Forest Research: Open Access
Open Access

Note on Causes and Effects of Deforestation

Alvaro Montenegro^{* *}Correspondence: Alvaro Montenegro, Department of Environmental Sciences, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada, Email:

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Description

Deforestation is the loss of forest area for other reasons around the world, such as agricultural crops, urbanization, or mining operations. Since 1960, human activity has escalated deforestation, which has damaged natural ecosystems, biodiversity, and the climate. Deforestation is caused by a range of human and natural factors. Natural processes that induce deforestation include natural forest fires and parasite caused diseases. Human activities, on the other hand, are one of the leading causes of global deforestation. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, agriculture accounted for approximately 80% of worldwide deforestation, with infrastructure projects such as roads and dams, as well as mining and urbanization, accounting for the remaining sources of deforestation.

Causes of Deforestation

Agriculture is the most common cause of deforestation (80%)

Agriculture is responsible for almost 80% of deforestation, according to the FAO. According to the some report, subsistence agriculture such as local peasant agriculture in underdeveloped nations-is responsible for 33% of agricultural caused deforestation. In the search for space to grow food, textiles, or biofuels, commercial or industrial agriculture (field crops and animals) is responsible for roughly 40% of forest loss (such as soybeans, palm oil, beef, rice, maize, cotton and sugar cane). It's also worth noting that livestock is thought to be responsible for approximately 14% of worldwide deforestation. The main reasons for this are due to the enormous expanses that necessitate both.

Deforestation as a result of new construction (15%)

Deforestation has also been fueled by the creation of human infrastructure. More specifically, new infrastructures that service the contemporary human lifestyle in four ways:

• Transportation,

• Transformation, and

• Energy generation, account for 10% of deforestation.

On the one hand, roads, railways, ports, and airports have been created to transport a wide range of items from grains and fruits to spices, minerals, and fossil fuels to trading hubs or transformation sites. So, while there were only fruit trees at first, roads were soon built to allow fruit to be transported to other areas. While some items, such as coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, but also meat, dairy, and spirits, were and are collected manually, others, such as coal, oil, natural gas, biomass, but also meat, dairy, and spirits, necessitated the development of facilities.

How urbanization contributes to deforestation (5%)

Deforestation is helped by a 5 percentage point population change that is forcing people to migrate from rural to urban areas. This urbanization by 2050, cities are predicted to house 68 percent of the world's population is resulting in an exponential increase of housing and consumption places. Furthermore, as cities expand in size to accommodate more people, they push against natural boundaries, resulting in deforestation. One of the reasons for deforestation is because of this.

Impact of Deforestation on The Environment

Deforestation has a number of negative implications for natural ecosystems and poses a severe threat to the planet's resilience. Let's have look at the most important points.

Biodiversity

The most well-known effect of deforestation is the threat it poses to biodiversity. Forests are, in reality, some of the most important biodiversity hotspots. The forest is home to many rare and vulnerable species, including animals, birds, insects, amphibians, and plants. Forests are home to 80% of the world's land animals and plants. Human actions are endangering entire ecosystems, causing natural imbalances, and putting Life in jeopardy by destroying forests. The natural world is complicated, interrelated, and made up of thousands of interdependencies, and trees provide shade and cooler temperatures for animals and smaller trees or flora that may not be able to withstand the heat of direct sunshine, among other things. Trees also provide food for animals through their leaves.

Local people and their livelihoods

Forests provide food and shelter to 1.6 billion people worldwide, one billion of whom are among the poorest. This implies that many people rely on woods for their survival and use them to hunt and gather raw materials for their small scale farming operations. In rising countries like Borneo, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico, land tenure arrangements are poor. This permits large corporations to acquire these lands and exploit them for other purposes, disturbing the lives of local residents.

Soil erosion affects 52 percent of all agricultural land now, causing moderate to severe damage. Low yields and food insecurity might result from a lack of healthy, nutritious soil in the long run.

Soil erosion is one of deforestation's consequences

The soil is weakened and degraded as a result of deforestation. Forested soils are typically higher in organic content, as well as more resistant to erosion, harsh weather, and extreme weather. This happens primarily because tree roots help anchor trees in the ground, and the sun blocking tree cover helps the soil dry out gradually. As a result of the deforestation, the soil will likely become more fragile, making the area more vulnerable to natural disasters like landslides and floods.