The History of Deforestation: The Past and Origins

In many ways, the history of deforestation is the same as the history of agriculture. When humans began to farm from about 10,000 BC onwards, trees were cut down to make space for crops and livestock.¹

The majority of farmland on Earth was once forested.² Today, agriculture is still the leading cause of deforestation. It is responsible for at least 80 per cent of deforestation in the tropics.³

Deforestation and climate change

Forests play a critical role with climate change. They absorb carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases as they grow.⁴ By sequestering the gases for centuries, it prevents them from contributing to global warming.⁵ Chopping down trees releases these gases once more.⁶ As such, deforestation is responsible for at least 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.⁷

Tropical tree cover alone can provide as much as 23 percent of the climate mitigation necessary over the next decade to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals.⁸ The IPCC recognizes that reducing deforestation is one of the most effective ways to tackle climate change.⁹ In order to prevent a catastrophic rise in global temperature above 1.5°C, reducing deforestation must also be paired with a significant curtailment in carbon emissions.¹⁰

Early history of deforestation

From two million years ago until about 12,000 years ago, all humans lived in nomadic hunter-gatherer groups.¹¹ Once they began to settle in one place and grow their own food, a dramatic cultural shift took place.¹² Agriculture enabled an explosion in population growth.¹³ But, this did not only initiate a sharp decline in most people’s quality of life.¹⁴ It also began the practice of clearing forests for timber and space, which continues to this day.¹⁵

Until the early 20th century, deforestation was most prevalent in the temperate regions of Europe, North America, and Asia.¹⁶ Over thousands of years, it has dramatically altered landscapes around the world. Forests covered 80 percent of Western Europe 2,000 years ago. Today, only 34 percent of these forests remain.¹⁷ As Europeans colonized the New World from the 1600s to the 1870s, the east of America lost about half its woodland.¹⁸ Likewise, in China, just 20 percent of their forests survive today.¹⁹

The Industrial Revolution and deforestation

Europe’s Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century stimulated the removal of forests even further. Population growth led to further exploitation of the remaining forests.²⁰ Advances in lumbar processing, such as the invention of the circular saw, in 1777 made it easier than ever to clear woodland.²¹

In central European Russia, 67,000 square kilometres – equivalent to 16,556,060 acres – were lost between the end of the 17th century and the start of the 20th century.²² The amount of forest felled in North America reached 460,000 square kilometres by 1850.²³ This represents an area greater than all of Sweden, the largest country in Northern Europe.²⁴ By 1910, the deforested area of North America had leapt to 776,996 square kilometres.²⁵

Modern deforestation

In the modern era, agriculture continues to drive deforestation.²⁶ However, it is trees in the tropics that are currently under the axe. Since the 1950s, more than half of the world’s rainforests have been lost.²⁷ Today, two-thirds of global forest cover loss occurs in tropical regions.²⁸ The rate of acceleration has increased, with 43 million hectares of forest – an area the size of Morocco – falling between 2004 and 2017.²⁹

Huge population growth, with an accompanying demand for more food, space and commodities, is behind this trend. The vast majority of deforestation occurs to convert the land for beef, soy or palm oil, or to obtain wood products.³⁰ Over the past 50 years, about 17 per cent of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed.³¹ This rate is currently on the rise.³² If we continue at this current pace, all of the world’s rainforests will disappear in less than a century.³³

Until the companies responsible for deforestation are forced to factor in its true cost, including damage to the climate and local biodiversity, they will continue to plunder the planet’s resources in an endless pursuit of profit.³⁴ The history of deforestation is clear: measures to stop them must be enacted before it is too late.

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