Deforestation and increased road-building in the Amazon Rainforest are a significant concern

because of increased human encroachment upon wild areas, increased resource extraction and
further threats to biodiversity.

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted
to a nonforest use.[1] Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to agriculture or
urban use.

The term deforestation is often misused to describe any activity where all trees in an area are
removed. However in temperate mesic climates, the removal of all trees in an area—in
conformance with sustainable forestry practices—is correctly described as regeneration harvest.
[2]
In temperate mesic climates, natural regeneration of forest stands often will not occur in the
absence of disturbance, whether natural or anthropogenic.[3] Furthermore, biodiversity after
regeneration harvest often mimics that found after natural disturbance, including biodiversity
loss after naturally occurring rainforest destruction.[4][5]

Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees or derived charcoal are used as, or sold, for fuel or
as lumber, 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 on biosequestration of atmospheric
carbon dioxide. 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.[4]

Among countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600, net deforestation rates have ceased
to increase.[6][7]

Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where the preceding
vegetation or land use was not forest.[1] Reforestation is the reestablishment of forest cover either
naturally (by natural seeding, coppice, or root suckers) or artificially (by direct seeding or
planting), usually maintaining a same or similar forest type, and done promptly after the previous
stand or forest was removed.[2] Many governments and non-governmental organizations directly
engage in programs of afforestation to restore forests, increase carbon capture and sequestration,
and assist in preservation of biodiversity. (In the UK afforestation may mean legally converting
land into a royal forest.)
 What is soil erosion?

Soil is naturally removed by the action of water or wind: such 'background'

(or 'geological') soil erosion has been occurring for some 450 million years,
since the first land plants formed the first soil. Even before this, natural
processes moved loose rock, or regolith, off the Earth's surface, just as has
happened on the planet Mars.

In general, background erosion removes soil at roughly the same rate as soil
is formed. But 'accelerated' soil erosion — loss of soil at a much faster rate
than it is formed — is a far more recent problem. It is always a result of
mankind's unwise actions, such as overgrazing or unsuitable cultivation
practices. These leave the land unprotected and vulnerable. Then, during
times of erosive rainfall or windstorms, soil may be detached, transported,
and (possibly travelling a long distance) deposited.

Accelerated soil erosion by water or wind may affect both agricultural areas
and the natural environment, and is one of the most widespread of today's
environmental problems. It has impacts which are both on-site (at the place
where the soil is detached) and off-site (wherever the eroded soil ends up).

More recently still, the use of powerful agricultural implements has, in some
parts of the world, led to damaging amounts of soil moving downslope
merely under the action of gravity: this is so-called tillage erosion. 

Soil erosion is just one form of soil degradation. Other kinds of soil
degradation include salinisation, nutrient loss, and compaction.