Forests are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. Zika virus, which was discovered in Ugandan forests in the 20th century, could only cruise the world and infect millions because it found a host in Aedes aegpti, a mosquito that thrives in urban areas. Conservation costs money, while profits from timber, charcoal, pasture and cropland drive people to cut down forests, adds EDF. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. On a governmental level, the consequences of deforestation can be mitigated by introducing policies that protect natural forests and regulate mining and logging operations as well as other operations that require the destruction of tree plantations. As widespread burning continues today in tropical forests in the Amazon, and some parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, experts have expressed concern about the health of people living at the frontiers of deforestation. Because boundaries between these categories are inevitably arbitrary, estimates differ regarding how much deforestation has occurred in the tropics. You might also like: 10 Deforestation Facts You Should Know About. Now you cant see the bottom. Tropical tree cover alone can provide 23 percent of the climate mitigation needed to meet goals set in the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to one estimate. A sweeping plan to restore the Everglades was passed by Congress in 2000 and promptly stalled. Examples include using less land (and therefore cutting fewer trees) for activities such as coffee growing and meat and milk production. The South American rainforest, for example, influences regional and perhaps
An iceberg melts in the waters off Antarctica. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Rainforest is cleared for cattle farming along the Trans-Amazonian Highway. A severe slump in rainfall in 2015 meant salinity levels rocketed in the bay, with the water becoming twice as salty in the ocean. Omissions? A man sprays to kill the Aedes mosquito that carries the yellow fever virus in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since the 1870s the regions forest cover has increased, though most of the trees are relatively young. EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Limited Or Anthology Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie, EMMY NOMINATIONS 2022: Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie. Wind can also make soil erode by displacing it. Heres why each season begins twice. In a complex analysis of satellite and health data published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MacDonald and Stanford Universitys Erin Mordecai reported a significant impact of deforestation across the Amazon basin on malaria transmission, in line with some previous research. Habitat destruction is the issue most often cited for the problems now facing Florida wildlife. Malariawhich kills over a million annually due to infection by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by mosquitoeshas long been suspected of going hand in hand with deforestation. One year after the Super Bowl season was marred by a ban on Mexican avocado shipments, another threat has emerged: An environmental complaint that avocado growers are illegally destroying forests that provide critical habitat for monarch butterflies and other creatures, Learn how the Brazilian government incentivized forest clearing in the Amazon for beef production and ranching. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. Between 2003 and 2015, on average, they estimated that a 10 percent yearly increase in forest loss led to a 3 percent rise in malaria cases. Copyright 2023 NatureServe. Its an all-too-common pattern seen across the tropics: to make room for crops, forests come down. One last major effect of deforestation is its impact on food security through the loss of biodiversity. (Which nation could be the first to be rewilded?). It has been shown that the deforestation of the Amazon contributes to a. of nearly 25% in over half of the Amazon region and of a staggering 60% in a third of the area. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. So how does deforestation affect the environment and what threats does it pose to living species? Sign in with your username (email address) and password. Much of the remainder was once moist subtropical or tropical forest or, in eastern North America, western Europe, and eastern China, temperate forest. Increased Greenhouse Gases. One of the most dangerous and unsettling effects of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat. Among the main reasons for this damaging practice are agricultural expansion and cattle breeding as well as to obtain raw materials such as palm oil, a key ingredient in cosmetics and food products widely used around the world, and timber used for fuel, manufacturing, and infrastructure development. Deforestation represents one of the largest issues in global land use. Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. Loss of Habitat. Not long after developers started draining the wetlands for agriculture and paved it over for roads and houses, the effects started rippling through the system. He and his colleagues are beginning work with the Malaysian government to incorporate this into land use planning, and are undertaking a similar project with Liberian officials to calculate the cost of Lassa fever outbreaks there. (How deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans.). A direct link. Additional human activities that contribute to tropical deforestation include commercial logging and land clearing for cattle ranches and plantations of rubber trees, oil palm, and other economically valuable trees. Obviously, Floridas native species are suffering. This Tribe Thinks So. for achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Hand-picked stories once a fortnight. https://www.britannica.com/science/deforestation, Academia - Deforestation: Causes, Effects and Control Strategies, LiveScience - Deforestation: Facts, Causes and Effects, deforestation - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), deforestation - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Mexican avocados shipped for Super Bowl named in complaint. Ecohealth Alliance researchers have proposed that containing diseases could be considered a new ecosystem service, that is, a benefit that humans freely gain from natural ecosystems, just like carbon storage and pollination. Furthermore, many animal species are heavily reliant on specific plants and their fruits for food sources. In the case of the Amazon rainforest, research shows that at least 80% of its trees would be needed in order to keep the hydrological cycle going. In fact, 60 percent of new infectious diseases that emerge in peopleincluding HIV, Ebola, and Nipah, all of which originated in forest-dwelling animalsare transmitted by a range of other animals, the vast majority of them wildlife. Nonprofit groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance certify products they consider sustainable, while the World Wildlife Fund has a palm oil scorecard for consumer brands. Florida has even thrown itself into a legal battle to halt a controversial oil drilling project in the north-eastern reaches of the Everglades. Unauthorized use is prohibited. They live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow and hunt their food. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. , Cattle ranching and deforestation are strongest in Latin America. The current rate of rainforest-loss generated emissions is nearly 25% higher than those generated in the European Union and just slightly below US levels. . To make that case, their team has been working in Malaysian Borneo to itemize the exact cost of malaria, down to each hospital bed, and syringe that doctors use. In a 2015 study, researchers at Ecohealth Alliance, a New York-based non-profit that tracks infectious diseases globally, and others found that nearly one in three outbreaks of new and emerging disease[s] are linked to land-use change like deforestation, the organizations president Peter Daszak tweeted earlier this year. Deforestation refers to the intentional clearing of forest lands for urban expansion, cattle farming, agricultural cropland, and other human purposes. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the suns rays during the day and retains heat at night. This targeted Boosting helps us to reach wider audiences aiming to convince the unconvinced, to inform the uninformed, to enlighten the dogmatic. Roads serve as barriers, confining many species of wildlife within restricted areas. Studies show that 15,3 billion trees are chopped down every year and over the past 12,000 years, nearly 50% of the worlds trees have been purposefully cleared by humans. The scientific consensus on deforestation is that it intensifies climate change at a dramatic rate. In heavily deforested areas, soil erosion and nutrient runoff are common after a rainfall. Water is very effective at doing work. Aside from their contribution to the water flow, trees help the land retain water and sustain forest life by supplying the soil with rich nutrients. Its hard to generalize about mosquito ecology, which varies depending on species and region, Vittor stresses. All Rights Reserved. WebHere is a detailed discussion of how deforestation affects climate change, animals and humans. Activities that remove vegetation, disturb the ground, or allow the ground to dry are activities that increase erosion. But in Sabah, a part of Malaysian Borneo, malaria outbreaks also occur in tandem with bursts of forest clearing for palm oil and other plantations. Indigenous communities who live in forests and depend on them to sustain their life bear the brunt of impacts from deforestation. Cattle or sheep pastures in North America or Europe are easy to identify, and they support large numbers of animals. About 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years, and losses recently have been on the rise. Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion, because water is abundant and has a lot of power. As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change, preserve wildlife, and support more than eight billion people, trees inevitably hold a major part of the answer. This, in turn, contributes to destroying forests, intensifying deforestation even more. In deserts, high winds send tiny particles hurtling up into the air. Image by, In addition to their role as carbon sinks, forests are a crucial component of the water cycle and have the all important function of preventing desertification. Image by Global Forest Watch. Stopping deforestation before it reaches a critical point will play a key role in avoiding the next zoonotic pandemic. This can be done on an individual level, for example by reducing meat consumption, going paperless and recycling products as much as possible, opting for natural products that do not contain ingredients such as palm oil and supporting organisations and sustainable companies that are committed to reducing this dangerous practice. All of these factors disrupt a river ecosystem because the species that live in the stream have adapted to conditions before the deforestation and may be negatively impacted by the sudden changes. In recent decades, Floridas massive population growth and booming tourism industry have disturbed and fragmented many natural areas across the state. Deforested lands are being replanted in some areas. Eroded topsoil can be transported by wind or water into streams and other waterways. It has been shown that the deforestation of the Amazon contributes to a decline in pasture productivity of about 39% as well as a drop of soy yields of nearly 25% in over half of the Amazon region and of a staggering 60% in a third of the area. Deforestation is the clearing of forests to obtain lumber and provide space for either agricultural zones or urban development. Id hate to think that another or several other pathogens could do such a thing, but itd be foolish not to think of that as a possibility to prepare for, says Vittor. But the consequences of Floridas century-long attempt to bend the environment to its will arent hard to find. To reduce climate change pollution produced by our current dependence on fossil fuels, renewable energy is our only economic long-term option. Find out how a tribe in the Amazon is using old cell phones and machine learning to help save their forest home. A mans world? , Ice. The Amazon actually helps furnish water to some of the soy farmers and beef ranchers who are clearing the forest. Through land erosion, the soil is depleted of its nutrients, a huge source of nourishment for animals and plants. Almost half the world is made up of drylandsareas too dry to support large numbers of treesand most are considered grazing lands. Photograph by William Daniels, Nat Geo Image Collection. WebThe world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to deforestation. Unless we change the present system that rewards forest destruction, forest clearing will put another 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in coming decades, says EDF. As trees are cut down and burnt, the carbon they contain is released into the atmosphere. In the Amazon, cattle ranching and farmsparticularly soy plantationsare key culprits. Removing plants removes the stabilizing effects of the roots on the soil. In fact, 80% of Earths land animals and plants live in forests. (National Geographic Deforestation 1) Animals would lose shelter, food resources, and breeding area. When does spring start? Diseases can also occur when new habitats draw disease-carrying species out of the forest. Estimates based on current growth rates suggest Florida could lose an additional seven million acres of rural and natural lands to urban uses within the next 50 years. As a result of massive global urbanization and agricultural development, deforestation is a major factor contributing to climate change. Deforestation deprives the land of its cover, leaving the soil exposed to wind and rain. 10 Deforestation Facts You Should Know About. Not long after the bats settled on trees in Malaysian orchards, pigs around them started to fall sickpresumably after eating fallen fruit the bats had nibbled onas did local pig farmers. Greatly accelerated by human activities since 1960, deforestation has been negatively affecting natural ecosystems, biodiversity, and the climate. This water replenishes clouds and maintains rainfall. According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a leading green group, 32 million acres of tropical rainforest were cut down each year between 2000 and 2009and the pace of deforestation is only increasing. In fact, according to recent satellite data in 2019, clearing land for agriculture causes rainforest deforestation at the rate of forty football pitches a minute. WebHabitat destruction is the issue most often cited for the problems now facing Florida wildlife. Estimates of deforestation When forests are wiped out, the land becomes exposed, leaving it vulnerable to being washed or blown away by elements. . However, some national governments have also undertaken ambitious replanting projects. The minerals in the water are almost like sandpaper on the rock, slowly, slowly scrubbing it away. At least 2 million square km (772,204 square miles) of such forests have been cleared for grazing lands. as a consequence of the nearly 4 million square miles of forest that have been lost since the beginning of the 20th century. They found that the effects increased with the more land included, with no effects discernible within 10 square miles of deforestation, but a Studies show that, 15,3 billion trees are chopped down every year. This, in turn, contributes to destroying forests, intensifying deforestation even more. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The closer humans are to animals, the greater the opportunity for zoonotic spillover, where a pathogen jumps from animal to human. In humans, the virus causes hemorrhagic feverthe same kind of illness triggered by Ebola virusand in Liberia killed 36 percent of infected people. Deforestation also affects nearby rivers, streams, and other water sources as nutrients from the soil are removed through leaching, which happens when water (e.g., from rain) removes soluble nutrients from the soil and carries them elsewhere. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Changing temperatures can alter which organisms can survive in an ecosystem. Thanks for reading Scientific American. All rights reserved, 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 250 million people who live in forest and savannah areas, fruit bats transmitted the disease to a toddler, many conservationists see reasons for hope, World Wildlife Fund has a palm oil scorecard. Find out the causes, effects, and solutions. During the mid-20th century, Florida lost more than seven million acres of forest and herbaceous wetlands to development. 2023 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. With nearly 17% of the forest lost already, the Amazon is currently at, . To answer the question of how deforestation affects the environment, it is important to look at why humans need forests in the first place. Estimates of deforestation traditionally are based on the area of forest cleared for human use, including removal of the trees for wood products and for croplands and grazing lands. Some scientists believe there could be as many as 1.7 million currently undiscovered viruses in mammals and birds, of which up to 827,000 could have the ability to infect people, according to a 2018 study. Yet the mass destruction of treesdeforestationcontinues, sacrificing the long-term benefits of standing trees for short-term gain of fuel, and materials for manufacturing and construction. These are often plantations of eucalyptus or fast-growing pinesand almost always of species that are not native to the places where they are planted. The Florida Panther, representative of the only breeding subspecies of puma in the eastern U.S. American AlligatorsThe Eastern Indigo Snake, which nearly disappeared from Florida due to deforestation and construction projectsThe Key Deer, threatened by development projects in the Florida KeysMore items Identify Priority Places: A Practitioner's Guide, Florida Vegetation 2003 and Land Use Change Between 1985-89 and 2003. On average, they found that the Malaysian government spends around $5,000 to treat each new malaria patient in the regionin some areas much more than they spend on malaria control, Zambrana-Torrelio says. Few places exist in eastern North America that retain stands of uncut old-growth forests. Bornean and Sumatranorangutansare especiallyiconicspecies threatened by the expansion of oil palm farming in Indonesia. What if we could clean them out? Deforestation is a major cause of soil erosion, perhaps the main cause. One way some tropical countries are reducing deforestation is through participation in the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. , Wind. Home | About | Contact | Copyright | Report Content | Privacy | Cookie Policy | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap. There was a large outcry and it seems like we have got some momentum now.. What are the 3 major causes of soil erosion? That I think is the silver lining that we should keep in mind., Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Deforestation affects not only a forest and its immediate surroundings but also the atmosphere, which in turn spreads across the biosphere -- all the planet's ecosystems and everything in them. Participating nations can then accrue and sell carbon pollution credits when they can prove they have lowered deforestation below a baseline. The plan would tackle local water pollution, protect springs and finish raising the Tamiami Trail, a highway that links Miami and Floridas west coast by cutting across the Everglades, to allow water to flow south to the ecosystem. In some cases, however, even partial logging and accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest structure dramatically. All told, deforestation causes a triple-whammy of global warming: We lose a crucial ally in keeping excess carbon out of the atmosphere (and in slowing global warming), Even more emissions are created when felled trees release the carbon theyd been storing, and rot or burn on the forest floor, and Many replanting and reforestation efforts are led and funded by the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations. Can we bring a species back from the brink? There will be miles and miles of new Florida Bay. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial. (The rest lies along that countrys borders to the west and to the north.) Water is the most common cause of soil erosion. In 2021, it lost 1.71Mha of natural forest, equivalent to 775Mt of CO emissions. A movement is under way to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover by first reforesting (replanting trees) and ultimately rewilding (a more comprehensive mission to restore entire ecosystems).