Ladies and gentleman. Let us know the issue of what we our facing in this generation.

But
first ,let us know what is Deforestation?

What is Deforestation?

 Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land

available for other uses.

 Deforestation is the removal ore destruction of large areas of forest or rainforest.

It may happens for a many reasons such as logging, agriculture, natural disasters,
urbanization and illegal mining.

 Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in

damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the
world’s land area, but swaths half the size of England are lost each year.

What are the causes of Deforestation?

Causes of Deforestation.

Mining - We don’t typically think of mining as something that affects forests or farms
because mines are mostly underground. However, much mining is done by digging huge
pits in the ground or stripping to tops of hills and mountains. The mining companies cut
trees to build roads, power plants, and railroad lines.

Harvesting wood for fuel - In many parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America residents
depend on wood for cooking and for heat, if they live in a cold climate. The effect of millions
of people cutting branches and whole trees for wood adds up to a small, but significant,
contribution to worldwide deforestation.

Conversion to other uses - Most of the forest area lost to human activity has probably
been due to agriculture. Palm oil, cassava, and soy cultivation are significant culprits.
Sometimes people clear forests to provide better grazing land for livestock, mainly cows. It
isn’t just food crops displacing forests either.  Rubber and pulp, for paper, are two more
industries that displace natural forests. Governments and private companies also clear the
land for roads and new settlements.

Forest fires - Whether set on purpose, caused by an accident, or touched off by natural
events like lightning strikes, fires destroy millions of acres of forest a year. Forests tend to
recover from natural fires, but fires set by farmers or started by careless people are
another matter.

Illegal and unsustainable logging - Illegal logging is a significant threat to forests from
Brazil to Indonesia. Some logging firms clear-cut large sections of forest to feed the demand
for lumber in Europe, China, and North America.

Climate change - Deforestation is a contributing factor in climate change, as well as a

product of it. Hotter weather puts stress on plants. More importantly, changing rainfall
patterns can make an area too dry for the remaining trees and other plants. Once the land
has dried up, it cannot necessarily recover without human intervention. Loss of forests can
also contribute to climate change because forest growth captures carbon dioxide.

Because forests are such important storehouses for carbon, their loss is a factor in climate
change. There are other effects to cutting down forests and not replacing them too.

What are the effect of Deforestation?

Effects of Deforestation:

National Geographic Magazine summarizes five primary effects of deforestation. The loss of

trees causes several problems. In short, cutting or burning forests has a number of negative
effects on soil, water, the climate, and the ecosystems they are part of.  

Loss of biodiversity - According to National Geographic, 80% of the world’s plants and
animals live in forests, and many cannot live elsewhere. With so many of the world’s plants
and animals live in forests, that a significant reduction in that habitat, whether tropical
rainforest or northern evergreen forest has an impact on biodiversity. Worse, many
endangered plants and animals live only in a certain kind of forest habitat. Those species
can be lost entirely or can become extinct in the wild very easily.  Loss of habitat can lead
to species extinction. It also has negative consequences for medicinal research and local
populations that rely on the animals and plants in the forests for hunting and medicine.

Climate change - Cutting down the trees also removes a mechanism to regulate the
temperature in forested areas. Hotter days and cooler nights put additional strain on the
remaining plants and animals. Growing trees trap a good deal of carbon dioxide. That
function cannot be fully replaced by planting single crops, like soy or hemp. The plants are
good at holding moisture, trees in particular. Without forest cover, deserts can advance and
push out remaining plants and animals.  

Loss of soil fertility - Forested land can be attractive for agriculture because it seems so
fertile. In fact, this often isn’t so. The seeming fertility of a rainforest depends on the
complex relationships between a variety of plant species. Clearing an area to plant soy or
hemp just exposes soil that is high in nutrients at first.  After a few growing seasons, the soil
is exhausted and the farmers move on.  The trees and brush in a forest help prevent soil
from running off into lakes and rivers and polluting them.

Flooding - Forests absorb heavy rains that otherwise could run directly into rivers and
streams. After a storm, or after several rainy days, a local river can rise to flood stage, even
with forests taking up much of the water. Without greatly reduced forest cover comes
greatly increased runoff and flooding. Because so much of the world’s population lives
along rivers, indiscriminate cutting and burning of forests can be a real threat to lives and
property downstream.

Water pollution - Clearing a forest also causes runoff into the water. The soil carries away
nutrients and may pollute the water with agricultural chemicals. This would certainly
happen if the forest is replaced with farm land. Water that should filter down through grass
and soil into the water table runs off into nearby bodies of water, reducing the amount of
ground water available later. The land that the forest once covered becomes drier and the
soil becomes less and less suitable for growing food crops or for grazing. The issue of soil
degradation is probably better known in the tropics, but it can be a concern anywhere that
forests are clear-cut to make room for agriculture or take lumber.
Other effects of deforestation:

Forests are complex ecosystems that affect almost every species on the planet. When they
are degraded, it can set off a devastating chain of events both locally and around the world.

Water cycle: Trees are important to the water cycle. They absorb rain fall and produce
water vapor that is released into the atmosphere. Trees also lessen the pollution in water

Life quality: Soil erosion can also lead to silt entering the lakes, streams and other water
sources. This can decrease local water quality and contribute to poor health in populations
in the area.

The disturbance of native people: Many native tribes live in the rainforests of the world,
and their destruction is the destruction of these peoples' homes and way of life.

Some of the fantastic solutions to deforestation include:

1. Green Business

Green business concerns re-use and recycling. Green methods of production and utilization
of resources can immeasurably reduce deforestation. Particularly, it’s the focus on re-using
items, reducing the use of artificial items, and recycling more items. Paper, plastics, and
wood are linked to the destruction of forests and other natural resources.

By focusing on recycling paper, plastics, and wood products as well as adopting responsible
consumerism, it means there will be less dependence on the natural resources and trees. It
will also reduce government and company imports of raw-materials from forest regions in
other parts of the world.
2. Eco-forestry

Eco-forestry is a move on saving the worlds forest. It acknowledges that sometimes, the use
of trees for various human activities or reasons can be inevitable. Per se, eco-forestry
underscores the need of cutting down trees in an environmentally friendly manner. It is
where only cautiously selected trees are fell and transported with the least possible
damage to the area. Also, eco-forestry not only calls for the preservation of the forest
regions ecosystem but also allows for controlled and green timber extraction.

3. Law and Regulations

Due to the nature and extent of forest destruction, efforts to stop the human activities can
be complemented by laws and regulation at governmental and organizational levels. As
much as people increasingly become aware of deforestation consequences, some people
focus more on the immediate economic gains at the expense of the long-term
environmental damage.

This attitude has encourages illegal logging for timber and other valuable resources like
rubber and palm oil. Therefore, stopping deforestation and preserving the natural
vegetations demands rules, laws, and regulations from organizations and governments to
aid in enforcing forest preservation policies. Laws on timber, wood fuel, farming, and land
use among other forest resources must be advanced and enforced to limit deforestation.

4. Community Forestry

Community forestry is whereby local communities together with their local government
and other local organizations such as schools, corporate, and universities join hands to
start localized tree planting programs and management of their local forests. On various
occasions such as public holidays, opening ceremonies, environment days, or other
periodic localized activities, concerned local citizens can create awareness and plant trees.

This can be done within the surrounding areas as a method of boosting environmental
sustainability and keeping the local forests viable. All local learning institutions, hospitals,
local government headquarters, and the rest of the community can ensure trees are planted
and the local forests are protected against damage as a way of finding solutions to the
deforestation menace.

5. Replanting (Reforestation)

Replanting or tree planting utilizes almost the same aspect as community forestry.
However, it entirely focuses of replanting, a feature commonly known as reforestation.
Reforestation is the restoration or replanting of forests that have been reduced by fire or
felling. It requires an ongoing process and should not be viewed as a onetime thing.

People, communities, governments, and organizations are all active actors. It involves
selecting and dedicating large tracts of land mainly for the purpose of cultivating forests.
For instance, in local communities and urban centers, it can be done around market areas,
in game/wildlife reserves, or within city parks. Replanting, therefore, qualifies restorative
measure of deforestation.

6. Sensitization and Educative Campaigns

Deforestation can also be counteracted through awareness and sensitization. Sensitization

and educative campaigns can be a simple but a more workable solution. Initiating
awareness creation champagnes makes it easy for people to detect the causes, effects, and
ways of counteracting deforestation. Personal experiences from adversely affected
communities such as farmers can be used to emphasize the negative effects of
deforestation.

Thus, making conscious efforts to share information with people including family, friends,
colleagues, and the entire community on deforestation and its effects is an appropriate
measure of standing up in unison to combat the clearing of forests.

7. Joint Organizations

Conservation, wildlife, rainforest, and nature protection agencies among other

environmental programs can join together with a common goal of preserving, restoring,
and protecting forests to ensure permanence of the world’s natural resources. When such
big organizations work together, it makes it easier to install the proper forest management
mechanisms. Far-reaching impact can likewise be realized if environmental conservation
and protection organizations work together.

8. Land Use Planning

Cities and urban centers continue to grow day after day as more and more people claim
their share of living in cities and the urban areas. Agricultural practices also continue to
expand as farmers and consumer demands call for better productivity and quality food
products respectively. As a result, the urban sprawl and agricultural expansion have kept
on clearing forests to create more room for their respective activities.

In response to this threat, creation of proper land use planning techniques can offer the
fastest and the most feasible solution to deforestation. Land use planning that centers on
environmentally friendly development techniques like urban agriculture and lessening
urban and suburban sprawl can considerably cut back deforestation.
The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at
the current rate of deforestation.

The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to

provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often, small
farmers will clear a few acres by cutting down trees and burning them
in a process known as slash and burn agriculture.

Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper

products, also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, some of
them acting illegally , also build roads to access more and more remote
forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a
result of growing urban sprawl as land is developed for dwellings.

Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of

human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing,
which may prevent the growth of young trees.
Effects of Deforestation

Deforestation can have a negative impact on the environment. The most

dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Eighty
percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many
cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.

Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but
without protection from sun-blocking tree cover, they quickly dry out.
Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor to
the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest
lands can quickly become barren deserts.

Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which

blocks the sun’s rays during the day, and holds in heat at night. This
disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be
harmful to plants and animals.

Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects

Causes

There are many causes of deforestation. The WWF& reports that half of the trees
illegally removed from forests are used as fuel.

Some other common reasons are:

 To make more land available for housing and urbanization

 To harvest timber to create commercial items such as paper, furniture and homes 
 To create ingredients that are highly prized consumer items, such as the oil from palm trees
 To create room for cattle ranching 

Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear cutting. These tactics
leave the land completely barren and are controversial practices. 

Clear cutting is when large swaths of land are cut down all at once. A forestry expert
quoted by the Natural Resources Defense Council describes clear cutting as "an
ecological trauma that has no precedent in nature except for a major volcanic eruption."

Burning can be done quickly, in vast swaths of land, or more slowly with the slash-and-
burn technique. Slash and burn agriculture entails cutting down a patch of trees, burning
them and growing crops on the land. The ash from the burned trees provides some
nourishment for the plants and the land is weed-free from the burning. When the soil
becomes less nourishing and weeds begin to reappear over years of use, the farmers
move on to a new patch of land and begin the process again.
Deforestation in Brazil: Aerial view of a large soy field eating into the tropical rainforest.

Deforestation and climate change

Deforestation is considered to be one of the contributing factors to global climate

change. According to Michael Daley, an associate professor of environmental science
at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts, the No. 1 problem caused by deforestation
is the impact on the global carbon cycle. Gas molecules that absorb thermal infrared
radiation are called greenhouse gases. If greenhouse gases are in large enough quantity,
they can force climate change, according to Daley. While oxygen (O 2) is the second
most abundant gas in our atmosphere, it does not absorb thermal infrared radiation, as
greenhouse gases do. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas.
CO2 accounts for about 82.2 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas, according to
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Trees can help, though. About 300 billion
tons of carbon, 40 times the annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, is
stored in trees, according to Greenpeace.
The deforestation of trees not only lessens the amount of carbon stored, it also releases
carbon dioxide into the air. This is because when trees die, they release the stored
carbon. According to the 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment, deforestation releases
nearly a billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year, though the numbers are not
as high as the ones recorded in the previous decade. Deforestation is the second
largest anthropogenic (human-caused) source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (after
fossil fuel combustion), ranging between 6 percent and 17 percent, according to a study
published in 2009 in Nature.

Carbon isn't the only greenhouse gas that is affected by deforestation. Water vapor is
also considered a greenhouse gas. "The impact of deforestation on the exchange of
water vapor and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the terrestrial land
surface is the biggest concern with regard to the climate system," said Daley. Changes
in their atmospheric concentration will have a direct effect on climate. 

Deforestation has decreased global vapor flows from land by 4 percent, according to an
article published by the journal National Academy of Sciences. Even this slight change in
vapor flows can disrupt natural weather patterns and change current climate models. 

Counteracting deforestation

Many believe that to counter deforestation, people simply need to plant more trees.
Though a massive replanting effort would help to alleviate the problems deforestation
caused, it would not solve them all. 

Reforestation would facilitate:

 Restoring the ecosystem services provided by forests including carbon storage, water cycling and
wildlife habitat
 Reducing the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
 Rebuilding wildlife habitats

Reforestation won't completely fix the damage, though. For example, Daley points out
that forests cannot sequester all of the carbon dioxide humans are emitting to the
atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels and a reduction in fossil fuel emissions. It
is still necessary to avoid buildup in the atmosphere. Reforestation will not help with
extinction due to deforestation, either. "Unfortunately, we have already diminished the
population of many species to such an extreme that they might not recover, even with a
massive reforestation effort," Daley told Live Science.

In addition to reforestation, some other tactics are being taken to counteract or slow
deforestation. Some of them include shifting the human population to a plant-based diet.
This would lower the need for land to be cleared for raising livestock.

Global Forest Watch has also initiated a project to counteract deforestation through

awareness. The organization uses satellite technology, open data and crowdsourcing to
detect and alert others of deforestation. Their online community is also encouraged to
share their personal experiences and the negative effects of deforestation. 
The World Wildlife Fund mentions six main causes of deforestation. Some of
them are familiar - illegal logging and clear cutting for palm oil plantations
make the news sometimes - but other causes are less obvious. They estimate
worldwide forest loss at 46,000 to 58,000 square miles per year. Overall,
agriculture is a major reason for deforestation, and slash-and-burn agriculture
is an easy way to clear some forest for planting.

Mining - We don’t typically think of mining as something that affects forests or

farms because mines are mostly underground. However, much mining is done
by digging huge pits in the ground or stripping to tops of hills and mountains.
The mining companies cut trees to build roads, power plants, and railroad
lines.

Harvesting wood for fuel - In many parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America
residents depend on wood for cooking and for heat, if they live in a cold
climate. The effect of millions of people cutting branches and whole trees for
wood adds up to a small, but significant, contribution to worldwide
deforestation.

Conversion to other uses - Most of the forest area lost to human activity has
probably been due to agriculture. Palm oil, cassava, and soy cultivation are
significant culprits. Sometimes people clear forests to provide better grazing
land for livestock, mainly cows. It isn’t just food crops displacing forests either.
Rubber and pulp, for paper, are two more industries that displace natural
forests. Governments and private companies also clear the land for roads and
new settlements.

Forest fires - Whether set on purpose, caused by an accident, or touched off

by natural events like lightning strikes, fires destroy millions of acres of forest
a year. Forests tend to recover from natural fires, but fires set by farmers or
started by careless people are another matter.

Illegal and unsustainable logging - Illegal logging is a significant threat to

forests from Brazil to Indonesia. Some logging firms clear-cut large sections of
forest to feed the demand for lumber in Europe, China, and North America.
Climate change - Deforestation is a contributing factor in climate change, as
well as a product of it. Hotter weather puts stress on plants. More importantly,
changing rainfall patterns can make an area too dry for the remaining trees
and other plants. Once the land has dried up, it cannot necessarily recover
without human intervention. Loss of forests can also contribute to climate
change because forest growth captures carbon dioxide.

Because forests are such important storehouses for carbon, their loss is a
factor in climate change. There are other effects to cutting down forests and
not replacing them too.

The Effects of Deforestation on the Earth's 'Spheres'

The earth can be categorised into four different parts called spheres: land, water, air and living
things. Scientists have given them fancy names: geosphere (land), hydroshphere (water),
atmosphere (air) and biosphere (living things). These "spheres" are important because of the
overlap and affect they have on each other. Trees are part of the biosphere (living things) but affect
the land (geosphere), air (atmosphere), water (hydrosphere) and other living things (biosphere).
Deforestation affects the four spheres differently.

1. Geosphere
The lushness of the world's tropical forests is somewhat deceptive. Although these forests have
dense vegetation and many trees, the underlying soils are very poor with almost all the nutrients
being held in the vegetation. As of now, about 80% of the soils in the humid tropics are acidic and
infertile. The problem is that once forests have been cut down, essential nutrients are washed out of
the soil altogether, leading to soil erosion. Erosion is a process where the soil is carried away by
water, rain water, wind, etc.
The trees in the forest also keep the soil under them fresh and healthy. When the trees are cut
down, there are no trees to keep the soil in place, and it becomes a target for erosion. It dries and
cracks under the sun's heat. Once the soil temperature exceeds 25 degrees celsius, delicate nutrient
ingredients like nitrogen can be lost, further reducing the fertility of the remaining soil. Furthermore,
rainfall washes the remaining nutrients into the rivers. This means that replanting trees will not
necessarily help to solve the problems of deforestation: by the time the new trees have matured, the
soil might be completely stripped of essential nutrients. The soil will eventually be too poor to support
the growth of vegetation and the land will be useless. Soil erosion eventually results in large areas of
unusable land.

2. Hydrosphere
As mentioned, the hydrosphere simply refers to the water on and below the earth's surface, e.g.
rivers, the sea, streams, etc. The hydrosphere is also effected by deforestation. Some of the effects
are: less oxygen in waterways; water temperature changes; sediment (material that settles to the
bottom of a liquid) at the mouth of rivers; and solid fragments (pieces) of inorganic or organic
material that come from the weathering of rock and are carried off and deposited by wind, water, or
ice. The result of this is that the aquatic (water) habitat is degraded, making it less able to sustain
life, e.g. fish, plants or other organisms.
3. Atmosphere
Plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and release oxygen (O2). If there are fewer trees, less carbon
dioxide is absorbed and therefore less oxygen is released. This is a threat to living organisms.
Decaying or burned plant life releases CO2, so with fewer living plants to absorb it, the balance of the
atmosphere is effected.

4.Biosphere
Deforestation disrupts the plant and animal kingdoms. As birds, insects and other animals help with
the pollination of plants and the dispersal of seeds, the loss of bird and animal species as a result of
decreasing habitats, results in less pollination and there is therefore less regeneration of the forest:
fewer plants are pollinated, so fewer seeds are created. As a result there are fewer seeds to
disperse, and therefore fewer new plants grow.
Although all the consequences of deforestation are potentially serious, perhaps the most serious
consequence is that of climate change due to the loss of trees. The earth has an atmosphere which
contains a variety of gases in a delicate balance in order to sustain life. If this balance changes, then
the earth is affected in different ways: one of this is the "greenhouse" effect, which is the heating of
the earth due to more greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. This increase in the
"greenhouse" gas levels in the atmosphere leads to an increase in temperature, with the possible
outcomes of changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and changes in other cycles in nature that
directly affect life on the earth.
One of the greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Other gases include
methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide, and ozone. The process whereby the carbon dioxide
levels increase is quite simple and these levels increase for a number of reasons. It is believed by
some scientists that one of the main factors contributing to the increase of carbon levels is the decay
of woody material. The only way to help moderate the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is
through plant life. Living plants and trees absorb the carbon dioxide from decaying plants and trees.
With a reduction in tree and plant life (due to deforestation), it is much harder to moderate these
levels. Ultimately, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere will increase due to a lack of plant life
which would otherwise have kept the carbon dioxide levels in check.
The effects of deforestation are far-reaching and can be irreversible if not stopped.