Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest

Deforestation
Introduction:
Around 31% of land on earth is covered by forest but over 150,000 square km are lost each year to deforestation. Forests are usually cleared to make way for agriculture, logging for timber and urban development. Forests are also lost due to fires and degradation via climate change. Deforestation is a main issue in tropical rainforests, the habitat of most of the world’s biodiversity. Places like the Amazon rainforest in South America have lost over 17% of the forest in the last 50 years. Above that 75% of land animals and plants are habituated in forest and with the increasing rate of deforestation, in the next hundred years, all of that habitat could disappear. This report will investigate the factors of deforestation, …show more content…
Thus the increasing need for farmland and pastureland is evident. With cities also expanding, the lack of space for such farmland is causing the push to cut down forests to make space.
• Logging
As the world’s population grows, as well as a need for food, the need for housing, wood and paper products are growing. Logging operations cut down many hundreds of thousands of trees each year. Loggers create roads into forests in order to move in machinery and transport the timber out of the forests, these roads decrease the likely hood of the forest ever growing back after being cut down.
• Fires
Whilst fires can be beneficial in rejuvenating bushland in places like the Australian bush, fires are extremely destructive and destroy millions of acres of forests every year. The same amount is lost to fires as is lost to agriculture and logging combined.
Impacts:
The main impacts of deforestation on the environment are:
• The increase in greenhouse gas emissions
Forests help hold onto carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, but they become carbon sources when they are cut, burned or otherwise removed. More than 210 gigatons of carbon is held by tropical rainforests alone. Deforestation represents around 15% of greenhouse gas …show more content…
These forests are most vulnerable to deforestation. When forests are cut down these creatures lose their homes, food and water sources and are unable to adapt to live in farmland. They are also more accessible to hunters and poachers. This causes a vast decrease in species population and can also lead to extinction.
The main impacts on people are:
• Destruction of indigenous people’s homeland
As large amounts of forests are cleared away, the habitats of extreme amounts of species are destroyed, the indigenous tribes who depend on them to sustain their way of life are also irreparably damaged. Many of the governments for these nations also attempt to evict indigenous tribes, before the actual clear-cutting begins. One of the pre-emptive effects of deforestation.
• A reduction of water in the atmosphere
The trees help control the level of water in the atmosphere by regulating the water cycle. With fewer trees left, there is less water in the air to be returned to the soil. This causes dryer soil and the inability to grow crops. This is somewhat ironic considering that 80% of deforestation occurs to make way for agricultural reasons.

Show More

Deforestation In The Amazon Rainforest Essay

Amazon Rainforest

Essay on Amazon Deforestation

international relations paper

Rainforests: Amazon Rainforest and Rainfall Essay

Should We Put The Economy Before The Environment?

Amazon Research Essay

world peace Essay

Essay on The Amazon

Essay about “Maintaining biodiversity at its present level is impossible if people are going to achieve a reasonable standard of living in the near future”