to the World Economic Forum, 31% of emerging diseases are linked to deforestation.BOOK, Outbreak Readiness and Business Impact Protecting Lives and Livelihoods across the Global Economy, January 2019, World Economic Forum, Harvard Global Health Institute, 7,www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF%20HGHI_Outbreak_Readiness_Business_Impact.pdf,www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF%20HGHI_Outbreak_Readiness_Business_Impact.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20190121175911www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF%20HGHI_Outbreak_Readiness_Business_Impact.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20190121175911www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF%20HGHI_Outbreak_Readiness_Business_Impact.pdf, 2019-01-21, live, 12 March 2020, A publication by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2016 found that deforestation, climate change, and livestock agriculture are among the main causes that increase the risk of zoonotic diseases, that is diseases that pass from animals to humans.BOOK, UNEP Frontiers 2016 Report: Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern, 2016, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairoby, 978-92-807-3553-6, 18–32,environmentlive.unep.org/media/docs/assessments/UNEP_Frontiers_2016_report_emerging_issues_of_environmental_concern.pdf,environmentlive.unep.org/media/docs/assessments/UNEP_Frontiers_2016_report_emerging_issues_of_environmental_concern.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20170224140345environmentlive.unep.org/media/docs/assessments/UNEP_Frontiers_2016_report_emerging_issues_of_environmental_concern.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20170224140345environmentlive.unep.org/media/docs/assessments/UNEP_Frontiers_2016_report_emerging_issues_of_environmental_concern.pdf, 2017-02-24, live, 1 May 2020, (File:CC-BY icon.svg|50px) Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

COVID-19 pandemic

{{See also|COVID-19 pandemic|Pandemic prevention#Environmental policy and economics}}Scientists have linked the Coronavirus pandemic to the destruction of nature, especially to deforestation, habitat loss in general and wildlife trade.NEWS, Carrington, Damian, Pandemics result from destruction of nature, say UN and WHO,www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/pandemics-destruction-nature-un-who-legislation-trade-green-recovery, 18 June 2020, The Guardian, 17 June 2020, According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) the Coronavirus disease 2019 is zoonotic, e.g., the virus passed from animals to humans. UNEP concludes that: “The most fundamental way to protect ourselves from zoonotic diseases is to prevent destruction of nature. Where ecosystems are healthy and biodiverse, they are resilient, adaptable and help to regulate diseases.WEB, Science points to causes of COVID-19,www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/science-points-causes-covid-19, United Nations Environmental Programm, 22 May 2020, United Nations, 2 June 2020,

On the economy and agriculture

File:Malayasia iko 2002169.jpg|thumb|right|A satellite image showing deforestation for a palm oil plantation in Malaysia]]{{Update section|reason=cites are very old|date=June 2020}}Economic losses due to deforestation in Brazil could reach around 317 billion dollars per year, approximately 7 times higher in comparison to the cost of all commodities produced through deforestation.WEB, World Bank: Brazil faces $317 billion in annual losses to Amazon deforestation,8point9.com/world-bank-brazil-faces-317-billion-in-annual-losses-to-amazon-deforestation#:~:text=BRAZIL%20could%20face%20losses%20of,commodities%20taken%20from%20the%20rainforests., 30 May 2023, 8.9ha., 24 May 2023, World Bank, The forest products industry is a large part of the economy in both developed and developing countries. Short-term economic gains made by conversion of forest to agriculture, or over-exploitation of wood products, typically leads to a loss of long-term income and long-term biological productivity. West Africa, Madagascar, Southeast Asia and many other regions have experienced lower revenue because of declining timber harvests. Illegal logging causes billions of dollars of losses to national economies annually.WEB,rainforests.mongabay.com/0905.htm, rainforests.mongabay.com, Destruction of Renewable Resources, 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. 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.File:Haiti deforestation.jpg|thumb|Satellite image of Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic (right) shows the amount of deforestation on the Haitian side ]](File:Deforestation around Pakke Tiger Reserve, India.JPG|thumb|upright=0.9|Deforestation around Pakke Tiger Reserve, India)

Monitoring

File:Terra Indígena Tenharim do Igarapé Preto, Amazonas (41737918674).jpg|thumb|Agents from IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental police, searching for illegal logging activity in Indigenous territory in the Amazon rainforestAmazon rainforestThere are multiple methods that are appropriate and reliable for reducing and monitoring deforestation. One method is the “visual interpretation of aerial photos or satellite imagery that is labor-intensive but does not require high-level training in computer image processing or extensive computational resources�. Another method includes hot-spot analysis (that is, locations of rapid change) using expert opinion or coarse resolution satellite data to identify locations for detailed digital analysis with high resolution satellite images. Deforestation is typically assessed by quantifying the amount of area deforested, measured at the present time.From an environmental point of view, quantifying the damage and its possible consequences is a more important task, while conservation efforts are more focused on forested land protection and development of land-use alternatives to avoid continued deforestation. Deforestation rate and total area deforested have been widely used for monitoring deforestation in many regions, including the Brazilian Amazon deforestation monitoring by INPE. A global satellite view is available, an example of land change science monitoring of land cover over time.WEB, Global Forest Change – Google Crisis Map,earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest, 12 October 2016, Google Crisis Map, JOURNAL, Popkin, Gabriel, 4 October 2016, Warning to forest destroyers: this scientist will catch you, Nature News & Comment, 538, 7623, 24–26, 2016Natur.538...24P, 10.1038/538024a, 27708330, free, Satellite imaging has become crucial in obtaining data on levels of deforestation and reforestation. Landsat satellite data, for example, has been used to map tropical deforestation as part of NASA’s Landsat Pathfinder Humid Tropical Deforestation Project. The project yielded deforestation maps for the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia for three periods in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.Earth Observatory. NASA Tropical Deforestation Research. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091123222113earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/deforestation_update4.php|date=2009-11-23}} accessed 12 November 2009.Greenpeace has mapped out the forests that are still intactwww.intactforests.org/publications/intactforests_poster_preview.pdf" title="web.archive.org/web/20090327183443www.intactforests.org/publications/intactforests_poster_preview.pdf">The world’s last intact forest landscapes. intactforests.org and published this information on the internet.WEB, World Intact Forests campaign by Greenpeace,www.intactforests.org, dead,www.intactforests.org/," title="web.archive.org/web/20090228060648www.intactforests.org/,">web.archive.org/web/20090228060648www.intactforests.org/, 28 February 2009, 10 July 2008, intactforests.org, World Resources Institute in turn has made a simpler thematic mapwww.wri.org/map/worlds-forests-restoration-perspective" title="web.archive.org/web/20100724183523www.wri.org/map/worlds-forests-restoration-perspective">The World’s Forests from a Restoration Perspective, WRI showing the amount of forests present just before the age of man (8000 years ago) and the current (reduced) levels of forest.WEB, Alternative thematic map by Howstuffworks; in pdf,static.howstuffworks.com/gif/maps/pdf/WOR_THEM_Forests.pdf, dead,static.howstuffworks.com/gif/maps/pdf/WOR_THEM_Forests.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20090711004701static.howstuffworks.com/gif/maps/pdf/WOR_THEM_Forests.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20090711004701static.howstuffworks.com/gif/maps/pdf/WOR_THEM_Forests.pdf, 11 July 2009, 6 April 2009,

Control

International, national and subnational policies

(File:Conceptual framework of a policy mix perspective on zero-deforestation governance.png|thumb|An incomplete concept of a framework of policy mix sequencing for zero-deforestation governance. Non-intervention in processes related to beef production via policies may be a main driver of tropical deforestation.){{Further|Sustainable development|Universal basic income in Brazil}}Policies for forest protection include information and education programs, economic measures to increase revenue returns from authorized activities and measures to increase effectiveness of “forest technicians and forest managers�.WEB, 29. Policies, strategies and technologies for forest resource protection – William B. Magrath* and Richard Grandalski**,www.fao.org/3/AC805E/ac805e0v.htm, www.fao.org, 2 May 2021, Poverty and agricultural rent were found to be principal factors leading to deforestation.JOURNAL, Poverty reduction saves forests sustainably: Lessons for deforestation policies, World Development, 1 March 2020, 127, 104746, 10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104746, en, 0305-750X, free, Miyamoto, Motoe, Contemporary domestic and foreign political decision-makers could possibly create and implement policies whose outcomes ensure that economic activities in critical forests are consistent with their scientifically ascribed value for ecosystem services, climate change mitigation and other purposes.Such policies may use and organize the development of complementary technical and economic means – including for lower levels of beef production, sales and consumption (which would also have major benefits for climate change mitigation),JOURNAL, Henders, Sabine, Persson, U Martin, Kastner, Thomas, Trading forests: land-use change and carbon emissions embodied in production and exports of forest-risk commodities, Environmental Research Letters, 1 December 2015, 10, 12, 125012, 10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/125012, 2015ERL....10l5012H, en, free, JOURNAL, Pierrehumbert, R T, Eshel, G, Climate impact of beef: an analysis considering multiple time scales and production methods without use of global warming potentials, Environmental Research Letters, 1 August 2015, 10, 8, 085002, 10.1088/1748-9326/10/8/085002, 2015ERL....10h5002P, 152365403, en, 1748-9326, free, higher levels of specified other economic activities in such areas (such as reforestation, forest protection, sustainable agriculture for specific classes of food products and quaternary work in general), product information requirements, practice- and product-certifications and eco-tariffs, along with the required monitoring and traceability. Inducing the creation and enforcement of such policies could, for instance, achieve a global phase-out of deforestation-associated beef.JOURNAL, Nepstad, Daniel, McGrath, David, Stickler, Claudia, Alencar, Ane, Azevedo, Andrea, Swette, Briana, Bezerra, Tathiana, DiGiano, Maria, Shimada, João, Seroa da Motta, Ronaldo, Armijo, Eric, Castello, Leandro, Brando, Paulo, Hansen, Matt C., McGrath-Horn, Max, Carvalho, Oswaldo, Hess, Laura, Slowing Amazon deforestation through public policy and interventions in beef and soy supply chains, Science, 6 June 2014, 344, 6188, 1118–1123, 10.1126/science.1248525, 24904156, 2014Sci...344.1118N, 206553761, JOURNAL, Nolte, Christoph, le Polain de Waroux, Yann, Munger, Jacob, Reis, Tiago N. P., Lambin, Eric F., Conditions influencing the adoption of effective anti-deforestation policies in South America’s commodity frontiers, Global Environmental Change, 1 March 2017, 43, 1–14, 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.01.001, 2017GEC....43....1N, en, 0959-3780, JOURNAL, McAlpine, C. A., Etter, A., Fearnside, P. M., Seabrook, L., Laurance, W. F., Increasing world consumption of beef as a driver of regional and global change: A call for policy action based on evidence from Queensland (Australia), Colombia and Brazil, Global Environmental Change, 1 February 2009, 19, 1, 21–33, 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.10.008, 2009GEC....19...21M, en, 0959-3780,repositorio.unal.edu.co/handle/unal/79486, {{additional citation needed|date=May 2021}} With complex polycentric governance measures, goals like sufficient climate change mitigation as decided with e.g. the Paris Agreement and a stoppage of deforestation by 2030 as decided at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference could be achieved.JOURNAL, Furumo, Paul R., Lambin, Eric F., Policy sequencing to reduce tropical deforestation, Global Sustainability, 27 October 2021, 4, 10.1017/sus.2021.21, 2021GlSus...4E..24F, 239890357, en, 2059-4798, free, A study has suggested higher income nations need to reduce imports of tropical forest-related products and help with theoretically forest-related socioeconomic development. Proactive government policies and international forest policies “revisit[ing] and redesign[ing] global forest trade� are needed as well.NEWS, 200 million acres of forest cover have been lost since 1960,grist.org/science/forest-cover-deforestation-logging-1960/, 15 September 2022, Grist, 5 August 2022, en-us, JOURNAL, Estoque, Ronald C, Dasgupta, Rajarshi, Winkler, Karina, Avitabile, Valerio, Johnson, Brian A, Myint, Soe W, Gao, Yan, Ooba, Makoto, Murayama, Yuji, Lasco, Rodel D, Spatiotemporal pattern of global forest change over the past 60 years and the forest transition theory, Environmental Research Letters, 1 August 2022, 17, 8, 084022, 10.1088/1748-9326/ac7df5, 2022ERL....17h4022E, en, 1748-9326, free, In 2022 the European parliament approved a bill aiming to stop the import linked with deforestation. This EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), may cause to Brazil, for example, to stop deforestation for agricultural production and begun to “increase productivity on existing agricultural land�.WEB, Schröder, André, European bill passes to ban imports of deforestation-linked commodities,news.mongabay.com/2022/09/european-bill-passes-to-ban-imports-of-deforestation-linked-commodities/, Mongabay, 15 September 2022, 18 September 2022, The legislation was adopted with some changes by the European Council in May 2023 and is expected to enter into force several weeks after. The bill requires companies who want to import certain types of products to the European Union to prove the production of those commodities is not linked to areas deforested after 31 of December 2020. It prohibits also import of products linked with Human rights abuse. The list of products includes: palm oil, cattle, wood, coffee, cocoa, rubber and soy. Some derivatives of those products are also included: chocolate, furniture, printed paper and several palm oil based derivates.WEB, Council adopts new rules to cut deforestation worldwide,www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/05/16/council-adopts-new-rules-to-cut-deforestation-worldwide/, European Counsil, European Union, 22 May 2023, WEB, Téllez Chávez, Luciana, EU Approves Law for ‘Deforestation-Free’ Trade,www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/16/eu-approves-law-deforestation-free-trade, Human Rights Watch, 16 May 2023, 22 May 2023, But unfortunately, as the report Bankrolling ecosystem destruction shows,‘Bankrolling ecosystem destruction - The EU must stop the cash flow to businesses destroying nature’ this regulation of product imports is not enough. The European financial sector is investing billions of euros in the destruction of nature. Banks do not respond positively to requests to stop this, which is why the report calls for European regulation in this area to be tightened and for banks to be banned from continuing to finance deforestation.Bankrolling nature destruction

International pledges

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.NEWS, 2 November 2021, COP26: World leaders promise to end deforestation by 2030, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59088498, NEWS, Rhett A. Butler, 5 November 2021, What countries are leaders in reducing deforestation? Which are not?, Mongabay,news.mongabay.com/2021/11/glasgow-declaration-what-countries-are-leaders-in-reducing-deforestation/, 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.NEWS, Jake Spring, Simon Jessop, 3 November 2021, Over 100 global leaders pledge to end deforestation by 2030, Reuters,www.reuters.com/business/environment/over-100-global-leaders-pledge-end-deforestation-by-2030-2021-11-01/, NEWS, November 12, 2021, Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference,ukcop26.org/glasgow-leaders-declaration-on-forests-and-land-use/1, dead,web.archive.org/web/20211114073626/https://ukcop26.org/glasgow-leaders-declaration-on-forests-and-land-use/, November 14, 2021, The agreement was accompanied by about $19.2 billion in associated funding commitments.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. Some key nations with high rates of deforestation (including Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Paraguay, and Myanmar) have not signed the Glasgow Declaration. 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.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.WEB, Rankin, Jennifer, 2021-11-17, EU aims to curb deforestation with beef and coffee import ban,www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/17/eu-deforestation-beef-coffee-import-ban-commodities-endangered-forests, live,web.archive.org/web/20211117131641/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/17/eu-deforestation-beef-coffee-import-ban-commodities-endangered-forests, 17 November 2021, 2021-11-17, The Guardian, en, In September 2022, the EU Parliament supported and strengthened the plan from the EU’s executive with 453 votes to 57.WEB, Petrequin, Samuel, 2022-09-13, EU lawmakers support ban of goods linked to deforestation,apnews.com/article/forests-european-union-deforestation-dfac73fb792f185df0b3b79a055abdbf, 2022-09-14, AP NEWS, en, In 2018 the biggest palm oil trader, Wilmar, decided to control its suppliers to avoid deforestationWEB, Holder, Michael, 10 December 2018, ‘Potential breakthrough’: Palm oil giant Wilmar steps up ‘no deforestation’ efforts,www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3067932/potential-breakthrough-palm-oil-giant-wilmar-steps-up-no-deforestation-efforts, 11 December 2018, Business Green, {{additional citation needed|date=August 2020}}In 2021, over 100 world leaders, representing countries containing more than 85% of the world’s forests, committed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.WEB, 2021-11-02, Major shifts in private finance, trade and land rights to protect world’s forests,www.gov.uk/government/news/major-shifts-in-private-finance-trade-and-land-rights-to-protect-worlds-forests, live,web.archive.org/web/20211102113309/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-shifts-in-private-finance-trade-and-land-rights-to-protect-worlds-forests, 2 November 2021, 2021-11-07, GOV.UK, en,

Land rights

File:Shennongjia virgin forest.jpg|thumb|Transferring land rightsland rightsIndigenous communities have long been the frontline of resistance against deforestation.WEB, 2020-02-06, Indigenous Peoples’ Forest Tenure,drawdown.org/solutions/indigenous-peoples-forest-tenure, 2020-09-13, Project Drawdown, en, Transferring rights over land from public domain to its indigenous inhabitants is argued to be a cost-effective strategy to conserve forests.NEWS,www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/22/india-follow-china-saving-forest-people-land-rights, India should follow China to find a way out of the woods on saving forest people, The Guardian, 7 August 2016, 22 July 2016, This includes the protection of such rights entitled in existing laws, such as India’s Forest Rights Act. The transferring of such rights in China, perhaps the largest land reform in modern times, has been argued to have increased forest cover.WEB,rightsandresources.org/en/publication/view/chinas-forest-tenure-reforms-impacts-and-implications-for-choice-conservation-and-climate-change/, China’s forest tenure reforms, rightsandresources.org, 7 August 2016,rightsandresources.org/en/publication/view/chinas-forest-tenure-reforms-impacts-and-implications-for-choice-conservation-and-climate-change/," title="web.archive.org/web/20160923153921rightsandresources.org/en/publication/view/chinas-forest-tenure-reforms-impacts-and-implications-for-choice-conservation-and-climate-change/,">web.archive.org/web/20160923153921rightsandresources.org/en/publication/view/chinas-forest-tenure-reforms-impacts-and-implications-for-choice-conservation-and-climate-change/, 23 September 2016, dead, In Brazil, forested areas given tenure to indigenous groups have even lower rates of clearing than national parks.Community concessions in the Congolian rainforests have significantly less deforestation as communities are incentivized to manage the land sustainably, even reducing poverty.NEWS, 7 January 2021, The bold plan to save Africa’s largest forest, BBC,www.bbc.com/future/article/20210107-congo-basin-a-bold-plan-to-save-africas-largest-rainforest, 16 September 2021,

Forest management

Efforts to stop or slow deforestation have been attempted for many centuries because it has long been known that deforestation can cause environmental damage sufficient in some cases to cause societies to collapse. In Tonga, paramount rulers developed policies designed to prevent conflicts between short-term gains from converting forest to farmland and long-term problems forest loss would cause,Diamond, Jared Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed; Viking Press 2004, pp. 301–302 {{ISBN|0-14-311700-9}}. while during the 17th and 18th centuries in Tokugawa, Japan,Diamond, Jared Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed; Viking Press 2004, pp. 320–331 {{ISBN|0-14-311700-9}}. the sh�guns developed a highly sophisticated system of long-term planning to stop and even reverse deforestation of the preceding centuries through substituting timber by other products and more efficient use of land that had been farmed for many centuries. In 16th-century Germany, landowners also developed silviculture to deal with the problem of deforestation. However, these policies tend to be limited to environments with good rainfall, no dry season and very young soils (through volcanism or glaciation). This is because on older and less fertile soils trees grow too slowly for silviculture to be economic, whilst in areas with a strong dry season there is always a risk of forest fires destroying a tree crop before it matures.In the areas where “slash-and-burn� is practiced, switching to “slash-and-char� would prevent the rapid deforestation and subsequent degradation of soils. The biochar thus created, given back to the soil, is not only a durable carbon sequestration method, but it also is an extremely beneficial amendment to the soil. Mixed with biomass it brings the creation of terra preta, one of the richest soils on the planet and the only one known to regenerate itself.

Sustainable forest management

{{Further|Sustainable forest management}}(File:Bamboo Feb09.jpg|thumb|Bamboo is advocated as a more sustainable alternative for cutting down wood for fuel.NEWS, Rosenberg, Tina, 13 March 2012, In Africa’s vanishing forests, the benefits of bamboo, The New York Times,opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/in-africas-vanishing-forests-the-benefits-of-bamboo/?ref=global-home, 26 July 2012, )Certification, as provided by global certification systems such as Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification and Forest Stewardship Council, contributes to tackling deforestation by creating market demand for timber from sustainably managed forests. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “A major condition for the adoption of sustainable forest management is a demand for products that are produced sustainably and consumer willingness to pay for the higher costs entailed. [...] By promoting the positive attributes of forest products from sustainably managed forests, certification focuses on the demand side of environmental conservation.““State of the World’s Forests 2009�. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Financial compensations for reducing emissions from deforestation

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in developing countries has emerged as a new potential to complement ongoing climate policies. The idea consists in providing financial compensations for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from deforestation and forest degradation�.WEB, Wertz-Kanounnikoff, Sheila, Alvarado, Rubio, Ximena, Laura, Why are we seeing “REDD“?,www.iddri.org/Publications/Collections/Analyses/Why-are-we-seeing-REDD, dead,www.iddri.org/Publications/Collections/Analyses/Why-are-we-seeing-REDD," title="web.archive.org/web/20071225042425www.iddri.org/Publications/Collections/Analyses/Why-are-we-seeing-REDD,">web.archive.org/web/20071225042425www.iddri.org/Publications/Collections/Analyses/Why-are-we-seeing-REDD, 25 December 2007, 14 November 2016, Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, REDD can be seen as an alternative to the emissions trading system as in the latter, polluters must pay for permits for the right to emit certain pollutants (i.e. {{CO2}}).Main international organizations including the United Nations and the World Bank, have begun to develop programs aimed at curbing deforestation. The blanket term Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) describes these sorts of programs, which use direct monetary or other incentives to encourage developing countries to limit and/or roll back deforestation. Funding has been an issue, but at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties-15 (COP-15) in Copenhagen in December 2009, an accord was reached with a collective commitment by developed countries for new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, that will approach US$30 billion for the period 2010–2012.NEWS, 2009, Copenhagen Accord of 18 December 2009, UNFCC,unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_15/application/pdf/cop15_cph_auv.pdf, live, 28 December 2009,unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_15/application/pdf/cop15_cph_auv.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20100131004732unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_15/application/pdf/cop15_cph_auv.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20100131004732unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_15/application/pdf/cop15_cph_auv.pdf, 2010-01-31, Significant work is underway on tools for use in monitoring developing countries’ adherence to their agreed REDD targets. These tools, which rely on remote forest monitoring using satellite imagery and other data sources, include the Center for Global Development’s FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action) initiativeForest Monitoring for Action (FORMA) : Center for Global Development : Initiatives: Active. Cgdev.org (23 November 2009). Retrieved 29 August 2010. and the Group on Earth Observations’ Forest Carbon Tracking Portal.Browser – GEO FCT Portal{{dead link|date=March 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}. Portal.geo-fct.org. Retrieved 29 August 2010. Methodological guidance for forest monitoring was also emphasized at COP-15.NEWS, 2009, Methodological Guidance, UNFCC,unfccc.int/files/na/application/pdf/cop15_ddc_auv.pdf, live, 28 December 2009,unfccc.int/files/na/application/pdf/cop15_ddc_auv.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20100119191332unfccc.int/files/na/application/pdf/cop15_ddc_auv.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20100119191332unfccc.int/files/na/application/pdf/cop15_ddc_auv.pdf, 2010-01-19, The environmental organization Avoided Deforestation Partners leads the campaign for development of REDD through funding from the U.S. government.Agriculture Secretary Vilsack: $1 billion for REDD+ “Climate Progress {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608214412climateprogress.org/2009/12/16/sec-vilsack-1-billion-for-redd/|date=8 June 2010}}. Climateprogress.org (16 December 2009). Retrieved 29 August 2010.

History

{{Further|Timeline of environmental history}}

Prehistory

The Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse was an event that occurred 300 million years ago. Climate change devastated tropical rainforests causing the extinction of many plant and animal species. The change was abrupt, specifically, at this time climate became cooler and drier, conditions that are not favorable to the growth of rainforests and much of the biodiversity within them. Rainforests were fragmented forming shrinking ‘islands’ further and further apart. Populations such as the sub class Lissamphibia were devastated, whereas Reptilia survived the collapse. The surviving organisms were better adapted to the drier environment left behind and served as legacies in succession after the collapse.{{self-published inline|date=June 2020}}(File: Néolithique 0001.jpg|thumb|An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, ax heads, chisels, and polishing tools.)Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth’s land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.BOOK, Taylor, Leslie,archive.org/details/healingpowerofra00tayl, The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs: A Guide to Understanding and Using Herbal Medicinals, Square One, 2004, 9780757001444, Small scale deforestation was practiced by some societies for tens of thousands of years before the beginnings of civilization.BOOK, Flannery, T,archive.org/details/isbn_0730104877, The future eaters, Reed Books, 1994, 0-7301-0422-2, Melbourne, The first evidence of deforestation appears in the Mesolithic period.JOURNAL, Brown, Tony, 1997, Clearances and Clearings: Deforestation in Mesolithic/Neolithic Britain, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 16, 2, 133–146, 10.1111/1468-0092.00030, It was probably used to convert closed forests into more open ecosystems favourable to game animals. With the advent of agriculture, larger areas began to be deforested, and fire became the prime tool to clear land for crops. In Europe there is little solid evidence before 7000 BC. Mesolithic foragers used fire to create openings for red deer and wild boar. In Great Britain, shade-tolerant species such as oak and ash are replaced in the pollen record by hazels, brambles, grasses and nettles. Removal of the forests led to decreased transpiration, resulting in the formation of upland peat bogs. Widespread decrease in elm pollen across Europe between 8400 and 8300 BC and 7200–7000 BC, starting in southern Europe and gradually moving north to Great Britain, may represent land clearing by fire at the onset of Neolithic agriculture.The Neolithic period saw extensive deforestation for farming land.ENCYCLOPEDIA, hand tool: Neolithic tools, Encyclopædia Britannica Online,www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/254115/hand-tool/39205/Neolithic-tools, 19 June 2023, WEB, Neolithic Age from 4,000 BC to 2,200 BC or New Stone Age,www.archaeolink.co.uk/Neolithic-Age.html, dead,www.archaeolink.co.uk/Neolithic-Age.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20070304122056www.archaeolink.co.uk/Neolithic-Age.html,">web.archive.org/web/20070304122056www.archaeolink.co.uk/Neolithic-Age.html, 4 March 2007, 2 October 2008, www.archaeolink.co.uk, Stone axes were being made from about 3000 BC not just from flint, but from a wide variety of hard rocks from across Britain and North America as well. They include the noted Langdale axe industry in the English Lake District, quarries developed at Penmaenmawr in North Wales and numerous other locations. Rough-outs were made locally near the quarries, and some were polished locally to give a fine finish. This step not only increased the mechanical strength of the axe, but also made penetration of wood easier. Flint was still used from sources such as Grimes Graves but from many other mines across Europe.Evidence of deforestation has been found in Minoan Crete; for example the environs of the Palace of Knossos were severely deforested in the Bronze Age.Hogan, C. Michael (22 December 2007). “Knossos fieldnotes�, The Modern Antiquarian

Pre-industrial history

{{See also|Deforestation during the Roman period|Deforestation by continent}}File:Rano Raraku quarry.jpg|thumb|Easter IslandEaster IslandJust as archaeologists have shown that prehistoric farming societies had to cut or burn forests before planting, documents and artifacts from early civilizations often reveal histories of deforestation. Some of the most dramatic are eighth century BCE Assyrian reliefs depicting logs being floated downstream from conquered areas to the less forested capital region as spoils of war. Ancient Chinese texts make clear that some areas of the Yellow River valley had already destroyed many of their forests over 2000 years ago and had to plant trees as crops or import them from long distances.BOOK, Miller, Ian M., The Cultivated Forest: People and Woodlands in Asian History, Davis, Bradley C., Lander, Brian, Lee, John, 2022, University of Washington Press, 9780295750903, Seattle, In South China much of the land came to be privately owned and used for the commercial growing of timber.BOOK, Miller, Ian M., Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China, 2020, University of Washington Press, 9780295747330, Seattle, Three regional studies of historic erosion and alluviation in ancient Greece found that, wherever adequate evidence exists, a major phase of erosion follows the introduction of farming in the various regions of Greece by about 500–1,000 years, ranging from the later Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.JOURNAL, Van Andel, Tjeerd H., Zangger, Eberhard, Demitrack, Anne, 2013, Land Use and Soil Erosion in Prehistoric and Historical Greece,www.esf.edu/cue/documents/vanAndel-etal_LandUse-HistoricGreece_1990.pdf, live, Journal of Field Archaeology, 17, 4, 379–396, 10.1179/009346990791548628,www.esf.edu/cue/documents/vanAndel-etal_LandUse-HistoricGreece_1990.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20130529055219www.esf.edu/cue/documents/vanAndel-etal_LandUse-HistoricGreece_1990.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20130529055219www.esf.edu/cue/documents/vanAndel-etal_LandUse-HistoricGreece_1990.pdf, 2013-05-29, The thousand years following the mid-first millennium BC saw serious, intermittent pulses of soil erosion in numerous places. The historic silting of ports along the southern coasts of Asia Minor (e.g. Clarus, and the examples of Ephesus, Priene and Miletus, where harbors had to be abandoned because of the silt deposited by the Meander) and in coastal Syria during the last centuries BC.WEB, Miletus,www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/miletus, 2022-11-22, The Byzantine Legacy, en, WEB, Miletus (Site),www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Miletus&object=Site, 2022-11-22, www.perseus.tufts.edu, Easter Island has suffered from heavy soil erosion in recent centuries, aggravated by agriculture and deforestation.“The Mystery of Easter Island�, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 April 2007. The disappearance of the island’s trees seems to coincide with a decline of its civilization around the 17th and 18th century. Scholars have attributed the collapse to deforestation and over-exploitation of all resources.WEB, Historical Consequences of Deforestation: Easter Island (Diamond 1995),www.mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm, mongabay.com, 8 July 2008, 29 April 2009,mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090429014142mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20090429014142mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm, dead, WEB, Jared Diamond, Easter Island’s End,www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html, hartford-hwp.com, The famous silting up of the harbor for Bruges, which moved port commerce to Antwerp, also followed a period of increased settlement growth (and apparently of deforestation) in the upper river basins. In early medieval Riez in upper Provence, alluvial silt from two small rivers raised the riverbeds and widened the floodplain, which slowly buried the Roman settlement in alluvium and gradually moved new construction to higher ground; concurrently the headwater valleys above Riez were being opened to pasturage.BOOK, Iyyer, Chaitanya, Land Management: Challenges & Strategies, Global India Publications, 2009, 9789380228488, 11, A typical progress trap was that cities were often built in a forested area, which would provide wood for some industry (for example, construction, shipbuilding, pottery). When deforestation occurs without proper replanting, however; local wood supplies become difficult to obtain near enough to remain competitive, leading to the city’s abandonment, as happened repeatedly in Ancient Asia Minor. Because of fuel needs, mining and metallurgy often led to deforestation and city abandonment.BOOK, Chew, Sing C., World Ecological Degradation, AltaMira Press, 2001, Oxford, England, 69–70, File:Rugendas - Defrichement d une Foret.jpg|thumb|Deforestation of Brazil’s 1820–1825}}With most of the population remaining active in (or indirectly dependent on) the agricultural sector, the main pressure in most areas remained land clearing for crop and cattle farming. Enough wild green was usually left standing (and partially used, for example, to collect firewood, timber and fruits, or to graze pigs) for wildlife to remain viable. The elite’s (nobility and higher clergy) protection of their own hunting privileges and game often protected significant woodland.BOOK, Baofu, Peter,books.google.com/books?id=hjkyBwAAQBAJ&dq=The+elite%27s+%28nobility+and+higher+clergy%29+protection+of+their+own+hunting+privileges+and+game+often+protected+significant+woodland.&pg=PA309, Beyond Natural Resources to Post-Human Resources: Towards a New Theory of Diversity and Discontinuity, 2014-09-18, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 978-1-4438-6706-1, en, Major parts in the spread (and thus more durable growth) of the population were played by monastical ‘pioneering’ (especially by the Benedictine and Commercial orders) and some feudal lords’ recruiting farmers to settle (and become tax payers) by offering relatively good legal and fiscal conditions. Even when speculators sought to encourage towns, settlers needed an agricultural belt around or sometimes within defensive walls. When populations were quickly decreased by causes such as the Black Death, the colonization of the Americas,JOURNAL, Koch, Alexander, Brierley, Chris, Maslin, Mark M., Lewis, Simon L., 2019, Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492, Quaternary Science Reviews, 207, 13–36, 2019QSRv..207...13K, 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004, free, or devastating warfare (for example, Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes in eastern and central Europe, Thirty Years’ War in Germany), this could lead to settlements being abandoned. The land was reclaimed by nature, but the secondary forests usually lacked the original biodiversity. The Mongol invasions and conquests alone resulted in the reduction of 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere by enabling the re-growth of carbon-absorbing forests on depopulated lands over a significant period of time.WEB, 20 January 2011, War, Plague No Match For Deforestation in Driving CO2 Buildup,carnegiescience.edu/news/war-plague-no-match-deforestation-driving-co2-buildup, 22 November 2019, Carnegie Institution for Science, Q, Q106515792, File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 60009006 Goudwinning door middel van het afspo.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in 1880–1900}}From 1100 to 1500 AD, significant deforestation took place in Western Europe as a result of the expanding human population.JOURNAL, Groenewoudt, Bert, van Haaster, Henk, van Beek, Roy, Brinkkemper, Otto, 2007-01-01, Towards a reverse image. Botanical research into the landscape history of the eastern Netherlands (1100 B.C.—A.D. 1500),doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2007.10594587, Landscape History, 29, 1, 17–33, 10.1080/01433768.2007.10594587, 0143-3768, 130658356, The large-scale building of wooden sailing ships by European (coastal) naval owners since the 15th century for exploration, colonisation, slave trade, and other trade on the high seas, consumed many forest resources and became responsible for the introduction of numerous bubonic plague outbreaks in the 14th century. Piracy also contributed to the over harvesting of forests, as in Spain. This led to a weakening of the domestic economy after Columbus’ discovery of America, as the economy became dependent on colonial activities (plundering, mining, cattle, plantations, trade, etc.)The massive use of charcoal on an industrial scale in Early Modern Europe was a new type of consumption of western forests.JOURNAL, Knapp, Hannes, Nelle, Oliver, Kirleis, Wiebke, 2015-04-24, Charcoal usage in medieval and modern times in the Harz Mountains Area, Central Germany: Wood selection and fast overexploitation of the woodlands,www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618215000774, Quaternary International, Charcoal: resource and ubiquitous proxy, 366, 51–69, 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.01.053, 2015QuInt.366...51K, 1040-6182, Each of Nelson’s Royal Navy war ships at Trafalgar (1805) required 6,000 mature oaks for its construction.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} In France, Colbert planted oak forests to supply the French navy in the future. When the oak plantations matured in the mid-19th century, the masts were no longer required because shipping had changed.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

19th and 20th centuries

File:Burma024.jpg |thumb |Deforestation in Burma (now Myanmar) circa 1920, during the British colonial era ]]{{See also|Deforestation by continent}}

Steamboats

In the 19th century, introduction of steamboats in the United States was the cause of deforestation of banks of major rivers, such as the Mississippi River, with increased and more severe flooding one of the environmental results. The steamboat crews cut wood every day from the riverbanks to fuel the steam engines. Between St. Louis and the confluence with the Ohio River to the south, the Mississippi became more wide and shallow, and changed its channel laterally. Attempts to improve navigation by the use of snag pullers often resulted in crews’ clearing large trees 100 to {{convert|200|ft|m}} back from the banks. Several French colonial towns of the Illinois Country, such as Kaskaskia, Cahokia and St. Philippe, Illinois, were flooded and abandoned in the late 19th century, with a loss to the cultural record of their archeology.Norris, F. Terry (1997) “Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley�, in Common Fields: an environmental history of St. Louis, Andrew Hurley, ed., St. Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Press, pp. 73–89. {{ISBN|978-1-883982-15-7}}.

The impact of deforestation on biogeochemical cycles

Definitions

(File:BIOGEOCHEMICAL_CYCLING_OF_ELEMENTS.svg|thumb|This diagram depicts Earth’s various spheres (atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere) and their interactions, with a focus on the carbon cycle. Deforestation can disrupt this cycle by reducing the biosphere’s capacity to absorb CO2, leading to increased atmospheric carbon and impacting global climate systems.)Deforestation refers to the deliberate clearing and significant modification of forested lands, encompassing activities such as extensive tree cutting, forest thinning, and the use of fire to clear land.JOURNAL, Oladipo, Elegbeleye, September 2015, GLOBAL IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY ON DEFORESTATION,www.researchgate.net/publication/319629595, International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 6, 9, ResearchGate, This process results in the conversion of forest areas into permanently altered non-forested uses, including agriculture, urban development, or pastureland, fundamentally disrupting the original forest structure and ecosystem.BOOK, Akais Okia, Clement, Global Perspectives on Sustainable Forest Management, April 2012, InTech, 2012, 978-953-51-0569-5, Croatia, Biogeochemical cycles describe the pathways by which essential elements and compounds move through Earth’s atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.BOOK, Scheiner, Samuel M., Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Academic Press, 2023, 978-0-323-98434-8, 3rd, Science Direct, These cycles involve the circulation of nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water, which are vital for sustaining life by building and maintaining organisms, regulating climate, and supporting ecosystem functions. The balance and flow of these elements enable the production and decomposition of organic material, influence the Earth’s climate system, and impact the overall health of global ecosystems.WEB, 2011, Biogeochemical Cycles,scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/earth-system/biogeochemical-cycles#:~:text=This%20type%20of%20cycle%20of,the%20carbon%20and%20nitrogen%20cycles, Center for Science Education Learning, Disruptions in these cycles can lead to significant environmental and ecological changes, underscoring the importance of understanding and managing human impacts on these fundamental natural processes.Understanding the specific impacts of human actions on biogeochemical cycles is essential for developing effective strategies to mitigate the most disruptive disturbances. By clarifying how activities like deforestation alter these vital cycles, it becomes possible to suggest targeted approaches for reducing environmental and ecological damage, ultimately promoting a more sustainable interaction between human endeavors and the natural world.JOURNAL, Raimi, Morufu Olalekan, Abiola, Ilesanmi, Alima, Ogah, Omini, Dodeye Eno, Gift, Raimi Aziba-anyam, 2021, Exploring How Human Activities Disturb the Balance of Biogeochemical Cycles: Evidence from the Carbon, Nitrogen and Hydrologic Cycles,www.ssrn.com/abstract=3896054, SSRN Electronic Journal, en, 10.2139/ssrn.3896054, 1556-5068,

Impact on the Carbon Cycle

The carbon stocks remaining in wet tropical forests face significant risks not only from human-driven deforestation but also from potential releases caused by climate change. Despite uncertainties surrounding the exact rates of deforestation, it is likely that substantial carbon losses will occur.JOURNAL, Cramer, Wolfgang, Bondeau, Alberte, Schaphoff, Sibyll, Lucht, Wolfgang, Smith, Benjamin, Sitch, Stephen, 2004-03-29, Malhi, Y., Phillips, O. L., Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle: impacts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate change and rate of deforestation, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, en, 359, 1443, 331–343, 10.1098/rstb.2003.1428, 0962-8436, 1693328, 15212088, Land use carbon fluxes represent significant uncertainties in the global carbon cycle due to unresolved variables such as carbon stocks, the extent of deforestation, degradation, and biomass growth. This is particularly true in the densely populated savannas that are prevalent in the tropics, where precise data are lacking. Combining estimates for additional carbon emissions over the 21st century from various climate change and deforestation scenarios, the projected range is between 101 and 367 gigaton of carbon. This would result in increases in CO2 levels above pre-existing conditions by approximately 29 to 129 parts per million. Given these factors, it is clear that ongoing tropical deforestation will have a major impact on future greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.Recent estimates indicate that tropical deforestation releases between 0.4 and 2.5 petagrams (1 petagram = 10^15 grams) of carbon into the atmosphere each year.JOURNAL, Houghton, R. A., 1991-09-01, Tropical deforestation and atmospheric carbon dioxide,doi.org/10.1007/BF00142217, Climatic Change, en, 19, 1, 99–118, 10.1007/BF00142217, 1991ClCh...19...99H, 1573-1480, However, due to various uncertainties, this range could actually be between 1.1 and 3.6 petagrams of carbon per year. Three main factors contribute to this expanded range: the rate at which forests are being cleared, whether the cleared land is used temporarily or permanently, and the initial amount of carbon stored in these forests, including reductions due to human activities like forest thinning or degradation.The impact of deforestation on the carbon cycle is both profound and far-reaching, significantly contributing to global carbon emissions. By disrupting the natural storage of carbon in forest biomass and soils, deforestation not only releases large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but also diminishes the forests’ capacity to act as carbon sinks.JOURNAL, Li, Yue, Brando, Paulo M., Morton, Douglas C., Lawrence, David M., Yang, Hui, Randerson, James T., 2022-04-12, Deforestation-induced climate change reduces carbon storage in remaining tropical forests, Nature Communications, en, 13, 1, 1964, 10.1038/s41467-022-29601-0, 2041-1723, 9005651, 35413947, 2022NatCo..13.1964L, This exacerbates the greenhouse effect, leading to an increase in global warming and contributing to broader climate change phenomena. Addressing deforestation is critical in the global effort to manage carbon levels and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, underscoring the need for effective conservation and sustainable land management practices.JOURNAL, Maeda, Eduardo Eiji, Aragão, Luiz E. O. C., Baker, Jessica C. A., Balbino, Luiz Carlos, de Moura, Yhasmin Mendes, Nobre, Antônio Donato, Nunes, Matheus Henrique, Silva Junior, Celso H. L., dos Reis, Júlio César, 2023-02-10, Land use still matters after deforestation, Communications Earth & Environment, en, 4, 1, 29, 10.1038/s43247-023-00692-x, 2662-4435, free, 2023ComEE...4...29M,

Impact on the Nitrogen Cycle

Deforestation significantly impacts soil nitrogen availability, a key factor for soil fertility.JOURNAL, Sohng, Jaeeun, Singhakumara, B. M. P., Ashton, Mark S., 2017-04-01, Effects on soil chemistry of tropical deforestation for agriculture and subsequent reforestation with special reference to changes in carbon and nitrogen,www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716308441, Forest Ecology and Management, 389, 331–340, 10.1016/j.foreco.2016.12.013, 2017ForEM.389..331S, 0378-1127, In regions converted from forest to cropland, there is a notable decrease in soil nitrogen stocks compared to areas maintained as natural forest or used for agroforestry.JOURNAL, Kassa, Henok, Dondeyne, Stefaan, Poesen, Jean, Frankl, Amaury, Nyssen, Jan, September 2017, Impact of deforestation on soil fertility, soil carbon and nitrogen stocks: the case of the Gacheb catchment in the White Nile Basin, Ethiopia.,doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.06.034, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 247, 273–282, 10.1016/j.agee.2017.06.034, 2017AgEE..247..273K, 0167-8809, 1854/LU-8531097, free, A study conducted in White Nile Basin, Ethiopia involved collecting soil samples from different land uses, including natural forests, agroforestry systems, and croplands, across various depths and altitudes. Results showed that both topsoil and subsoil in the forests and agroforestry systems contained higher levels of total nitrogen than those in croplands. This reduction in nitrogen availability following deforestation underscores the challenge of maintaining soil health and fertility in areas subjected to agricultural expansion. Sustaining forested areas or integrating agroforestry practices is crucial for preserving soil nitrogen levels and supporting broader ecological balance.

Impact on the Water Cycle

(File:Climate_change_disturbances_of_rainforests_infographic.jpg|thumb|This infographic contrasts the biogeochemical cycles in a forest ecosystem before (A) and after (B) a disturbance. “Pre-disturbance� displays a functioning forest ecosystem with balanced gas exchanges and water cycling. “Post-disturbance� shows the ecosystem altered by deforestation, with increased greenhouse gas emissions, higher reflectivity (albedo), and decreased water cycling, indicating disrupted ecological balance.)Deforestation significantly impacts the hydrological cycle in tropical regions, leading to an increased risk of floods and droughts. When forests are cleared, the loss of tree cover disrupts the natural process of evapotranspiration, where water is absorbed by trees and released back into the atmosphere. This disruption results in reduced moisture availability in the atmosphere, which can diminish rainfall and increase the likelihood of drought conditions.JOURNAL, Marengo, J. A., Espinoza, J. C., March 2016, Extreme seasonal droughts and floods in Amazonia: causes, trends and impacts,rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.4420, International Journal of Climatology, en, 36, 3, 1033–1050, 10.1002/joc.4420, 2016IJCli..36.1033M, 0899-8418, Additionally, without the root systems of trees to anchor the soil, deforested areas become highly susceptible to flooding during heavy rains. The absence of vegetation leads to faster runoff of rainwater, preventing it from being absorbed into the ground, exacerbating soil erosion, and increasing the severity of floods.This alteration of natural water regulatory mechanisms by deforestation not only affects local climate patterns but also poses serious implications for biodiversity, agriculture, and human settlements in these regions. The increased frequency and intensity of droughts and floods can lead to crop failures, water shortages, and increased vulnerability of communities to natural disasters.JOURNAL, Bradshaw, Corey J. A., Sodhi, Navjot S., Peh, Kelvin S.-H., Brook, Barry W., November 2007, Global evidence that deforestation amplifies flood risk and severity in the developing world,onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01446.x, Global Change Biology, en, 13, 11, 2379–2395, 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2007.01446.x, 2007GCBio..13.2379B, 1354-1013, The study by the Environmental Systems Analysis Group and Wageningen University, found that removing all humid forests and replacing them with grasslands would significantly lower rainfall in those areas, especially above the equator where non-forested regions would also get less rain.JOURNAL, Duku, Confidence, Hein, Lars, 2021-06-01, The impact of deforestation on rainfall in Africa: a data-driven assessment, Environmental Research Letters, 16, 6, 064044, 10.1088/1748-9326/abfcfb, 1748-9326, free, 2021ERL....16f4044D, In contrast, some parts of Southern Africa might see a slight increase in rainfall, while others would see a decrease. The effects vary with the extent of deforestation: in West Africa, losing even 30% of the trees reduces rainfall, but in Central and Southern Africa, it takes a loss of 70% tree cover to see a reduction. They stated that deforestation could severely impact agriculture across Africa, particularly maize crops in regions north of the equator.

Society and culture

Different cultures of different places in the world have different interpretations of the actions of the cutting down of trees. For example, in Meitei mythology and Meitei folklore of Manipur (India), deforestation is mentioned as one of the reasons to make mother nature weep and mourn for the death of her precious children.BOOK, Singh, Ch Manihar, A History of Manipuri Literature, Sahitya Akademi, 1996, 978-81-260-0086-9, 16, 17, en, mni, BOOK, Datta, Bīrendran�tha,books.google.com/books?id=uRvaAAAAMAAJ, A Handbook of Folklore Material of North-East India, Śarm�, Nabīnacandra, Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art & Culture, Assam, 1994, India, 356, en, BOOK, Barua, Lalit Kumar,books.google.com/books?id=AoECgkZ0Wu0C, Oral Tradition and Folk Heritage of North East India, Spectrum Publications, 1999, 978-81-87502-02-9, India, 71, en,

See also

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Clearcutting
• Clearing (geography)
• Defaunation
• Ecocide
• Deforestation by region
  • {{in title|deforestation in}}
  • {{in title|deforestation of}}
  • {{in title|land clearing in}}
• Desertification
• Forestry
• Forest transition
• Illegal logging
• Intact forest landscape
• International Year of Forests
• Land degradation
• Land use, land-use change and forestry
• Mountaintop removal
• Proforestation
• Slash-and-burn
• Slash-and-char
• Stranded assets in the agriculture and forestry sector

{{div col end}}

References

{{reflist}}

Further reading

• Balboni, Clare, et al. “The economics of tropical deforestation.â€� Annual Review of Economics 15 (2023): 723–754. online{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Myers, Norman. “Tropical deforestation: rates and patterns.â€� in The causes of tropical deforestation (2023): 27–40.
• Pendrill, Florence, et al. “Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation.â€� Science 377.6611 (2022): eabm9267. online
• Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. “Deforestation and forest loss.â€� Our world in data (2023). online
• Schleifer, Philip. Global Shifts: Business, Politics, and Deforestation in a Changing World Economy (MIT Press, 2023) ISBN 978-0-262-54553-2.online book review

Sources

{{Free-content attribution| title = Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings| author = FAO| publisher = FAO| page numbers = | source = | documentURL =www.fao.org/3/CA8753EN/CA8753EN.pdf| license statement URL =commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Forest_Resources_Assessment_2020_%E2%80%93_Key_findings.pdf| license = CC BY-SA 3.0}}{{Free-content attribution| title = The State of the World’s Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief| author = FAO & UNEP| publisher = FAO & UNEP| page numbers =| source =| documentURL =doi.org/10.4060/ca8985en| license statement URL =commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_State_of_the_World%E2%80%99s_Forests_2020._In_brief.pdf| license = CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO}}

External links

{{Commons|Deforestation}}

• Global map of deforestation based on Landsat data
• www.intactforests.org/world.map.html" title="web.archive.org/web/20131225223447www.intactforests.org/world.map.html">Old-growth forest zones within the remaining world forests
• OneWorld Tropical Forests Guide {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722152721uk.oneworld.net/guides/forests |date=22 July 2011 }}
• General info on deforestation effects {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418233540www.effects-of-deforestation.com/ |date=18 April 2021 }}
• Deforestation and Climate Change
• JOURNAL,ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation, Drivers of Deforestation, Our World in Data, 9 February 2021, Ritchie, Hannah, Roser, Max,

{{Deforestation and desertification|state=expanded}}{{Deforestation}}{{Human impact on the environment}}{{Authority control}}