Sustainable Development #5 Deforestation
Forest covers 31% of earths total landmass, it provides oxygen and homes for both humans and animals, with the growing population and the ever growing need for homes, farmlands, recreational centers and industries 30% of forest land have be cleared for these activities.
According to FAO, around 13 million hectares of forests were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010 as compared to around 16 million hectares per year during the 1990s.
Aerial view of a large soy field eating into the tropical rainforest in Brazil
Credit
Deforestation in simple term means the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.
Forest play a pivotal role in the mitigation of climate change by soaking up carbon dioxide that would have been free in the atmosphere and influenced the changes in climate patterns. Deforestation hinders the function of forest as a carbon sink, 15% of all greenhouse emissions are the result of deforestation.
Causes of Deforestation
There are many causes of deforestation some of which i have explained below:
Agricultural activities: Due to the high demand of food production, forest are giving way to farm lands and cattle ranches so as to meet the increasing demand. Example is the clearing of tropical rain forest in Malaysia and Indonesia for oil palm plantations and the clearing of the Amazon in Brazil for the cultivation of cereals and legumes.
oil palm field
CreditMining: The mining of crude oil and coal requires the clearing of forest for installation of mining facilities and also highways and roads are constructed. The waste from the mining process pollutes the environment leading to loss of species and habitat.
Logging: Illegal logging of trees amount for a significant loss of forest trees, logging for paper and furniture making industries requires plenty of wood supply. Half of trees logged are use as fuel especially in third world countries where alternative energy source is scarce.
CreditUrbanization: The growing population in urban center means the need for more housing and infrastructures such as, road, rail, airport e.t.c. which requires forest land to be reclaimed.
Forest fire: Hundreds of trees species are lost to forest fires. This occur due to extreme warm summers and milder winters and is either of natural cause or man-made.
Credit
Effects of Deforestation
- Desertification: the continuous clearing of trees will lead to the complete/total loss of tree species result to desertification, an example is the Sahelian region of West Africa where human human activities have led to the extinction of tree species.
- Increase in Global warming: as we have said earlier that trees serves as carbon sink which mitigate the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, with the rise in deforestation the ratio of green house gases in the atmosphere will increase.
- Soil erosion: Tree root serve as an agent that bind soil particles together and forest canopy shield the soil from direct impact of rain drops, in the absence of tree cover erosion is bound to occur.
- Flooding: Water from rainfall tend to move on the surface as runoff in the absence of trees (which is suppose to control the runoff by assisting in the infiltration of the runoff water into the soil) flooding will happen.
- Loss of Wildlife: Due to massive deforestation, animal species are lost. Animal lose their habitat and forced to migrate to another location, some are even pushed to extinction.
Mitigation of Deforestation
There are many ways which we can control deforestation, some of which are:
- Afforestation should be encourage such as, replanting young trees in place of felled trees.
- Recycling and reuse of forest products,to discourage further logging.
- Strict law against indiscriminate logging of forest trees should be enacted.
- Alternate source of energy that do not require the use of forest trees are to be encouraged.
- Protected areas such as parks and forest reserves must be created.
- Creation of special security unit that guard forest reserves.
Conclusion
At the rate which deforestation is currently going on in forest around the world, more needs to be done to protect the forest so as to safeguard the tree species and animal species inhabiting these forest.
Reference
Food and Agricultural Organization
Wikipedia
https://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html
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nice series, keep up the good work!
Thanks Sam.
ai......it also depends on us
Yes, it depends on everyone on the planet. We all need to work together in achieving the goal of ending desertification.
great post and important series to cover look forward to seeing you go from outlining the issues towards suggestion of solution.
Thanks man
I could not agree more. While I am not a huge global warming person, there is definitely a lot of damage being done to our forests and the surrounding environments. Obviously this has a large impact world-wide.
You did an excellent job laying out the issues and pointing out some solutions or at least ways to mitigate the damages caused. I completely agree with you that we should be replanting whenever a forest is cleared. This would be the single best way to combat this issue. Unfortunately, in lesser developed countries, I know this is nigh impossible to enforce, and the forests are continuously decimated. However, I believe that if governments are willing to crack down more on this and if various organizations, both public and private, continue to work on it, then we can make progress in this area.
You mentioned agriculture as well. Food supplies are certainly a concern, and having enough food to feed the people of the world is a major issue. Unfortunately, many of the solutions to this problem will be taking place in labs and other areas where scientists try to develop increased crop yields and more nutrient packed foods. I know a lot of people are against
GMO's, but from a practical standpoint, these are some of the most feasible solutions to solving world-wide hunger. This plays into your article in that if crop yields are greater and the produce is superior, this will help reduce how much additional land needs to be cleared for crops. That being said, I know that a lot of slash and burn farming is done around the world, especially in and around the Amazon rain forest. If these people are taught to utilize proper crop rotation, preventing them from stripping the land of its nutrients and moving on to clear more trees, then the land can be used indefinitely and they will not need to clear more.
One more thing I would like to say is that active forest management can prevent a lot of tree loss. At one point, the US did a fantastic job of managing its forests, clearing out dead trees and debris. This greatly prevents and reduces the magnitude of wildfires. By removing the dry and dying wood and vegetation, there is less fuel to catch or feed fires. removing this is also healthy for the trees and other vegetation in the forests.
thanks for pointing out these pertinent issues, the problem with developing countries not willing or able to combat deforestation is the unwillingness of the government to educate and enlighten the populace on the effects of not having trees around.
You won't hear any argument from me on that point. It is frustrating because without any immediate and personal incentive (or threat of punishment), most people in lesser developed/educated countries just won't really care about whether their actions are harmful or not. I cannot say I really blame them, especially for those that are just struggling to survive on a daily basis, but it is still a bit disheartening.
We can also do a our fair share by planting more trees locally!
Yes, and by also protecting the trees planted