Deforestation affects all of us. Forests are home to 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.1 Three hundred million people live in forests, and 1.6 billion rely on them for their livelihoods.2 Trees are also crucial for maintaining the natural balance of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.3
Deforestation affects the vulnerable, global warming and biodiversity
deeper into poverty.4 The practice also contributes towards global warming.5 The majority of tree felling occurs in tropical countries.6 But we all feel the effects.
Effect of deforestation on biodiversity
Cutting down trees is a death sentence for many species. It also impacts human food security and medicine.7 An estimated 137 species of plants, animals and insects go extinct every day due to deforestation. A staggering 50,000 species become extinct each year. This is not a reversible process. These creatures are gone forever.8
This affects you because the extinction of any single species can have disastrous effects on the wider ecosystem. A decrease in the number of earthworms, fungi, or soil microbes limits the number of recycled nutrients in the soil. It also reduces the number of holes for rainwater to flow through. This stunts crop growth and can affect human food supplies.9
Most modern deforestation takes place in tropical regions.10 This is even worse for the planet’s biodiversity and, therefore, for you too. Tropical forests support at least two-thirds of the world’s biodiversity, despite covering less than 10 per cent of Earth’s land surface.11 At least half of the world’s rainforests have already been lost.12 Time is running out to save both our forests and the animals that call them home.
Besides being a tragedy, the mass extinction of species affects everyone. Over 25 percent of natural medicines were discovered in tropical rainforests. About 70 percent of the drugs used in modern medicine are models of natural products. A quarter of all prescription medications are made using living organisms, mainly plants.13 We currently harvest 50,000 to 70,000 plant species for traditional and modern medicine worldwide.14 What will happen when they’re gone?
Yet, less than five percent of Amazonian plants have been examined for their medicinal potential.15 We are losing treatments and cures every day thanks to widespread deforestation.
Clearing forests and poverty
Forests are an essential resource for an estimated 20 percent of the global population.16 Many of the world’s remaining rainforests are in the poorest regions of the world.17 They provide as much as 90 percent of the livelihood of those that live in extreme poverty.18
More than two billion people depend on wood fuel for cooking and/or heating. In many cases, it is the only energy source that is domestically available and affordable.19
Deforestation can alleviate poverty for some. For instance, land conversion to plant palm oil may benefit some smallholders in Indonesia. However, it has negative repercussions for others. It simultaneously impoverishes Indigenous communities who lose access to their livelihoods when their historic lands are converted into industrial-scale plantations. Destroying the planet’s forests would create an unparalleled human rights disaster.20
Removing trees and vegetation destroys the goods and services that billions of people rely on.21 It pushes many of them deeper into poverty.22 Deforestation eliminates much-needed opportunities for subsistence, safety nets, and pathways to prosperity for some of the most vulnerable people.23 With one in five people on Earth dependent upon forests, removing them would undoubtedly have consequences for us all.
Deforestation and climate change
Trees and climate change are intrinsically linked. Greenhouse gases collecting in the atmosphere cause global warming.24 Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and farming livestock, increase the planet’s average temperature.25 Deforestation alone is responsible for 10 per cent of all emissions.26
We must leave forests standing if we are to prevent further global warming. Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and remove it from the atmosphere.27 A mature tree captures and stores an average of 22 kilograms of CO2 per year through photosynthesis.28 By sequestering it in their biomass and the surrounding soil, they can prevent CO2 from contributing to global warming for centuries.29
196 international Parties signed the Paris Agreement in December 2015. They aim to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This will be impossible with the current rate of deforestation and the levels of CO2 emissions produced by burning fossil fuels.30
But, the science is clear. If we do not curtail these toxic behaviors, we will cause irrevocable damage to the planet.31
How does deforestation affect you?
Deforestation, therefore, affects everyone. Clearing forests reduces crop growth and therefore risks our food and nutrition security. It endangers medicines we rely on and destroys any possibility of discovering future cures for diseases. The practice could plunge billions of vulnerable people deeper into poverty. If it continues, it will have grave repercussions for our entire planet as it increases the effects of climate change.
Deforestation might be most prevalent in the tropics, but the consequences of this shortsighted habit will be felt everywhere. We should all be motivated to stop deforestation immediately and decisively.
Sources
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- WWF (2000). Forest Habitat | Habitats | WWF. [online] World Wildlife Fund. Available at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/habitats/forest-habitat.
- Forest Research. (n.d.). Forestry and climate change mitigation. [online] Available at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/research/forestry-and-climate-change-mitigation/#:~:text=Removing%20forests%20releases%20CO2.
- The Borgen Project. (2019). The Link Between Deforestation and Poverty. [online] Available at: https://borgenproject.org/the-link-between-deforestation-and-poverty/#:~:text=Deforestation%20throughout%20the%20world%20has.
- Rainforest Alliance. (2018). What is the Relationship Between Deforestation And Climate Change? [online] Available at: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/articles/relationship-between-deforestation-climate-change.
- Derouin, S. (2019). Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects. [online] Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html.
- Panda.org. (2020). How does Biodiversity loss affect me and everyone else? [online] Available at: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity_and_you/.
- www.worldanimalfoundation.com. (n.d.). Deforestation: Clearing The Path For Wildlife Extinctions. [online] Available at: https://www.worldanimalfoundation.com/advocate/wild-earth/params/post/1278141/deforestation-clearing-the-path-for-wildlife-extinctions#:~:text=Seventy%20percent%20of%20the%20Earth.
- EcoWatch. (2019). Why Biodiversity Loss Hurts Humans as Much as Climate Change Does. [online] Available at: https://www.ecowatch.com/biodiversity-loss-human-health-2636410357.html [Accessed 8 Apr. 2021].
- Derouin, S. (2019). Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects. [online] Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html.
- Giam, X. (2017). Global biodiversity loss from tropical deforestation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [online] 114(23), pp.5775–5777. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/content/114/23/5775.
- www.theworldcounts.com. (n.d.). The World Counts. [online] Available at: https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/state-of-the-planet/when-will-the-rainforests-be-gone/story.
- Jantan, I., Bukhari, S.N.A., Seyed Mohamed, M.A., Wai, L.K. and Mesaik, M.A. (2015). The Evolving Role of Natural Products from the Tropical Rainforests as a Replenishable Source of New Drug Leads. Drug Discovery and Development – From Molecules to Medicine. [online] Available at: https://www.intechopen.com/books/drug-discovery-and-development-from-molecules-to-medicine/the-evolving-role-of-natural-products-from-the-tropical-rainforests-as-a-replenishable-source-of-new.
- Panda.org. (2020). How does Biodiversity loss affect me and everyone else? [online] Available at: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity_and_you/.
- Dunnell, T. (2018). Medicinal Plants Of The Amazon And Their Uses In Modern Medicine. [online] South American Vacations. Available at: https://www.savacations.com/medicinal-plants-amazon-uses-modern-medicine/.
- Cheng, S.H., Ahlroth, S., Onder, S., Shyamsundar, P., Garside, R., Kristjanson, P., McKinnon, M.C. and Miller, D.C. (2017). What is the evidence for the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation? A systematic map protocol. Environmental Evidence, 6(1).
- Mongabay. (n.d.). The role of poverty in deforestation. [online] Available at: https://rainforests.mongabay.com/kids/elementary/506.html [Accessed 24 Mar. 2021].
- The Borgen Project. (2019). The Link Between Deforestation and Poverty. [online] Available at: https://borgenproject.org/the-link-between-deforestation-and-poverty/#:~:text=Deforestation%20throughout%20the%20world%20has.
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2019). Wood Energy. [online] Fao.org. Available at: http://www.fao.org/forestry/energy/en/ [Accessed 18 Dec. 2019].
- Center For Global Development. (n.d.). Forests and Poverty: Barking Up the Wrong Tree? [online] Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/forests-and-poverty-barking-wrong-tree.
- IUCN. (2018). Forests and climate change. [online] Available at: https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/forests-and-climate-change.
- Center For Global Development. (n.d.). Forests and Poverty: Barking Up the Wrong Tree? [online] Available at: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/forests-and-poverty-barking-wrong-tree.
- Cheng, S.H., Ahlroth, S., Onder, S., Shyamsundar, P., Garside, R., Kristjanson, P., McKinnon, M.C. and Miller, D.C. (2017). What is the evidence for the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation? A systematic map protocol. Environmental Evidence, 6(1).
- March 11, Am, 2016 and MacMillan (n.d.). Global Warming 101. [online] NRDC. Available at: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101#:~:text=Q%3A%20What%20causes%20global%20warming.
- European Commission (2016). Causes of climate change. [online] European Commission. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/change/causes_en.
- Rainforest Alliance. (2018). What is the Relationship Between Deforestation And Climate Change? [online] Available at: https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/articles/relationship-between-deforestation-climate-change.
- Environment. (2019). How to erase 100 years of carbon emissions? Plant trees. [online] Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/how-to-erase-100-years-carbon-emissions-plant-trees.
- European Environment Agency. (n.d.). Trees help tackle climate change. [online] Available at: https://www.eea.europa.eu/articles/forests-health-and-climate-change/key-facts/trees-help-tackle-climate-change.
- Penn State Extension. (n.d.). How Forests Store Carbon. [online] Available at: https://extension.psu.edu/how-forests-store-carbon.
- United Nations Climate Change (2016). The Paris Agreement | UNFCCC. [online] Unfccc.int. Available at: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement.
- IPCC (2018). Summary for Policymakers — Global Warming of 1.5 oC. [online] Ipcc.ch. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/.