Deforestation

Deforestation:

Global Impact, Causes and Recommendations

Deforestation:

Global Impact, Causes and Recommendations

The forests are the “lungs” of our land, purifying our air and giving strength to our people.

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Start with the rising sun and work toward the setting sun. Take only the mature trees, the sick trees, and the trees that have fallen…and the trees will last forever.

-Menominee Oral History

INTRODUCTION

Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests and woodlands. An issue high on the global environmental agenda for many years, deforestation remains a serious problem today. In the tropics and many other parts of the world, nations continue to lose their natural forests—along with valuable biodiversity, soil and water conservation, and climate regulation these ecosystems provide.

Over the past 30 years, the world has lost fully a fifth of all tropical forest cover. While deforestation has stabilized in most developed countries, only a fraction of primary temperate forests still stand. A more pressing issue in these countries today is the condition of the remaining forests. Even though virtually none of their primary forests remain, developed nations continue to allow their commercial exploitation. Meanwhile, pollution and fragmentation endanger ecosystems throughout much of the developed world.

BENEFITS OF FORESTS

Living off the Land

Earth without forests is a picture that most of humankind presently could not conceive. Forests cover much of the planet’s land area. They are extremely important to humans and the natural world. For humans they have many aesthetic, recreational, economic, historical, cultural and religious values. Timber and other products of forests are important economically both locally and as exports. They provide employment for those who harvest the wood or products of the living forest....