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Environmental Science
Activity Sheet
Quarter 2 – MELC 5
Week 5
CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION AND
ITS EFFECTS ON BIODIVERSITY

REGION VI – WESTERN VISAYAS

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Environmental Science Activity Sheet No. 5
Causes of Deforestation and Its Effects on Biodiversity
First Edition, 2020
Published in the Philippines
By the Department of Education
Region 6 – Western Visayas

Republic Act 8293, section 176 states that: No copyright shall subsist in any
work of the Government of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the
government agency or office wherein the work is created shall be necessary for
exploitation of such work for profit. Such agency or office may, among other things,
impose as a condition the payment of royalties.

This Learning Activity Sheet is developed by DepEd Region 6 – Western

Visayas.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this learning resource may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical
without written permission from the DepEd Regional Office 6 – Western Visayas.

Development Team of Activity Sheet

Writers: Rolan G. Aribato

Editor: Moonyeen C. Rivera

Layout Artists: Mara Jamaica B. Floreno and Kris Dawn C. Rivera

Schools Division Quality Assurance Team:

Analie J. Lobaton
Moonyeen C. Rivera
Division of Cadiz City Management Team:
Ma. Lorlinie M. Ortillo,
May P. Pascual
Moonyeen C. Rivera
Analie J. Lobaton
Regional Management Team
Ma. Gemma M. Ledesma,
Josilyn S. Solana,
Elena P. Gonzaga,
Donald T. Genine,
Rovel R. Salcedo,
Moonyeen C. Rivera,
Anita S. Gubalane,
Minda L. Soldevilla,
Daisy L. Lopez,
Joseph M. Pagalaran

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Introductory Message
Welcome to Environmental Science for Grade 7!

The Learning Activity Sheet is a product of the collaborative efforts of the

Schools Division of Cadiz City and DepEd Regional Office VI - Western Visayas
through the Curriculum and Learning Management Division (CLMD). This is
developed to guide the learning facilitators (teachers, parents and responsible adults)
in helping the learners meet the standards set by the K to 12 Basic Education
Curriculum.

The Learning Activity Sheet is self-directed instructional materials aimed to

guide the learners in accomplishing activities at their own pace and time using the
contextualized resources in the community. This will also assist the learners in
acquiring the lifelong learning skills, knowledge and attitudes for productivity and
employment.

For learning facilitator:

The Environmental Science Activity Sheet will help you facilitate the
leaching-learning activities specified in each Most Essential Learning Competency
(MELC) with minimal or no face-to-face encounter between you and learner. This will
be made available to the learners with the references/links to ease the independent
learning.

For the learner:

The Environmental Science Activity Sheet is developed to help you

continue learning even if you are not in school. This learning material provides you
with meaningful and engaging activities for independent learning. Being an active
learner, carefully read and understand the instructions then perform the activities and
answer the assessments. This will be returned to your facilitator on the agreed
schedule

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Name of Learner: _______________________________________________
Grade and Section: ___________________________Date: _____________

Environmental Science Activity Sheet No. 5

Causes of Deforestation and its Effects on Biodiversity
I. Learning Competency
1. Explain the causes of deforestation and its effects on biodiversity.

II. Background Information for Learners

It is a fact that the world tries to find effective ways to slow the speed
of climate change, preserve flora and fauna, and support billions of people.
Trees unavoidably hold a major part of the answer. Despite the initiatives done
by the concern agencies, mass cutting of trees resulting to deforestation is
continuously done, losing the long-term benefits of standing trees for a short-
term gain.

In most part of the world, environmental degradation has reach a crisis

level where whole systems are collapsing. It is important to look at some of the
effects of current environmental failure and to predict some of the potential
effects of forest loss. Unending loss of natural systems could make human
activities increasingly susceptible to environmental surprises in the coming
years.

Deforestation refers to the reduction in forest areas throughout the world

that are lost for other uses such as agricultural croplands, urbanization,
excavating or mining activities. Increased deforested area caused by human
activities from the 1960’s, denudation has been adversely affecting natural
ecosystems, biodiversity, and the climate.

This learning activity will help you understand more about the causes
of deforestation and its effect to biodiversity loss.

III. Accompanying DepEd Textbook

Department of Education. (2020). K-12 Basic Education Curriculum,

Science 10 Learners Material Alternative Delivery Mode (p 30). San
Fernando, La Union City, Philippines.

IV. Activity Proper

Activity 1

Directions: Read and carefully analyze the article on deforestation

below. Fill in the blanks with the correct words from the table below to
complete the information on the article given and answer the questions
that follow. Write your answers on a sheet of paper.

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 Deforestation, the clearing or thinning of forests by humans.
Deforestation represents one of the largest issues in global land use. Estimates
of deforestation traditionally are based on the area of forest cleared for human
use, including removal of the trees for wood products and for croplands and
grazing lands. In the practice of clear-cutting, all the trees are removed from the
land, which completely destroys the forest. In some cases, however, even
partial logging and accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest
structure dramatically.

Multiple factors, either of human or natural origin, cause deforestation.

Natural factors include natural forest fires or parasite-caused diseases which
can result in deforestation. Nevertheless, human activities are among the main
causes of global deforestation. According to the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), the expansion of agriculture caused nearly 80% of global
deforestation, with the construction of infrastructures such as roads or dams,
together with mining activities and urbanization, making up the remaining
causes of deforestation.

Directions: Read and carefully analyze the article on deforestation

above. Fill in the blanks with the correct words from the table below to
complete the information on the article given and answer the questions
that follow. Write your answers on a sheet of paper.

consequence increasing protect less

slow place deforestation deforested

food attention cut species

decreasing part fewer away

ago disagreement facts America

Deforestation used to be something that few people apart from

environmentalists talked about, but in the last twenty years or so, it has received
increasing (1) ___________ from governments and the media, and is now
generally considered one of the world’s most serious environmental problems.

There is (2) ___________ about how much forest has been disappearing, but
few people doubt there is much less forest now than there was, say, fifty years
ago.

Deforestation leads to the extinction of many (3)___________of forest

animals and the erosion of soil after trees have been removed, but the
(4)___________of deforestation that we hear most about is its contribution to
global warming. Trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the Earth’s
atmosphere, so (5)_________ trees mean higher levels of CO2, which
contributes to the atmosphere becoming warmer. Many scientists estimate that
about 20% of global warming is due to (6) ___________.

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 Deforestation is taking place mostly in developing countries in tropical
regions of South and Southeast Asia, Central and South (7) ___________, and
Africa. Perhaps the most well-known case is the (8) ___________ size of the
huge Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil.

Many people around the world say these developing countries should
do more to (9)___________ their forests – although the developing countries
could point out that most of the world’s developed countries destroyed most of
their own forests many centuries (10)___________.

In some cases, deforestation is caused by poor people who want to

use the wood for fuel or to clear a small amount of land in order to grow
(11)___________ for their families. In many cases, however, it happens
because there are large profits to be made – for example, from selling the wood,
or from growing crops (such as soybeans), or raising animals (such as cattle,
for beef) on the land after the trees are gone. Produce from (12)___________
land is often exported, so there is often a link between what people choose to
buy in their local stores and what happens to forests in countries thousands of
miles (13)___________.

Deforestation will be among the subjects discussed at the very

important United Nations climate change summit taking (14)___________ in
Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, when it is hoped that developed and
developing countries will be able to come to an agreement about ways to
(15)___________ down global warming.

1. What is your operational definition of deforestation?

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

2. What are the causes of deforestation?

_________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

3. Why does deforestation occur?

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

4. How does deforestation affects biodiversity?

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

5. How could you be of help to solve deforestation?

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

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 Activity 2 - Awareness Campaign

The Effects of Deforestation on Biodiversity

Directions: Collaborate with any of your siblings, parents, cousins, or

friends to make these awareness campaign: slogan, poem, song/jingle, or
poster about the effects of deforestation on biodiversity. You have the option to
create just one from among the suggested awareness campaign materials
depending on your interest, willingness, and time. Please be guided with the
following guidelines to follow:

1. You can use English, Filipino or mother tongue as your medium.

2. Avoid foul or vulgar words in your content.
3. Use any size of bond paper.
4. If you choose to make song/jingle indicate the tune you are going to use
and the name of the artist who popularized the song.
5. Make your final output as presentable as possible observing neatness
and readability.
6. You may opt to have a picture of your slogan, poem, and poster, or
record your song or jingle and upload it to any social media platform to
spread more awareness.

Criteria 4 3 2 1
Content The output has The output has 1- The output has 3-5 The output has
excellent spelling 2 spelling errors spelling errors and multiple spelling
and original and original with original content. errors. Some
content. content. content is copy and
paste or plagiarized.
Graphics - All graphics are Al graphics are All graphics relate to Graphics do not
Relevance related to the related to the the topic. One or two relate to the topic or
topic and make it topic and most borrowed graphics several borrowed
easier to make it easier to have a source graphics do not have
understand. All understand. Some citation. source or citation.
borrowed borrowed
graphics have a graphics have a
source citation source citation.
Attractive The output is The output is The output is The output is
ness exceptionally attractive in terms acceptably attractive distractingly messy
attractive in terms of design, layout, though it may be a bit or very poorly
of design, layout, and neatness. messy. designed. It is not
and neatness. attractive.
Grammar The output has no The output has 1- The output has 3-4 The output has
grammatical/mec 2 grammatical/mechani more than 4
hanical mistakes. grammatical/mec cal mistakes. grammatical/mecha
hanical mistakes. nical mistakes

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V. Reflection:

Complete the statements below

I understand
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________.

I don’t understand
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________

I need more information about

______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________.

VI. Answer Key

Reflection (answer varies)

output of the students.

Use the rubric in scoring the
EXERCISE 3
Answers may vary.
EXERCISE 2
9. protect
8. decreasing
7. America
15. slow 6. deforestation
14. place 5. fewer
away
13. 4. consequence
deforested
12. 3. species
11. food 2. disagreement
10. ago 1. attention
EXERCISE 1

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VII. Links and/or Other References

D.R. © Macmillan Publishers, New American Inside Out, S.A. de C.V. 2009,
Mary Tricarico, Westfield High School and Kevin Hauff, Earth Day
Network,
Deforestation Research Assignment Introduction,http://www.conserve-
energy-
future.com/various-deforestation-facts.php

Google. National Geographic. Accessed November 6, 2020

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/globalwarming/defo
restationoverview.

D.R. © Macmillan Publishers, New American Inside Out, S.A.

de C.V. 2009, www.insideout.net