ĭeforestation is more extreme in tropical and subtropical forests in emerging economies. The amount of globally needed agricultural land would be reduced by three quarters if the entire population adopted a vegan diet. Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity. Between 20, 2.3 million square kilometres (890,000 sq mi) of forests around the world were cut down. Deforestation in many countries-both naturally occurring and human-induced-is an ongoing issue. Disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management, and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that lead to large-scale deforestation. The vast majority of agricultural activity resulting in deforestation is subsidized by government tax revenue. Trees are cut down for use as building material, timber or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form of charcoal or timber), while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and agricultural crops. Large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean and oil palm) accounted for 40 percent of tropical deforestation between 20, and local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent.
THE FOREST WIKI MARKER DRIVER
" Īgricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest fragmentation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity. IPCC also writes: "While above-ground biomass carbon stocks are estimated to be declining in the tropics, they are increasing globally due to increasing stocks in temperate and boreal forests. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) states that there is disagreement about whether the global forest is shrinking or not, and quote research indicating that tree cover has increased 7.1% between 19. However, carbon stock decreased from 94.3 to 80.9 Gt in Africa, 45.8 to 41.5 Gt in South and Southeast Asia combined, 33.4 to 33.1 Gt in Oceania, 5 to 4.1 Gt in Central America, and from 161.8 to 144.8 Gt in South America. In North America, the forest carbon stock increased from 136.6 to 140 Gt in the same period. The forest carbon stock in Europe (including Russia) increased from 158.7 to 172.4 Gt between 19. 9.3 International, national and subnational policiesĭeforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Maranhão state, 2016įor instance, FAO estimate that the global forest carbon stock has decreased 0.9%, and tree cover 4.2% between 19.With climate change exacerbating the risks to food systems, the role of forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change is important for the agricultural sector. The resilience of human food systems and their capacity to adapt to future change is linked to biodiversity – including dryland-adapted shrub and tree species that help combat desertification, forest-dwelling insects, bats and bird species that pollinate crops, trees with extensive root systems in mountain ecosystems that prevent soil erosion, and mangrove species that provide resilience against flooding in coastal areas. Deforested regions typically incur significant other environmental effects such as adverse soil erosion and degradation into wasteland. Global warming also puts increased pressure on communities who seek food security by clearing forests for agricultural use and reducing arable land more generally. Deforestation also reduces biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, increasing negative feedback cycles contributing to global warming. 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. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in habitat damage, biodiversity loss, and aridity. Net change, therefore, can be positive or negative, depending on whether gains exceed losses, or vice versa. "Deforestation" and "forest area net change" are not the same: the latter is the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a given period. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines deforestation as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-induced). On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. Between 15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Belgium, are destroyed every year. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, a half of that loss occurring in the last century. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use.