Forests provide home to an estimated 80% of all species on Earth, helping regulate climate, contain many medicinal plants, and providing an invaluable source of fresh water.
Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation. Large-scale commercial agriculture – specifically cattle ranching and cultivation of soya beans and oil palm – accounts for 40 percent of deforestation worldwide.
Animals and Plants
Deforestation threatens the home ranges and survival of wildlife by altering or destroying their natural environments, placing animals at risk by eliminating homes, mates and sources of shelter, water and food that they depend on as well as exposing them to predators or new threats who have moved in due to deforestation.
People clear forests for many reasons, from agriculture and cattle breeding to extracting raw materials for manufacturing and global trade. Coffee, timber, palm oil, rubber and fish products tend to be more profitable. Most forest loss has been caused by human activities that could easily have been avoided.
Deforestation creates an ideal breeding ground for insect-borne diseases to thrive, with malaria and dengue fever being just two examples that affect humans directly. Researchers have documented dramatic spikes in disease outbreaks after forests are cleared, such as Malaysian Borneo reporting an exponentially increasing rate of malaria cases among its citizens.
Loss of tree cover means less nutrient-rich soil. Forests contribute nutrients through an ecological water cycle process; trees absorb moisture from the atmosphere and release it back into nature through rain or runoff. As more trees are cut down, this system becomes disrupted, leading to reduced rainfall levels and worsening drought conditions.
Forests regulate temperatures by blocking sunlight during the daytime and trapping heat at night. Removing these trees, as is often seen through deforestation, can lead to more extreme temperature variations–which has an immediate effect on animal health.
Climate change alone cannot solve our environmental woes; pollution from deforested land traveling downstream also contributes to altering ecosystems and having negative repercussions for marine life and communities that rely on healthy environments as sources of survival. When coral reefs die due to acidification, for instance, they cannot produce enough algae that support fish populations and other coastal organisms for sustenance.
Soil
Removal of forests has many harmful repercussions for both biodiversity and environment. Direct effects include habitat loss for animals and plants as the land becomes barren or unsuitable to their survival needs, while indirect repercussions include changing climate conditions, soil erosion, decreased agricultural yields, increased greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, social issues for indigenous communities, and social problems among other things.
Deforestation also disrupts the water cycle. Forests play an essential role in regulating moisture releases into the atmosphere, creating atmospheric rivers. If these resources disappear, rainwater cannot return to its source and becomes a flood hazard for downstream villages, cities, and farms.
Once trees are gone, the ground becomes vulnerable to wind and rain erosion, leaving behind only exposed soil that’s easily washed away by wind or rain, leaving its topsoil behind to be washed away forever and depriving further forest life and food crops of essential nutrients.
Deforestation is one of the main contributors to biodiversity loss worldwide, as it destroys animals’ and plants’ natural habitats. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), deforestation represents the top threat for over 85% of endangered species listed as vulnerable. Deforestation mainly results from human activities like agricultural expansion, ranching cattle for sale or harvesting raw materials like timber.
Deforestation’s environmental impacts include soil degradation and climate change; both of which can be alleviated through reforestation. Reforestation helps mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon from the air via photosynthesis while also improving soil fertility, making it better able to support plant and animal life.
Reforestation can provide food security and livelihood opportunities to communities living within deforested regions, particularly vulnerable groups like indigenous and agrarian peoples. Reforestation helps alleviate poverty and hunger in developing nations by helping these communities produce nutritious crops that can either be eaten directly or sold as income-generating opportunities.
Water
Deforestation’s most immediate repercussion is the destruction of habitats that provide humans with essential services like erosion prevention, flood control, water filtration and pollination. These functions are especially vital to poor people living in poverty who rely heavily on forest resources for survival. Destroying these ecosystems also reduces renewable food sources like medicinal plants, fruits and nuts or timber sources for sustenance purposes.
Loss of habitats leads to changes in biodiversity, since forests play a pivotal role in supporting numerous species. Without access to forests, specific environments for certain species may disappear entirely and their populations could slowly shrink or even go extinct altogether.
Deforestation also threatens the supply of clean water. Forests act as natural filters for rainfall, filtering it down into the earth while limiting how much evaporative loss there is from surface areas of earth surface, with this water then used by vegetation and animals for their needs. When trees are cleared away this natural process is disrupted; rainstorms become less predictable leading to drought and flooding events.
Forests also help regulate river and stream flow by holding back soil erosion; without trees present, soil becomes looser and more vulnerable to erosion, leading to flooding or coastal floods.
Deforestation also plays a significant role in global climate change. Forests absorb carbon dioxide from the air while simultaneously emitting oxygen into it; when these forests are destroyed, their delicate balance is disturbed and carbon levels in the atmosphere rise significantly.
As deforestation continues across the world, global climate will shift further and cause more species to become endangered or even extinct. Without stopping rainforest clearances we simply do not know what will become of our planet’s biodiversity in the coming decades; but there are ways we can slow deforestation rates and preserve its ecosystems; such as adopting sustainable agricultural practices, restricting livestock ranching practices and safeguarding forestlands for indigenous communities to inhabit.
Climate
Forests play an essential role in climate regulation. By blocking sunlight from warming their environment during the daytime and keeping air cool at nighttime, forests help regulate temperatures around them – preventing sun rays from heating the earth during the day and keeping nights cool enough. Deforestation removes this protective cover which regulates temperatures more drastically – potentially endangering or even killing many animal species that depend on stability in temperature fluctuations for survival.
Trees capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it away as greenhouse gas, while rainforests act as crucial carbon sinks – yet at an alarmingly rapid pace these invaluable carbon stores have been destroyed through clearing and burning. Rainforests in particular serve this crucial purpose, yet forest loss worldwide has reached unprecedented proportions.
Deforestation is caused primarily by commercial and local agricultural production for meat, oil, timber, and other purposes such as cattle ranching and oil palm/soy cultivation – these activities being the leading culprits behind its destruction.
Deforestation damages wildlife long after trees have been cut down; for instance, forest clearing may force animals to relocate or migrate into different climates which could result in mismatches among species (Stenseth & Mysterud 2002).
Estimates suggest that natural capital accounts for as much as 50% of global GDP; yet this valuable asset is being depleted at an alarming pace. Deforestation is stripping countries of renewable resources they depend on while leaving those dependent upon them without anything of use – particularly developing economies which rely heavily on nature for development and prosperity. Maintaining primary deforestation rates on an downward path will require shifts in domestic politics as well as transition to more sustainable agricultural practices in order to stay sustainable over time.
