Deforestration

Deforestation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deforestation
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For other uses, see Deforestation (disambiguation). Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.[1] Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use. More than half of the animal and plant species in the world live in tropical forests.[2]
Contents [hide] 1 Causes 2 Environmental problems 3 Economic impact 4 Forest transition theory 5 Historical causes 6 Industrial era 7 Control 8 Military context 9 See also 10 References 11 External links
Satellite photograph of deforestation in progress in theTierras Bajas project in eastern Bolivia.

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The term deforestation is often misused to describe any activity where all trees in an area are

removed.[not in citation given][neutrality is disputed] However in temperate climates, the removal of all trees in an area[not in citation given]—in conformance with sustainable forestry practices—is correctly described as regeneration harvest.[3] In temperate mesic climates, natural regeneration of forest stands often will not occur in the absence of disturbance, whether natural or anthropogenic.[4] Furthermore, biodiversity after regeneration harvest often mimics that found after natural disturbance, including biodiversity loss after naturally occurring rainforest destruction.[5][6]

Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees are cut down to be used or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal) or timber, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities and settlements. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It has adverse impacts onbiosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also been used in war to deprive an enemy of cover for its forces and also vital resources. A modern example of this was the use of Agent Orange by the United States military in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland. Disregard or ignorance of intrinsic value, lack of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human induced, is an ongoing issue. Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions,desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record.[5] Among countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase.[when?][7][8]

Causes
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, the overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture. Subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation; commercial agriculture is responsible for 32% of deforestation; logging is responsible for 14% of deforestation and fuel wood removals make up 5% of deforestation.[9] Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation.[10][11] 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.[10] One study found that population increases due to high fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases.[12] Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions,[13][14] the inequitabledistribution of wealth and power,[15] population growth[16] and overpopulation,[17][18] and urbanization.[19] Globalization is often viewed as another root cause of deforestation,[20][21] though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization (new ows of labor, capital, commodities, and ideas) have promoted localized forest recovery.[22]

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Deforestation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 negligible," and that deforestation can result from "a combination of population pressure and stagnating economic, social and technological conditions."[16] The degradation of forest ecosystems has also been traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation.[23] Many important forest functions have no markets, and hence, no economic value that is readily apparent to the forests' owners or the communities The last batch of saw nw ood from that rely on forests for their well-being.[23] From the perspective of the developing thepeat forest in Indragiri Hulu, world, the benefits of forest as carbon sinks or biodiversity reserves go primarily Sumatra,Indonesia. Deforestation for oil to richer developed nations and there is insufficient compensation for these palmplantation. 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 greatly from this deforestation, and that it is hypocritical to deny developing countries the same opportunities: that the poor shouldn't have to bear the cost of preservation when the rich created the problem.[24] Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years.[25] 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 late 19th century and the earlier 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.[26]

Environmental problems
Atmospheric
Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography.[27][28][29][30][31] Deforestation is a contributor to global warming,[32][33] and is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect. Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions.[34]According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change deforestation, mainly in tropical areas, could account for up to one-third of total anthropogeniccarbon dioxide emissions.[35] But recent calculations suggest that carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (excluding peatlandemissions) contribute about 12% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions with a range from 6 to 17%.[36] Deforestation causes Illegal slash and burn practice inMadagascar, 2010 carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect.[37] Other plants remove carbon (in the form ofcarbon dioxide) from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis and release oxygen back into the atmosphere during normal respiration. Only when actively growing can a tree or forest remove carbon over an annual or longer timeframe. Both the decay and burning of wood releases much of this stored carbon back to the atmosphere. In order for forests to take up carbon, the wood must be harvested and turned into long-lived products and trees must be re-planted.[38] Deforestation may cause carbon stores held in soil to be released. Forests are stores of carbon and can be either sinks or sources depending upon environmental circumstances. Mature forests alternate between being net sinks and net sources of carbon dioxide (see carbon dioxide sink and carbon cycle). In deforested areas, the land heats up faster and reaches a higher temperature, leading to localized upward motions that enhance the formation of clouds and ultimately produce more rainfall.[39] However, according to the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the models used to investigate remote responses to tropical deforestation showed a broad but mild temperature increase all through the tropical atmosphere. The model predicted