Deforestation - Wikipedia

Deforestation - Wikipedia
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Conversion of forest to non-forest for human use
"Forest clearing" redirects here. For a gap in a forest, see
Glade (geography)
"Deforest" redirects here. For other uses, see
DeForest (disambiguation)
For "deforestation" in computer science, see
Deforestation (computer science)
Annual deforestation
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest
in Brazil's
Maranhão
state, 2016
Deforestation in Riau province, Sumatra,
Indonesia
to make way for an
oil palm
plantation in 2007.
Deforestation in the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil's
Rio de Janeiro
state, 2009
Deforestation
or
forest clearance
is the removal and destruction of a
forest
or stand of trees from land that is then
converted
to non-forest use.
Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to
farms
ranches
, or
urban
use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by
forests
at present.
This is one-third less than the
forest cover
before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century.
On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute.
Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the
tropics
In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical
primary forests
. These are areas of mature
rainforest
that are especially important for
biodiversity
and
carbon storage
By far, the direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture.
In 2025 nearly 90% of global deforestation was caused by agriculture, with cropland expansion and pasture creation the primary drivers, this is up from more than 80% in 2012.
10
11
Forests are being converted to plantations for
coffee
palm oil
rubber
and various other popular products.
12
Livestock
grazing
also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the
wood industry
logging
),
urbanization
and
mining
. The
effects of climate change
are another cause via the increased risk of
wildfires
(see
deforestation and climate change
).
Deforestation results in
habitat destruction
which in turn leads to
biodiversity loss
. Deforestation also leads to
extinction
of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and displacement of
indigenous people
who live in forests. Deforested regions often also suffer from other environmental problems such as
desertification
and
soil erosion
Another problem is that deforestation reduces the uptake of carbon dioxide (
carbon sequestration
) from the atmosphere. This reduces the potential of forests to assist with
climate change mitigation
. The role of forests in capturing and storing carbon and mitigating climate change is also important for the agricultural sector.
13
The reason for this linkage is that the
effects of climate change on agriculture
pose new risks to global
food systems
13
Since 1990, it is estimated that some
420 million hectares
of forest have been lost through
conversion
to other
land uses
, although the rate of deforestation has decreased over the past three decades. Between 2015 and 2020, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares per year, down from 16 million hectares per year in the 1990s. The area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990. More than 100 million hectares of forests are adversely affected by forest fires, pests, diseases,
invasive species
drought
and adverse weather events.
14
Definition
Forest area net change rate per country in 2020
Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-induced).
15
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. Net change, therefore, can be positive or negative, depending on whether gains exceed losses, or vice versa.
15
Current status by continent, region, country
Annual change in forest area
The world has a total forest area of 4.14 billion hectares (ha), which is 32% of the global land area and equivalent to 0.50 ha of forest per person. The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world’s forests (45%), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains.
16
Of the regions, Europe has the largest forest area, accounting for 25% of the world’s total. South America has the highest proportion of forest, at 49% of the total land area. More than half (54%) of the world’s forests is in only five countries (in descending order by area).;
Russia
Brazil
Canada
, the
United States of America
and
China
17
The rate of net forest loss decreased globally from 10.7 million ha per year between 1990–2000 to 3.68 million ha per year in 2000–2015 due mainly to large increases in forest area in Canada, China, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. The annual rate of net forest loss increased in the period 2015–2025, to 4.12 million ha, due to a reduction in the rate of forest gain (i.e. afforestation and natural forest expansion).
17
The FAO estimates that the global forest carbon stock has decreased 0.9%, and tree cover 4.2% between 1990 and 2020.
18
: 16, 52
Changes in forest carbon stock by region
Figures in gigatons
18
: 52, table 43
Region
1990
2020
Europe (including Russia)
158.7
172.4
North America
136.6
140.0
Africa
94.3
80.9
South and Southeast Asia combined
45.8
41.5
Oceania
33.4
33.1
Central America
5.0
4.1
South America
161.8
144.8
As of 2019 there is still disagreement about whether the global forest is shrinking or not: "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 forest.
19
: 385
Deforestation in many countries
—both naturally occurring
20
and
human-induced
—is an ongoing issue.
21
Between 2000 and 2012, 2.3 million square kilometres (890,000 square miles) of forests around the world were cut down.
22
Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing
loss of biodiversity
13
The amount of globally needed agricultural land would be reduced by three quarters if the entire population adopted a
vegan
diet.
23
Forest area increased in Asia between 1990 and 2025, albeit at a lower rate in the most recent decade. Forest area also increased over the 35-year period in Europe and to a lesser extent in North and Central America. Forest area has declined substantially in Africa and South America since 1990, although the rate of loss slowed in both regions in the decade to 2025.
17
An estimated 489 million ha of forest has been lost worldwide through deforestation since 1990, but the rate of loss has slowed. The deforestation rate was estimated at 10.9 million ha per year in 2015–2025, down from 13.6 million ha per year in 2000–2015 and 17.6 million ha per year in 1990–2000. The rate of forest expansion slowed from 9.88 million ha per year in 2000–2015 to 6.78 million ha per year in the decade to 2025.
Deforestation is more extreme in tropical and subtropical forests in emerging economies. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the world live in
tropical forests
24
As a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres (2.4 million square miles) remain of the original 16 million square kilometres (6 million square miles) of tropical rainforest that formerly covered the Earth.
22
More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018.
25
The global annual net loss of trees is estimated to be approximately 10 billion.
26
27
According to the
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020
the global average annual deforested land in the 2015–2020 demi-decade was 10 million hectares and the average annual forest area net loss in the 2000–2010 decade was 4.7 million hectares.
15
The world has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, which is an area about the size of Libya.
15
An analysis of global deforestation patterns in 2021 showed that patterns of trade, production, and consumption drive deforestation rates in complex ways. While the location of deforestation can be mapped, it does not always match where the commodity is consumed. For example, consumption patterns in
G7 countries
are estimated to cause an average loss of 3.9 trees per person per year. In other words, deforestation can be directly related to imports—for example, coffee.
28
29
In 2023, the
Global Forest Watch
reported a 9% decline in tropical primary forest loss compared to the previous year, with significant regional reductions in
Brazil
and
Colombia
overshadowed by increases elsewhere, leading to a 3.2% rise in global deforestation. Massive wildfires in
Canada
, exacerbated by
climate change
, contributed to a 24% increase in global tree cover loss, highlighting the ongoing threats to forests essential for
carbon storage
and
biodiversity
. Despite some progress, the overall trends in forest destruction and climate impacts remain off track.
30
The
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
stated in 2022: "Over 420 million ha of forest were lost to deforestation from 1990 to 2020; more than 90% of that loss took place in tropical areas (high confidence), threatening biodiversity, environmental services, livelihoods of forest communities and resilience to climate shocks (high confidence)."
31
See also:
Deforestation by continent
All pages with titles containing
deforestation in
All pages with titles containing
deforestation of
All pages with titles containing
land clearing in
Rates of deforestation
The period since 1950 has brought "the most rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in the history of humankind".
32
Through 2018, humans have reduced forest area by ~30% and grasslands/shrubs by ~68%, to make way for livestock grazing and crops for humans.
33
Global deforestation
34
sharply accelerated around 1852.
35
36
As of 1947, the planet had 15 to 16 million km
(5.8 to 6.2 million mi
) of mature
tropical forests
37
but by 2015, it was estimated that about half of these had been destroyed.
38
24
39
Total land coverage by tropical rainforests decreased from 14% to 6%. Much of this loss happened between 1960 and 1990, when 20% of all tropical rainforests were destroyed. At this rate, extinction of such forests is projected to occur by the mid-21st century.
citation needed
In the early 2000s, some scientists predicted that unless significant measures (such as seeking out and protecting old growth forests that have not been disturbed)
37
are taken on a worldwide basis, by 2030 there will only be 10% remaining,
35
39
with another 10%
in a degraded condition
35
80% will have been lost, and with them hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable species.
35
Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics.
In 2019, the world lost nearly 12 million hectares of tree cover. Nearly a third of that loss, 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests, areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage. This is equivalent to losing an area of primary forest the size of a football pitch every six seconds.
Rates of change
In decades since 1990, South America and Africa have shown the greatest loss of forest area, with global net loss in the 2010s still about 60% of the 1990s value.
40
The rate of global tree cover loss has approximately doubled since 2001, to an annual loss approaching an area the size of Italy.
41
Loss of
primary (old-growth)
forest in the tropics has continued its upward trend, with fire-related losses contributing an increasing portion.
42
A 2002 analysis of satellite imagery suggested that the rate of deforestation in the humid tropics (approximately 5.8 million hectares per year) was roughly 23% lower than the most commonly quoted rates.
43
A 2005 report by the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) estimated that although the Earth's total forest area continued to decrease at about 13 million hectares per year, the global rate of deforestation had been slowing.
44
45
On the other hand, a 2005 analysis of satellite images reveals that
deforestation of the Amazon rainforest
is twice as fast as scientists previously estimated.
46
47
From 2010 to 2015, worldwide forest area decreased by 3.3 million ha per year, according to
FAO
. During this five-year period, the biggest forest area loss occurred in the tropics, particularly in South America and Africa. Per capita forest area decline was also greatest in the tropics and subtropics but is occurring in every climatic domain (except in the temperate) as populations increase.
48
An estimated 420 million ha of forest has been lost worldwide through deforestation since 1990, but the rate of forest loss has declined substantially. In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million ha, down from 12 million ha in 2010–2015.
15
Home to much of the
Amazon rainforest
, Brazil's tropical
primary (old-growth)
forest loss greatly exceeds that of other countries.
49
Overall, 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been "transformed" (deforested) and another 6% has been "highly degraded", causing Amazon Watch to warn that the Amazonia is in the midst of a tipping point crisis.
50
Africa had the largest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010–2020, at 3.9 million ha, followed by South America, at 2.6 million ha. The rate of net forest loss has increased in Africa in each of the three decades since 1990. It has declined substantially in South America, however, to about half the rate in 2010–2020 compared with 2000–2010. Asia had the highest net gain of forest area in 2010–2020, followed by Oceania and Europe. Nevertheless, both Europe and Asia recorded substantially lower rates of net gain in 2010–2020 than in 2000–2010. Oceania experienced net losses of forest area in the decades 1990–2000 and 2000–2010.
15
Some claim that rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace.
51
The London-based Rainforest Foundation notes that "the UN figure is based on a definition of forest as being an area with as little as 10% actual tree cover, which would therefore include areas that are actually savanna-like ecosystems and badly damaged forests".
52
Other critics of the FAO data point out that they do not distinguish between forest types,
53
and that they are based largely on reporting from
forestry
departments of individual countries,
54
which do not take into account unofficial activities like illegal logging.
55
Despite these uncertainties, there is agreement that destruction of rainforests remains a significant environmental problem.
The rate of net forest loss declined from 7.8 million ha per year in the decade 1990–2000 to 5.2 million ha per year in 2000–2010 and 4.7 million ha per year in 2010–2020. The rate of decline of net forest loss slowed in the most recent decade due to a reduction in the rate of forest expansion.
15
Reforestation and afforestation
Main articles:
Reforestation
and
Afforestation
In many parts of the world, especially in East Asian countries,
reforestation
and
afforestation
are increasing the area of forested lands.
56
The amount of forest has increased in 22 of the world's 50 most forested nations. Asia as a whole gained 1 million
hectares
of forest between 2000 and 2005. Tropical forest in El Salvador expanded more than 20% between 1992 and 2001. Based on these trends, one study projects that global forestation will increase by 10%—an area the size of India—by 2050.
57
36% of globally planted forest area is in
East Asia
– around 950,000 square kilometers. From those 87% are in China.
58
Status by region
Main article:
Deforestation by continent
Annual forest area net change, by country, 1990–2025
Global annual net change of naturally regenerating forest, 1990–2025
Rates of deforestation vary around the world. Up to 90% of
West Africa
's coastal rainforests have disappeared since 1900.
59
Madagascar
has lost 90% of its eastern rainforests.
60
61
In
South Asia
, about 88% of the rainforests have been lost.
62
Mexico
India
, the
Philippines
Indonesia
Thailand
Burma
Malaysia
Bangladesh
, China,
Sri Lanka
Laos
Nigeria
, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Liberia
Guinea
Ghana
and the
Ivory Coast
, have lost large areas of their rainforest.
63
64
Satellite imagery
of locations of the
2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires
as detected by
MODIS
from August 15 to August 22, 2019
Deforestation in
Ecuador
Much of what remains of the world's rainforests is in the
Amazon basin
, where the
Amazon rainforest
covers approximately 4 million square kilometres.
65
Some 80% of the deforestation of the Amazon can be attributed to cattle ranching,
66
as Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world.
67
The Amazon region has become one of the largest cattle ranching territories in the world.
68
The regions with the highest tropical deforestation rate between 2000 and 2005 were
Central America
—which lost 1.3% of its forests each year—and tropical Asia.
52
In
Central America
, two-thirds of lowland tropical forests have been turned into pasture since 1950 and 40% of all the rainforests have been lost in the last 40 years.
69
Brazil
has lost 90–95% of its
Mata Atlântica
forest.
70
Deforestation in Brazil
increased by 88% for the month of June 2019, as compared with the previous year.
71
However, Brazil still destroyed 1.3 million hectares in 2019.
Brazil
is one of several countries that have declared their deforestation a national emergency.
72
73
Paraguay
was losing its natural semi-humid forests in the country's western regions at a rate of 15,000 hectares at a randomly studied 2-month period in 2010.
74
In 2009, Paraguay's parliament refused to pass a law that would have stopped cutting of natural forests altogether.
75
As of 2007,
less than 50% of Haiti's forests remained
76
From 2015 to 2019, the rate of
deforestation
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo doubled.
77
In 2021, deforestation of the
Congolese rainforest
increased by 5%.
78
The
World Wildlife Fund
's
ecoregion
project catalogues habitat types throughout the world, including habitat loss such as deforestation, showing for example that even in the rich forests of parts of
Canada
such as the
Mid-Continental Canadian forests
of the prairie provinces half of the forest cover has been lost or altered.
In 2011,
Conservation International
listed the top 10 most endangered forests, characterized by having all lost 90% or more of their original
habitat
, and each harboring at least 1500
endemic
plant species (species found nowhere else in the world).
79
As of 2015
[update]
, it is estimated that 70% of the world's forests are within one kilometer of a forest edge, where they are most prone to human interference and destruction.
80
81
Top 10 Most Endangered Forests in 2011
79
Endangered forest
Region
Remaining habitat
Predominate vegetation type
Notes
Indo-Burma
Asia-Pacific
5%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Rivers, floodplain wetlands, mangrove forests.
Burma
Thailand
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
India
82
New Caledonia
Asia-Pacific
5%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
See note for region covered.
83
Sundaland
Asia-Pacific
7%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Western half of the Indo-Malayan archipelago including southern
Borneo
and
Sumatra
84
Philippines
Asia-Pacific
7%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Forests over the entire country including 7,100 islands.
85
Atlantic Forest
South America
8%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Forests along
Brazil
's Atlantic coast, extends to parts of
Paraguay
Argentina
and
Uruguay
86
Mountains of Southwest China
Asia-Pacific
8%
Temperate coniferous forest
See note for region covered.
87
California Floristic Province
North America
10%
Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
See note for region covered.
88
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa
Africa
10%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Mozambique
Tanzania
Kenya
Somalia
89
Madagascar
& Indian Ocean Islands
Africa
10%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Madagascar
Mauritius
Reunion
Seychelles
Comoros
90
Eastern Afromontane
Africa
11%
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Montane grasslands and shrublands
Forests scattered along the eastern edge of Africa, from
Saudi Arabia
in the north to
Zimbabwe
in the south.
91
By country
Deforestation in particular countries:
Deforestation by country
Afghanistan
Albania
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Bangladesh
Belize
Bhutan
Bolivia
Brazil
Burundi
Cambodia
Canada
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Democratic Republic of the Congo
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
France
Georgia
Ghana
Guatemala
Guinea
Haiti
Honduras
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Laos
Liberia
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mali
Mexico
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
North Korea
North Macedonia
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Russia
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Togo
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Causes
See also:
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest § Causes of deforestation
, and
Deforestation in Brazil § Causes
Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by region, 2000–2010
13
Drivers of tropical deforestration
The last batch of sawnwood from the
peat forest
in
Indragiri Hulu
Sumatra
Indonesia
. Deforestation for
oil palm
plantation.
Agricultural expansion
continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest fragmentation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity.
13
In 2025 nearly 90% of global deforestation was caused by agriculture, with cropland expansion and pasture creation the primary drivers.
11
Large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean and oil palm) accounted for 40 percent of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010, and local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent.
13
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.
The vast majority of agricultural activity resulting in deforestation is
subsidized by government tax revenue
92
Disregard of ascribed value, lax
forest management
, and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that lead to large-scale deforestation.
The types of drivers vary greatly depending on the region in which they take place. The regions with the greatest amount of deforestation for livestock and row crop agriculture are Central and South America, while commodity crop deforestation was found mainly in Southeast Asia. The region with the greatest forest loss due to shifting agriculture was sub-Saharan Africa.
93
Agriculture
Further information:
Agricultural expansion
The overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture.
Subsistence farming
is responsible for 48% of deforestation;
commercial agriculture
is responsible for 32%;
logging
is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%.
More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018.
10
Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, tea,
palm oil
, rice,
rubber
, and various other popular products.
12
The rising demand for certain products and global trade arrangements causes
forest conversions
, which ultimately leads to
soil erosion
94
The
top soil
oftentimes erodes after forests are cleared which leads to sediment increase in rivers and streams.
Anthropogenic biomes of the world
Most deforestation also occurs in tropical regions. The estimated amount of total land mass used by agriculture is around 38%.
95
Since 1960, roughly 15% of the
Amazon
has been removed with the intention of replacing the land with agricultural practices.
96
It is no coincidence that Brazil has recently become the world's largest beef exporter at the same time that the
Amazon rainforest
is being clear cut.
97
Another prevalent method of agricultural deforestation is
slash-and-burn agriculture
, which was primarily used by subsistence farmers in tropical regions but has now become increasingly less sustainable. The method does not leave land for continuous agricultural production but instead cuts and burns small plots of forest land which are then converted into agricultural zones. The farmers then exploit the nutrients in the ashes of the burned plants.
98
99
As well as, intentionally set fires can possibly lead to devastating measures when unintentionally spreading fire to more land, which can result in the destruction of the protective canopy.
100
The repeated cycle of low yields and shortened fallow periods eventually results in less vegetation being able to grow on once burned lands and a decrease in average soil biomass.
101
In small local plots sustainability is not an issue because of longer fallow periods and lesser overall deforestation. The relatively small size of the plots allowed for no net input of CO
to be released.
102
Livestock ranching
Consumption and production of beef is the primary driver of deforestation in the Amazon
, with around 80% of all converted land being used to rear cattle.
103
104
91% of Amazon land deforested since 1970 has been converted to cattle ranching.
105
106
Livestock
ranching
requires large portions of land to raise herds of animals and livestock crops for consumer needs. According to the
World Wildlife Fund
, "Extensive cattle ranching is the number one culprit of deforestation in virtually every Amazon country, and it accounts for 80% of current deforestation."
107
The cattle industry is responsible for a significant amount of
methane emissions
since 60% of all mammals on earth are livestock cows.
108
109
Replacing forest land with pastures creates a loss of
forest stock
, which leads to the implication of increased greenhouse gas emissions by burning agriculture methodologies and
land-use change
110
Junk Mail
Main article:
Advertising mail
Over 100 million trees per year are cut down for the purpose of junk mail.
111
A major reason for the United States allowing this deforestation practice is to fund the
United States Postal Service
112
Wood industry
Further information:
Wood industry
A large contributing factor to deforestation is the
lumber industry
. A total of almost 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of timber,
113
or about 1.3% of all forest land, is harvested each year. In addition, the increasing demand for low-cost timber products only supports the lumber company to continue logging.
114
Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation.
115
116
Some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest.
115
Economic development
Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include
corruption
of government institutions,
117
118
119
the
inequitable distribution of wealth and power
120
population growth
121
and
overpopulation
122
123
and
urbanization
124
125
The impact of population growth on deforestation has been contested. One study found that population increases due to high fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases.
126
In 2000 the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) found that "the role of population dynamics in a local setting may vary from decisive to negligible", and that deforestation can result from "a combination of
population pressure
and stagnating economic, social and technological conditions".
121
Globalization
is often viewed as another root cause of deforestation,
127
128
though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization (new flows of labor, capital, commodities, and ideas) have promoted localized forest recovery.
129
Illegal
gold mining in Madre de Dios,
Peru
The degradation of forest ecosystems has also been traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation.
130
Many important forest functions have no markets, and hence, no economic value that is readily apparent to the forests' owners or the communities that rely on forests for their well-being.
130
Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years.
131
Whereas deforestation was primarily driven by subsistence activities and government-sponsored development projects like
transmigration
in countries like
Indonesia
and
colonization
in
Latin America
India
Java
, and so on, during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, by the 1990s the majority of deforestation was caused by industrial factors, including extractive industries, large-scale cattle ranching, and extensive agriculture.
132
Since 2001, commodity-driven deforestation, which is more likely to be permanent, has accounted for about a quarter of all forest disturbance, and this loss has been concentrated in South America and Southeast Asia.
133
As the human population grows, new homes, communities, and expansions of cities will occur, leading to an increase in roads to connect these communities. Rural roads promote economic development but also facilitate deforestation.
134
About 90% of the deforestation has occurred within 100 km of roads in most parts of the Amazon.
135
Mining
The importance of
mining
as a cause of deforestation increased quickly in the beginning the 21st century, among other because of increased demand for minerals. The direct impact of mining is relatively small, but the indirect impacts are much more significant. More than a third of the earth's forests are possibly impacted, at some level and in the years 2001–2021, "755,861 km
... ...had been deforested by causes indirectly related to mining activities alongside other deforestation drivers (based on data from WWF)"
136
In the year 2023, mining, including for the elements needed for the
energy transition
strongly contributed to deforestation. Mining is a particular threat to biodiversity: "in 2019, 79 percent of global metal ore extraction originated from five of the six most species-rich biomes".
137
Climate change
Globally,
wildfires
and deforestation have reduced forests' net absorption of
greenhouse gases
, reducing their effectiveness at mitigating climate change.
138
Global warming increases forest fires that release more greenhouse gases, creating a
feedback loop
that causes more warming.
139
Over recent decades, "forest disturbance" (damage) by fire has increased in most of the planet's forest zones.
140
The increase in area, frequency, and severity of forest fires creates a
positive feedback
that increases global warming.
140
Another cause of deforestation is due to the
effects of climate change
: More
wildfires
141
insect outbreaks,
invasive species
, and more frequent
extreme weather
events (such as storms) are factors that increase deforestation.
142
A study suggests that "tropical, arid and temperate forests are experiencing a significant decline in resilience, probably related to increased water limitations and climate variability" which may shift ecosystems towards
critical transitions
and
ecosystem collapses
143
By contrast, "boreal forests show divergent local patterns with an average increasing trend in resilience, probably benefiting from warming and CO
fertilization, which may outweigh the adverse effects of climate change".
143
It has been proposed that a loss of resilience in forests "can be detected from the increased temporal autocorrelation (TAC) in the state of the system, reflecting a decline in recovery rates due to the critical slowing down (CSD) of system processes that occur at thresholds".
143
23% of tree cover losses result from wildfires and climate change increase their frequency and power.
144
The rising temperatures cause massive wildfires especially in the
Boreal forests
. One possible effect is the change of the forest composition.
145
Deforestation can also cause forests to become more fire prone through mechanisms such as logging.
146
Military causes
See also:
Environmental impact of war
U.S. Army
Huey helicopter
spraying
Agent Orange
during the
Vietnam War
Operations in
war
can also cause deforestation. For example, in the 1945
Battle of Okinawa
bombardment
and other
combat operations
reduced a lush tropical landscape into "a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots".
147
Deforestation can also result from the intentional
tactics
of
military forces
Clearing
forests became an element in the Russian Empire's successful
conquest of the Caucasus
in the mid-19th century.
148
The British (during the
Malayan Emergency
) and the United States (in the
Korean War
149
and in the
Vietnam War
) used
defoliants
(like
Agent Orange
or others).
150
151
152
need quotation to verify
The destruction of forests in Vietnam War is one of the most commonly used examples of
ecocide
, including by Swedish Prime Minister
Olof Palme
, lawyers, historians and other academics.
153
154
155
Impacts
On atmosphere and climate
Further information:
Deforestation and climate change
Biophysical mechanisms by which forests influence climate.
156
Per capita CO
emissions from deforestation for food production
Illegal "
slash-and-burn
" practice in
Madagascar
, 2010
Mean annual carbon loss from tropical deforestation.
157
Deforestation is a major contributor to
climate change
158
159
160
It is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced
greenhouse effect
. Recent calculations suggest that CO
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (excluding
peatland
emissions) contribute about 12% of total anthropogenic CO
emissions, with a range from 6% to 17%.
161
A 2022 study shows annual carbon emissions from tropical deforestation have doubled during the last two decades and continue to increase: by 0.97 ± 0.16 PgC (
petagrams
of carbon, i.e. billions of tons) per year in 2001–2005 to 1.99 ± 0.13 PgC per year in 2015–2019.
162
157
According to a review, north of 50°N, large scale deforestation leads to an overall net global cooling; but deforestation in the tropics leads to substantial warming: not just due to CO
impacts, but also due to other biophysical mechanisms (making carbon-centric metrics inadequate). Moreover, it suggests that standing tropical forests help cool the average global temperature by more than 1 °C.
163
156
According to a later study, deforestation in northern latitudes can also increase warming, while the conclusion about cooling from deforestation in these areas made by previous studies results from the failure of models to properly capture the effects of evapotranspiration.
164
The incineration and burning of forest plants to clear land releases large amounts of CO
, which contributes to global warming.
165
Scientists also state that tropical deforestation releases 1.5 billion tons of carbon each year into the atmosphere.
166
Carbon sink or source
See also:
Carbon sequestration
Carbon sink
, and
Biomass (energy) § Climate impacts
A study suggests logged and structurally degraded tropical forests are
carbon sources
for at least a decade – even when recovering
clarification needed
– due to larger carbon losses
from soil organic matter
and deadwood, indicating that the tropical forest
carbon sink
(at least in South Asia) "may be much smaller than previously estimated", contradicting that "recovering logged and degraded tropical forests are net carbon sinks".
167
Fires on Borneo and Sumatra
, 2006. People use
slash-and-burn
deforestation to clear land for agriculture.
This section is an excerpt from
Carbon sequestration § Forestry
edit
Proportion of carbon stock in forest carbon pools, 2020
168
Total forest carbon stock, by carbon pool, 2025.
Forests are an important part of the
global carbon cycle
because trees and plants absorb
carbon dioxide
through
photosynthesis
. Therefore, they play an important role in
climate change mitigation
169
: 37
By removing the
greenhouse gas
CO
from the air, forests function as terrestrial
carbon sinks
, meaning they store large amounts of carbon in the form of biomass, encompassing roots, stems, branches, and leaves. By doing so, forests sequester approximately 25% of human carbon emissions annually, playing a critical role in Earth's climate.
170
Throughout their lifespan, trees continue to sequester carbon, storing atmospheric CO
long-term.
171
Sustainable forest management
afforestation
reforestation
are therefore important contributions to climate change mitigation.
citation needed
An important consideration in such efforts is that forests can turn from sinks to carbon sources.
172
173
In 2019 forests took up a third less carbon than they did in the 1990s, due to higher temperatures,
droughts
174
and deforestation. National-scale forest inventory data also shows trends from 1999 to 2020 that some forests were already approaching climate thresholds shifting them from carbon sinks to carbon sources.
170
The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s.
175
Researchers have found that, in terms of
environmental services
, it is better to avoid deforestation than to allow for deforestation to subsequently reforest, as the latter leads to irreversible effects in terms of
biodiversity loss
and
soil degradation
176
Furthermore, the probability that legacy carbon will be released from soil is higher in a younger boreal forest.
177
In particular, boreal forests have been noted to support the growth of Armillaria (honey fungus), which is a root pathogen that breaks down compounds necessary for wood integrity, increasing the likelihood of carbon release.
178
Global greenhouse gas emissions caused by damage to tropical rainforests may have been substantially underestimated until around 2019.
179
Additionally, the effects of afforestation and reforestation will be farther in the future than keeping existing forests intact.
180
It takes much longer − several decades − for the benefits for global warming to manifest to the same carbon sequestration benefits from mature trees in tropical forests and hence from limiting deforestation.
181
Therefore, scientists consider "the protection and recovery of carbon-rich and long-lived ecosystems, especially natural forests" to be "the major climate
solution
".
182
The planting of trees on marginal crop and
pasture
lands helps to incorporate carbon from atmospheric
CO
into
biomass
183
184
For this carbon sequestration process to succeed the carbon must not return to the atmosphere from biomass burning or rotting when the trees die.
185
Several species of
Ficus
such as
Ficus wakefieldii
have been observed to sequester atmospheric CO
as
calcium oxalate
in the presence of
oxalotrophic
bacteria and fungi, which
catabolize
the oxalate, which produces calcium carbonate.
186
The calcium carbonate is precipitated throughout the tree, which also
alkalinizes
the surrounding soil. These species are current candidates for carbon sequestration in agroforestry. This Calcium-oxalate fixation process was first observed in the
Iroko
tree, which can sequester up to a ton of calcium carbonate in the soil over its lifespan. Also Cacti, such as the
Saguaro
, transfer carbon from the biological cycle to the geological cycle by forming the mineral calcium carbonate.
187
Earth offers enough room to plant an additional 0.9 billion ha of tree canopy cover, although this estimate has been criticized,
188
189
and the true area that has a net cooling effect on the climate when accounting for biophysical feedbacks like albedo is 20-80% lower.
190
191
Planting and protecting these trees would sequester 205 billion tons of carbon if the trees survive future climate stress to reach maturity.
192
191
To put this number into perspective, this is about 20 years of current global carbon emissions (as of 2019) .
193
This level of sequestration would represent about 25% of the atmosphere's carbon pool in 2019.
191
Life expectancy of forests varies throughout the world, influenced by tree species, site conditions, and natural disturbance patterns. In some forests, carbon may be stored for centuries, while in other forests, carbon is released with frequent stand replacing fires. Forests that are harvested prior to stand replacing events allow for the retention of carbon in manufactured forest products such as
lumber
194
However, only a portion of the carbon removed from logged forests ends up as durable goods and buildings. The remainder ends up as sawmill by-products such as pulp, paper, and pallets.
195
If all new construction globally utilized 90% wood products, largely via adoption of
mass timber
in
low rise
construction, this could sequester 700 million net tons of carbon per year.
196
197
This is in addition to the elimination of carbon emissions from the displaced construction material such as steel or concrete, which are carbon-intense to produce.
A meta-analysis found that mixed species plantations would increase carbon storage alongside other benefits of diversifying planted forests.
198
Although a bamboo forest stores less total carbon than a mature forest of trees, a
bamboo plantation
sequesters carbon at a much faster rate than a mature forest or a tree plantation. Therefore, the farming of bamboo timber may have significant carbon sequestration potential.
199
The
Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) reported that: "The total carbon stock in forests decreased from 668 gigatonnes in 1990 to 662 gigatonnes in 2020".
168
: 11
In
Canada's boreal forests
as much as 80% of the total carbon is stored in the soils as dead organic matter.
200
The
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
says: "Secondary forest regrowth and restoration of degraded forests and non-forest ecosystems can play a large role in carbon sequestration (high confidence) with high resilience to disturbances and additional benefits such as enhanced biodiversity."
201
202
Impacts on temperature are affected by the location of the forest. For example, reforestation in boreal or
subarctic
regions has less impact on climate. This is because it substitutes a high-
albedo
, snow-dominated region with a lower-albedo forest canopy. By contrast, tropical reforestation projects lead to a positive change such as the formation of
clouds
. These clouds then
reflect the sunlight
, lowering temperatures.
203
: 1457
Planting trees in
tropical climates
with
wet seasons
has another advantage. In such a setting, trees grow more quickly (fixing more carbon) because they can grow year-round. Trees in tropical climates have, on average, larger, brighter, and more abundant leaves than non-tropical climates. A study of the
girth
of 70,000 trees across
Africa
has shown that tropical forests fix more carbon dioxide pollution than previously realized. The research suggested almost one-fifth of fossil fuel emissions are absorbed by forests across Africa,
Amazonia
and
Asia
. Simon Lewis stated, "Tropical forest trees are absorbing about 18% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere each year from burning fossil fuels, substantially buffering the rate of change."
204
On the environment
According to a 2020 study, if deforestation continues at current rates it can trigger a total or almost total
extinction of humanity
in the next 20 to 40 years. They conclude that "from a statistical point of view... the probability that our civilisation survives itself is less than 10% in the most optimistic scenario." To avoid this collapse, humanity should pass from a civilization dominated by the economy to "cultural society" that "privileges the interest of the ecosystem above the individual interest of its components, but eventually in accordance with the overall communal interest."
205
206
Changes to the water cycle
The
water cycle
is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract
groundwater
through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer transpire this water, resulting in a much
drier climate
. Deforestation reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. The dry soil leads to lower water intake for the trees to extract.
207
Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that
erosion
, flooding and
landslides
ensue.
208
209
Shrinking
forest cover
lessens the landscape's capacity to intercept, retain and
transpire
precipitation. Instead of trapping precipitation, which then percolates to groundwater systems, deforested areas become sources of surface water runoff, which moves much faster than subsurface flows. Forests return most of the water that falls as precipitation to the atmosphere by transpiration. In contrast, when an area is deforested, almost all precipitation is lost as run-off.
210
That quicker transport of surface water can translate into
flash flooding
and more localized floods than would occur with the forest cover. Deforestation also contributes to decreased
evapotranspiration
, which lessens atmospheric moisture which in some cases affects precipitation levels downwind from the deforested area, as water is not recycled to downwind forests, but is lost in runoff and returns directly to the oceans. According to one study, in deforested north and northwest China, the average annual precipitation decreased by one third between the 1950s and the 1980s.
211
Deforestation of the
Highland Plateau
in Madagascar has led to extensive
siltation
and unstable flows of western rivers.
Trees, and plants in general, affect the
water cycle
significantly:
212
their canopies intercept a proportion of
precipitation
, which is then evaporated back to the atmosphere (
canopy interception
);
their litter, stems and trunks slow down
surface runoff
their roots create
macropores
– large conduits – in the soil that increase
infiltration
of water;
they contribute to terrestrial evaporation and reduce
soil moisture
via
transpiration
their
litter
and other organic residue change soil properties that affect the capacity of soil to store water.
their leaves control the
humidity
of the atmosphere by
transpiring
. 99% of the water absorbed by the roots moves up to the leaves and is transpired.
213
As a result, the presence or absence of trees can change the quantity of water on the surface, in the soil or groundwater, or in the atmosphere. This in turn changes erosion rates and the availability of water for either ecosystem functions or human services. Deforestation on lowland plains moves cloud formation and rainfall to higher elevations.
214
The forest may have little impact on flooding in the case of large rainfall events, which overwhelm the storage capacity of forest soil if the soils are at or close to saturation.
Tropical rainforests
produce about 30% of Earth's
fresh water
215
Deforestation disrupts normal weather patterns creating hotter and drier weather thus increasing drought, desertification, crop failures, melting of the polar ice caps,
coastal flooding
and displacement of major vegetation regimes.
216
Soil erosion
Deforestation in
France
Due to surface
plant litter
, forests that are undisturbed have a minimal rate of
erosion
. The rate of erosion occurs from deforestation, because it decreases the amount of litter cover, which provides protection from
surface runoff
217
The rate of erosion is around 2 metric tons per square kilometre.
218
self-published source?
This can be an advantage in excessively leached tropical rain forest soils. Forestry operations themselves also increase erosion through the
development of
forest
roads
and the use of mechanized equipment.
80
Deforestation in China's Loess Plateau many years ago has led to soil erosion; this erosion has led to valleys opening up. The increase of soil in the runoff causes the Yellow River to flood and makes it yellow-colored.
218
Greater erosion is not always a consequence of deforestation, as observed in the southwestern regions of the US. In these areas, the loss of grass due to the presence of trees and other shrubbery leads to more erosion than when trees are removed.
218
Soils are reinforced by the presence of trees, which secure the soil by binding their roots to soil bedrock. Due to deforestation, the removal of trees causes sloped lands to be more susceptible to
landslides.
212
Other changes to the soil
Clearing forests changes the environment of the
microbial communities within the soil
, and causes a
loss of biodiversity
in regards to the microbes since biodiversity is actually highly dependent on
soil texture
219
Although the effect of deforestation has much more profound consequences on sandier soils compared to clay-like soils, the disruptions caused by deforestation ultimately reduces properties of soil such as
hydraulic conductivity
and water storage, thus reducing the efficiency of water and heat absorption.
219
220
In a simulation of the deforestation process in the Amazon, researchers found that surface and soil temperatures increased by 1 to 3 degrees Celsius demonstrating the loss of the soil's ability to absorb radiation and moisture.
220
Furthermore, soils that are rich in organic decay matter are more susceptible to fire, especially during long droughts.
219
Changes in soil properties could turn the soil itself into a
carbon source
rather than a
carbon sink
221
Biodiversity loss
Further information:
Biodiversity loss
Deforestation on a human scale results in decline in
biodiversity
222
and on a natural global scale is known to cause the extinction of many species.
223
224
The removal or destruction of areas of forest cover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced
biodiversity
123
Forests support biodiversity, providing habitat for
wildlife
225
moreover, forests foster
medicinal conservation
226
With forest
biotopes
being irreplaceable source of new drugs (such as
taxol
), deforestation can destroy
genetic
variations (such as crop resistance) irretrievably.
227
Illegal logging in Madagascar
. In 2009, the vast majority of the illegally obtained
rosewood
was exported to
China
Since the tropical rainforests are the most diverse
ecosystems
on Earth
228
229
and about 80% of the world's known
biodiversity
can be found in tropical rainforests,
230
removal or destruction of significant areas of forest cover has resulted in a
degraded
231
environment with reduced biodiversity.
223
232
Road construction and development of adjacent land, which greatly reduces the area of intact wilderness and causes soil erosion, is a major contributing factor to the loss of biodiversity in tropical regions.
80
A study in
Rondônia
, Brazil, has shown that deforestation also removes the microbial community which is involved in the recycling of nutrients, the production of clean water and the removal of pollutants.
233
It has been estimated that 137 plant, animal and insect species go extinct every day due to rainforest deforestation, which equates to 50,000 species a year.
234
Others state that tropical rainforest deforestation is contributing to the ongoing
Holocene mass extinction
235
236
The known extinction rates from deforestation rates are very low, approximately one species per year from mammals and birds, which extrapolates to approximately 23,000 species per year for all species. Predictions have been made that more than 40% of the animal and
plant species
in
Southeast Asia
could be wiped out in the 21st century.
237
Such predictions were called into question by 1995 data that show that within regions of Southeast Asia much of the original forest has been converted to monospecific plantations, but that potentially endangered species are few and tree flora remains widespread and stable.
238
World map of
rainforests
Tropical rainforest
Temperate/subtropical rainforest
Scientific understanding of the process of extinction is insufficient to accurately make predictions about the impact of deforestation on biodiversity.
239
Most predictions of forestry related biodiversity loss are based on species-area models, with an underlying assumption that as the forest declines species diversity will decline similarly.
240
However, many such models have been proven to be wrong and
loss of habitat
does not necessarily lead to large scale loss of species.
240
Species-area models are known to overpredict the number of species known to be threatened in areas where actual deforestation is ongoing, and greatly overpredict the number of threatened species that are widespread.
238
In 2012, a study of the Brazilian Amazon predicts that despite a lack of extinctions thus far, up to 90 percent of predicted extinctions will finally occur in the next 40 years.
241
Oxygen-supply misconception
Rainforests are widely believed by lay people to provide a significant amount of the world's
oxygen
215
However, scientific research has found that rainforests contribute little net oxygen to the
Earth's atmosphere
, so deforestation has only a minor effect on atmospheric oxygen levels.
242
243
In fact, about 50 percent of the Earth's oxygen is produced by
algae
, mostly in the oceans.
244
On human health
Deforestation reduces safe working hours for millions of people in the tropics, especially for those performing heavy labour outdoors. Continued global heating and forest loss is expected to amplify these impacts, reducing work hours for vulnerable groups even more.
245
A study conducted from 2002 to 2018 also determined that the increase in temperature as a result of climate change, and the lack of shade due to deforestation, has increased the
mortality rate
of workers in
Indonesia
246
A 2025 pan-tropical analysis estimated that local warming from tropical deforestation (2001–2020) exposed ~345 million people and was associated with ~28,330 additional heat-related deaths per year, accounting for roughly one-third of heat-attributable mortality in areas of forest loss, with the highest rates in Southeast Asia.
247
Infectious diseases
Deforestation eliminates a great number of species of plants and animals which also often results in exposure of people to
zoonotic diseases
13
248
249
Forest-associated diseases include malaria, Chagas disease (also known as American trypanosomiasis), African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), leishmaniasis, Lyme disease, HIV and Ebola.
13
The majority of new infectious diseases affecting humans, including the
SARS-CoV-2 virus
that caused the
COVID-19 pandemic
, are zoonotic and their emergence may be linked to habitat loss due to forest area change and the expansion of human populations into forest areas, which both increase human exposure to wildlife.
13
Deforestation has been coupled with an increase in the occurrence of disease outbreaks. In
Malaysia
, thousands of acres of forest have been cleared for pig farms. This has resulted in an increase in the spread of the
Nipah virus
250
251
In
Kenya
, deforestation has led to an increase in malaria cases which is now the leading cause of morbidity and mortality the country.
252
253
A 2017 study found that deforestation substantially increased the incidence of malaria in Nigeria.
254
Another pathway through which deforestation affects disease is the relocation and dispersion of disease-carrying hosts. This disease emergence pathway can be called "
range expansion
", whereby the host's range (and thereby the range of pathogens) expands to new geographic areas.
255
Through deforestation, hosts and reservoir species are forced into neighboring habitats. Accompanying the reservoir species are pathogens that have the ability to find new hosts in previously unexposed regions. As these pathogens and species come into closer contact with humans, they are infected both directly and indirectly. Another example of range expansion due to deforestation and other
anthropogenic
habitat impacts includes the
Capybara
rodent in
Paraguay
256
According to the
World Economic Forum
, 31% of
emerging diseases
are linked to deforestation.
257
A publication by the
United Nations Environment Programme
in 2016 found that deforestation,
climate change
, and
livestock
agriculture are among the main causes that increase the risk of
zoonotic diseases
, that is diseases that pass from animals to humans.
258
COVID-19 pandemic
See also:
COVID-19 pandemic
and
Pandemic prevention § Environmental policy and economics
Scientists have linked the
Coronavirus pandemic
to the destruction of nature, especially to deforestation,
habitat loss
in general and
wildlife trade
259
According to the
United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) the
Coronavirus disease 2019
is zoonotic, e.g., the virus passed from animals to humans. UNEP concludes that: "The most fundamental way to protect ourselves from zoonotic diseases is to prevent destruction of nature. Where ecosystems are healthy and biodiverse, they are resilient, adaptable and help to regulate diseases.
260
On the economy and agriculture
A satellite image showing
deforestation for a palm oil plantation
in Malaysia
This section needs to be
updated
. The reason given is:
cites are very old
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
June 2020
Economic losses due to
deforestation in Brazil
could reach around 317 billion dollars per year, approximately 7 times higher in comparison to the cost of all commodities produced through deforestation.
261
The forest products industry is a large part of the economy in both developed and developing countries. Short-term economic gains made by conversion of forest to agriculture, or
over-exploitation
of wood products, typically leads to a loss of long-term income and long-term biological productivity.
West Africa
Madagascar
Southeast Asia
and many other regions have experienced lower revenue because of declining timber harvests. Illegal logging causes billions of dollars of losses to national economies annually.
262
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.
13
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.
13
Satellite image of
Haiti
's border with the
Dominican Republic
(right) shows the amount of
deforestation on the Haitian side
Deforestation around Pakke Tiger Reserve, India
Monitoring
Agents from IBAMA,
Brazil
's environmental police, searching for illegal logging activity in
Indigenous territory
in the
Amazon rainforest
, 2018
There are multiple methods that are appropriate and reliable for reducing and monitoring deforestation. One method is the "visual interpretation of aerial photos or satellite imagery that is labor-intensive but does not require high-level training in computer image processing or extensive computational resources".
135
Another method includes hot-spot analysis (that is, locations of rapid change) using expert opinion or coarse resolution satellite data to identify locations for detailed digital analysis with high resolution satellite images.
135
Deforestation is typically assessed by quantifying the amount of area deforested, measured at the present time.
From an environmental point of view, quantifying the damage and its possible consequences is a more important task, while conservation efforts are more focused on forested land protection and development of land-use alternatives to avoid continued deforestation.
135
Deforestation rate and total area deforested have been widely used for monitoring deforestation in many regions, including the Brazilian Amazon deforestation monitoring by INPE.
166
A global satellite view is available, an example of
land change science
monitoring of land cover over time.
263
264
Satellite imaging has become crucial in obtaining data on levels of deforestation and reforestation.
Landsat
satellite
data, for example, has been used to map tropical deforestation as part of
NASA
's Landsat
Pathfinder Humid Tropical Deforestation Project
. The project yielded deforestation maps for the
Amazon Basin
Central Africa
, and
Southeast Asia
for three periods in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
265
Greenpeace has mapped out the forests that are still intact
266
and published this information on the internet.
267
World Resources Institute
in turn has made a simpler thematic map
268
showing the amount of forests present just before the age of man (8000 years ago) and the current (reduced) levels of forest.
269
Control
International, national and subnational policies
An incomplete concept of a framework of policy mix sequencing for zero-deforestation governance. Non-intervention in processes related to beef production via policies may be a main driver of tropical deforestation.
Further information:
Sustainable development
and
Universal basic income in Brazil
Policies for forest protection include information and education programs, economic measures to increase revenue returns from authorized activities and measures to increase effectiveness of "forest technicians and forest managers".
270
Poverty and agricultural rent were found to be principal factors leading to deforestation.
271
Contemporary domestic and foreign political decision-makers could possibly create and implement policies whose outcomes ensure that economic activities in critical forests are consistent with their scientifically ascribed value for
ecosystem services
, climate change mitigation and other purposes.
Such policies may use and organize the development of complementary technical and economic means – including for lower levels of beef production, sales and consumption (which would also have major benefits for
climate change mitigation
),
272
273
higher levels of specified other economic activities in such areas (such as reforestation, forest protection,
sustainable agriculture
for specific classes of food products and
quaternary work
in general),
product information
requirements
, practice- and product-certifications and
eco-tariffs
, along with the required monitoring and
traceability
Inducing the creation and enforcement of such policies
could, for instance, achieve a global phase-out of
deforestation-associated beef
274
275
276
additional citation(s) needed
With complex polycentric governance measures, goals like sufficient climate change mitigation as decided with e.g. the
Paris Agreement
and a stoppage of deforestation by 2030 as decided at the
2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference
could be achieved.
277
A study has suggested higher income nations need to reduce
imports
of tropical forest-related products and help with theoretically forest-related socioeconomic development. Proactive government policies and international forest policies "revisit[ing] and redesign[ing] global forest trade" are needed as well.
278
279
In 2022 the
European parliament
approved a bill aiming to stop the import linked with deforestation. This
EU Regulation on Deforestation-free products
(EUDR), may cause to Brazil, for example, to stop deforestation for agricultural production and begun to "increase productivity on existing agricultural land".
280
The legislation was adopted with some changes by the
European Council
in May 2023 and is expected to enter into force several weeks after. The bill requires companies who want to import certain types of products to the European Union to prove the production of those commodities is not linked to areas deforested after 31 of December 2020. It prohibits also import of products linked with
Human rights
abuse. The list of products includes:
palm oil
cattle
wood
coffee
cocoa
rubber
and
soy
. Some derivatives of those products are also included:
chocolate
furniture
printed paper
and several palm oil based derivates.
281
282
But unfortunately, as the report
Bankrolling ecosystem destruction
shows,
283
this regulation of product imports is not enough. The European financial sector is investing billions of euros in the destruction of nature. Banks do not respond positively to requests to stop this, which is why the report calls for European regulation in this area to be tightened and for banks to be banned from continuing to finance deforestation.
284
International pledges
In 2014, about 40 countries signed the
New York Declaration on Forests
, a voluntary pledge to halve deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. The agreement was not legally binding, however, and some key countries, such as Brazil, China, and Russia, did not sign onto it. As a result, the effort failed, and deforestation increased from 2014 to 2020.
285
286
In November 2021, 141 countries (with around 85% of the world's
primary
tropical forests
and 90% of global
tree cover
) agreed at the
COP26 climate summit in Glasgow
to the
Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use
, a pledge to end and reverse deforestation by 2030.
286
287
288
The agreement was accompanied by about $19.2 billion in associated funding commitments.
287
The 2021
Glasgow agreement
improved on the New York Declaration by now including Brazil and many other countries that did not sign the 2014 agreement.
286
287
Some key nations with high rates of deforestation (including Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Paraguay, and Myanmar) have not signed the Glasgow Declaration.
287
Like the earlier agreement, the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration was entered into outside the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
and is thus not legally binding.
287
In November 2021, the EU executive outlined a draft law requiring companies to prove that the agricultural commodities beef, wood, palm oil, soy,
coffee
and
cocoa
destined for the EU's 450 million consumers were not linked to deforestation.
289
In September 2022, the EU Parliament supported and strengthened the plan from the EU's executive with 453 votes to 57.
290
In 2018 the biggest palm oil trader, Wilmar, decided to control its suppliers to avoid deforestation
291
additional citation(s) needed
In 2021, over 100 world leaders, representing countries containing more than 85% of the world's forests, committed to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
292
Land rights
Transferring
land rights
to indigenous inhabitants is argued to efficiently conserve forests.
Indigenous communities have long been the frontline of resistance against deforestation.
293
Transferring rights over land from public domain to its
indigenous inhabitants
is argued to be a cost-effective strategy to conserve forests.
294
This includes the protection of such rights entitled in existing laws, such as India's
Forest Rights Act
294
The transferring of such rights in
China
, perhaps the largest
land reform
in modern times, has been argued to have increased forest cover.
295
In
Brazil
, forested areas given tenure to indigenous groups have even lower rates of
clearing
than
national parks
295
Community concessions in the
Congolian rainforests
have significantly less deforestation as communities are incentivized to manage the land sustainably, even reducing poverty.
296
Forest management
Further information:
Forest management
In areas where "
slash-and-burn
" is practiced, switching to "
slash-and-char
" would prevent the rapid deforestation and subsequent degradation of soils. The
biochar
thus created, given back to the soil, is not only a durable
carbon sequestration
method, but it also is an extremely beneficial
amendment
to the soil. Mixed with
biomass
it brings the creation of
terra preta
, one of the richest soils on the planet and the only one known to regenerate itself.
Bamboo is advocated as a more sustainable alternative for cutting down wood for fuel.
297
Certification, as provided by global certification systems such as
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification
and
Forest Stewardship Council
, contributes to tackling deforestation by creating market demand for timber from sustainably managed forests. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "A major condition for the adoption of sustainable forest management is a demand for products that are produced sustainably and consumer willingness to pay for the higher costs entailed. [...] By promoting the positive attributes of forest products from sustainably managed forests, certification focuses on the demand side of environmental conservation."
298
Brazil’s
Amazon soy moratorium
, an agreement among commodities traders to not purchase from areas deforested after 2008, has contributed to the reduction in deforestion rates and less than 2% of the production land was non-compliant in 2018/19.
299
Financial compensations for reducing emissions from deforestation
Main article:
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)
in developing countries has emerged as a new potential to complement ongoing climate policies. The idea consists in providing financial compensations for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from deforestation and forest degradation".
300
REDD can be seen as an alternative to the
emissions trading
system as in the latter, polluters must pay for permits for the right to emit certain pollutants (i.e. CO
).
Main international organizations including the United Nations and the World Bank, have begun to develop programs aimed at curbing deforestation. The blanket term
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD) describes these sorts of programs, which use direct monetary or other incentives to encourage developing countries to limit and/or roll back deforestation. Funding has been an issue, but at the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties-15 (COP-15) in Copenhagen in December 2009, an accord was reached with a collective commitment by developed countries for new and additional resources, including
forestry
and investments through international institutions, that will approach US$30 billion for the period 2010–2012.
301
Significant work is underway on tools for use in monitoring developing countries' adherence to their agreed REDD targets. These tools, which rely on remote forest monitoring using satellite imagery and other data sources, include the
Center for Global Development
's FORMA (Forest Monitoring for Action) initiative
302
and the
Group on Earth Observations
' Forest Carbon Tracking Portal.
303
Methodological guidance for forest monitoring was also emphasized at COP-15.
304
The environmental organization
Avoided Deforestation Partners
leads the campaign for development of REDD through funding from the U.S. government.
305
History
Further information:
Timeline of environmental history
Prehistory
The
Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse
223
was an event that occurred 300 million years ago. Climate change devastated tropical rainforests causing the extinction of many plant and animal species. The change was abrupt, specifically, at this time climate became cooler and drier, conditions that are not favorable to the growth of rainforests and much of the biodiversity within them. Rainforests were fragmented forming shrinking 'islands' further and further apart. Populations such as the sub class
Lissamphibia
were devastated, whereas
Reptilia
survived the collapse. The surviving organisms were better adapted to the drier environment left behind and served as legacies in succession after the collapse.
citation needed
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, ax heads, chisels, and polishing tools.
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
306
Small scale deforestation was practiced by some societies for tens of thousands of years before the beginnings of civilization.
307
The first evidence of deforestation appears in the
Mesolithic period
308
It was probably used to convert closed forests into more open ecosystems favourable to game animals.
307
With the advent of agriculture, larger areas began to be deforested, and fire became the prime tool to clear land for crops. In Europe there is little solid evidence before 7000 BC. Mesolithic
foragers
used fire to create openings for
red deer
and
wild boar
. In Great Britain, shade-tolerant species such as
oak
and
ash
are replaced in the
pollen record
by
hazels
, brambles, grasses and nettles. Removal of the forests led to decreased
transpiration
, resulting in the formation of upland
peat bogs
. Widespread decrease in
elm
pollen
across Europe between 8400 and 8300 BC and 7200–7000 BC, starting in southern Europe and gradually moving north to Great Britain, may represent land
clearing
by fire at the onset of
Neolithic
agriculture.
The
Neolithic period
saw extensive deforestation for
farming land
309
310
Stone axes were being made from about 3000 BC not just from flint, but from a wide variety of hard rocks from across Britain and North America as well. They include the noted
Langdale axe industry
in the
English Lake District
, quarries developed at
Penmaenmawr
in
North Wales
and numerous other locations. Rough-outs were made locally near the quarries, and some were polished locally to give a fine finish. This step not only increased the
mechanical strength
of the axe, but also made penetration of wood easier.
Flint
was still used from sources such as
Grimes Graves
but from many other mines across Europe.
Evidence of deforestation has been found in
Minoan
Crete
; for example the environs of the
Palace of Knossos
were severely deforested in the
Bronze Age
311
Pre-industrial history
See also:
Deforestation during the Roman period
and
Deforestation by continent
Easter Island
, deforested.
Just as archaeologists have shown that prehistoric farming societies had to cut or burn forests before planting, documents and artifacts from early civilizations often reveal histories of deforestation. Some of the most dramatic are eighth century BCE Assyrian
reliefs
depicting logs being floated downstream from conquered areas to the less forested capital region as spoils of war. Ancient Chinese texts make clear that some areas of the Yellow River valley had already destroyed many of their forests over 2000 years ago and had to plant trees as crops or import them from long distances.
312
In South China much of the land came to be privately owned and used for the commercial growing of timber.
313
Three regional studies of historic erosion and alluviation in
ancient Greece
found that, wherever adequate evidence exists, a major phase of erosion follows the introduction of farming in the various regions of Greece by about 500–1,000 years, ranging from the later Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.
314
The thousand years following the mid-first millennium BC saw serious, intermittent pulses of soil erosion in numerous places. The historic
silting
of ports along the southern coasts of
Asia Minor
e.g.
Clarus
, and the examples of
Ephesus
Priene
and
Miletus
, where harbors had to be abandoned because of the silt deposited by the Meander) and in coastal
Syria
during the last centuries BC.
315
316
Easter Island
has suffered from heavy
soil erosion
in recent centuries, aggravated by agriculture and deforestation.
317
The disappearance of the island's trees seems to coincide with a decline of its civilization around the 17th and 18th century. Scholars have attributed the collapse to deforestation and over-exploitation of all resources.
318
319
The famous silting up of the harbor for
Bruges
, which moved port commerce to
Antwerp
, also followed a period of increased settlement growth (and apparently of deforestation) in the upper river basins. In early medieval
Riez
in upper
Provence
, alluvial silt from two small rivers raised the riverbeds and widened the floodplain, which slowly buried the Roman settlement in alluvium and gradually moved new construction to higher ground; concurrently the headwater valleys above Riez were being opened to pasturage.
320
A typical
progress trap
was that cities were often built in a forested area, which would provide wood for some industry (for example, construction, shipbuilding, pottery). When deforestation occurs without proper replanting, however; local wood supplies become difficult to obtain near enough to remain competitive, leading to the city's abandonment, as happened repeatedly in Ancient
Asia Minor
. Because of fuel needs, mining and metallurgy often led to deforestation and city abandonment.
321
Slaves
clearing the
Atlantic Forest
in Brazil,
c.
1820–1825
With most of the population remaining active in (or indirectly dependent on) the agricultural sector, the main pressure in most areas remained land
clearing
for crop and cattle farming. Enough wild green was usually left standing (and partially used, for example, to collect firewood, timber and fruits, or to graze pigs) for wildlife to remain viable. The elite's (nobility and higher clergy) protection of their own hunting privileges and game often protected significant woodland.
citation needed
Major parts in the spread (and thus more durable growth) of the population were played by monastical 'pioneering' (especially by the
Benedictine
and
Commercial
orders) and some
feudal
lords' recruiting farmers to settle (and become tax payers) by offering relatively good legal and fiscal conditions. Even when speculators sought to encourage towns, settlers needed an agricultural belt around or sometimes within defensive walls. When populations were quickly decreased by causes such as the
Black Death
, the
colonization of the Americas
322
or devastating warfare (for example,
Genghis Khan
's
Mongol
hordes in eastern and central Europe,
Thirty Years' War
in Germany), this could lead to settlements being abandoned. The land was reclaimed by nature, but the
secondary forests
usually lacked the original
biodiversity
. The
Mongol invasions and conquests
alone resulted in the reduction of 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere by enabling the re-growth of carbon-absorbing forests on depopulated lands over a significant period of time.
323
324
Deforestation in
Suriname
c.
1880–1900
From 1100 to 1500 AD, significant deforestation took place in
Western Europe
as a result of the
expanding human population
325
The large-scale building of wooden sailing ships by European (coastal) naval owners since the 15th century for exploration,
colonisation
slave trade
, and other trade on the high seas, consumed many forest resources and became responsible for the introduction of numerous
bubonic plague
outbreaks in the 14th century.
Piracy
also contributed to the over harvesting of forests, as in Spain. This led to a weakening of the domestic economy after Columbus' discovery of America, as the economy became dependent on colonial activities (plundering, mining, cattle, plantations, trade, etc.)
citation needed
The massive use of
charcoal
on an industrial scale in
Early Modern Europe
was a new type of consumption of western forests.
326
Each of Nelson's
Royal Navy
war ships at Trafalgar (1805) required 6,000 mature oaks for its construction.
citation needed
In France,
Colbert
planted
oak
forests to supply the French navy in the future. When the oak plantations matured in the mid-19th century, the masts were no longer required because shipping had changed.
327
Efforts to stop or slow deforestation have been attempted for many centuries because it has long been known that deforestation can cause environmental damage sufficient in some cases to cause societies to collapse. In
Tonga
, paramount rulers developed policies designed to prevent conflicts between short-term gains from converting forest to farmland and long-term problems forest loss would cause,
328
while during the 17th and 18th centuries in
Tokugawa
, Japan,
329
the shōguns developed a highly sophisticated system of long-term planning to stop and even reverse deforestation of the preceding centuries through substituting timber by other products and more efficient use of land that had been farmed for many centuries.
In 16th-century Germany, landowners also developed
silviculture
to deal with the problem of deforestation. However, these policies tend to be limited to environments with
good rainfall
no dry season
and
very young
soils
(through
volcanism
or
glaciation
). This is because on older and less fertile soils trees grow too slowly for silviculture to be economic, whilst in areas with a strong dry season there is always a risk of forest fires destroying a tree crop before it matures.
19th and 20th centuries
Deforestation in Burma (now
Myanmar
circa
1920, during the
British colonial era
See also:
Deforestation by continent
Steamboats
In the 19th century, the introduction of
steamboats
in the
United States
was the cause of deforestation of banks of major rivers, such as the
Mississippi River
, with increased and more severe flooding one of the environmental results. The steamboat crews cut wood daily from the riverbanks to fuel the steam engines. Between
St. Louis
and the confluence with the
Ohio River
to the south, the Mississippi became broader and shallower and changed its channel laterally. Attempts to improve navigation by the use of
snag pullers
often resulted in crews'
clearing
large trees 100 to 200 feet (61 m) back from the banks. Several French colonial towns of the
Illinois Country
, such as
Kaskaskia
Cahokia
and St. Philippe,
Illinois
, were flooded and abandoned in the late 19th century, with a loss to the cultural record of their
archeology
330
Society and culture
Different cultures of different places in the world have different interpretations of the actions of the cutting down of trees. For example, in
Meitei mythology
and
Meitei folklore
of
Manipur
(India), deforestation is mentioned as one of the reasons to make
mother nature
weep and mourn for the death of her precious children.
331
332
333
See also
Clearcutting
Clearing (geography)
Defaunation
Forest transition
Illegal logging
International Year of Forests
Land use, land-use change and forestry
Mountaintop removal
Sources
This article incorporates text from a
free content
work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (
license statement/permission
). Text taken from
The State of Food and Agriculture 2025​
, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This article incorporates text from a
free content
work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (
license statement/permission
). Text taken from
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025​
, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
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