DEFORESTATION

BY LUCY ISAAC
CONTENTS
#1: What is deforestation?
#2: What causes deforestation?
#3: What effects does deforestation have?
#4: How can we reduce deforestation?
#5: How can you reduce deforestation in
your household?
#6: Bibliography
WHAT IS DEFORESTATION?

Deforestation can be defined as the

purposeful clearing of forested land. It
refers to the decrease in forest areas across
the world that are destroyed and repurposed
for other things such as urbanization,
agricultural croplands, and the mining
industry. Deforestation has many negative
affects on native ecosystems, biodiversity,
and the climate, and can be caused by both
human-made and natural causes.
 WHAT CAUSES DEFORESTATION?
There are three main causes of deforestation by
humans. These causes are agriculture, the
construction of new infrastructure, and
urbanization.
Agriculture is the main contribution to
deforestation, making up 80% of the cause. Of
this 80%, 33% is used for subsistence agriculture,
which is when the farmer grows enough products
to provide for themselves and their family only.
The other 67% is from commercial agriculture,
either to clear land or to grow biofuel (e.g. palm
oil). 14% of agricultural deforestation is caused
by clearing land for livestock.
WHAT CAUSES
DEFORESTATION?
The second largest cause for deforestation is the building of
new infrastructure (15%). Some of this is for the resources
to construct more buildings, but it is mainly to clear space
for these buildings and other factories.
To extract and obtain other resources such as coal, oil, and
dairy, a large extraction system must be built. Forests are
usually in the way of these extraction systems, so they are
removed. They are also destroyed for the construction of
roads, railways, airports and more.
Another reason for deforestation is urbanisation (5%),
where the resources from destroyed forests are used to make
new houses and settlements, or they are destroyed to clear
space for these things.
 WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS
OF DEFORESTATION?

One of the main effects of deforestation on the planet is

the decrease in biodiversity it causes. Biodiversity is the
biological variation of plant and animal life in a particular
habitat, and without it, the Earth will be unbalanced.
Forests hold some of the highest biodiversity habitats in the
world. They are home to many species, in fact 80% of the
world’s land plants and animals live in forests.
When humans destroy forests, they lower the biodiversity
of the Earth, which puts plants and animal species in
danger, creates imbalances, and endangers ecosystems.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DEFORESTATION?
Another main effect of deforestation is that it
contributes greatly to climate change. This is because
throughout their lifespan, trees absorb (through
photosynthesis) pollutant gases (like nitrogen oxides
and CO2) which are released into the atmosphere when
the trees are cut down. Therefore, the more
deforestation we do, the more greenhouse gases are
released into the air, and the more climate change
increases.
As we know, climate change causes lots of effects on
the Earth. These effects include droughts, rising sea
levels, heatwaves, and more.
WHAT ARE THE The final main effect of
EFFECTS OF
DEFORESTATION? deforestation is that forests
support many local people.
Globally, 1.6 million people
survive by relying on the
resources of nearby forests.
As these forests are being
destroyed by deforestation,
these people are forced to
either abandon their homes,
or work for the companies
destroying the forests.
HOW CAN WE REDUCE DEFORESTATION?

From all of this, we can tell that deforestation

needs to be stopped immediately. But how do we
do this?
The main way to stop deforestation on a large
scale is to replant forests that have previously
been cut down. This is being done today, but not
nearly as much as we need to save the Earth.
Another way to prevent deforestation is to
separate sections of forests that are strictly
prohibited to cut down. This will ensure that at
least some trees will be alive for future
HOW CAN YOU REDUCE DEFORESTATION IN
YOUR HOUSEHOLD?
There are several ways that you can
prevent deforestation in your area with
barely any effort.
Firstly, you can stop eating a lot of meat,
or just save meat for special occasions.
This will help prevent deforestation because,
as we know from the previous slides, 14% of
agricultural deforestation is caused for
clearing land for livestock. Most of this
livestock are animals that are bred and killed
for the gain of meat. Therefore, if you reduce
your meat intake, less land will be cleared to
make room for animals to be bred.
HOW CAN YOU REDUCE
DEFORESTATION IN YOUR
HOUSEHOLD?
Secondly, you can reduce your average consumption
of resources coming from forests. This can mean
many things, from types of wood products to food
products using palm oil. Palm oil is a type of oil from
certain palm trees, and it contributes to deforestation a
lot. To make room for palm tree plantations to cultivate
palm oil, other forest are cut down. This means the
more products you use that contains palm oil, the more
deforestation increases. The same instance occurs for
any other product (such as wood products). Therefore,
if you reduce using these products, it will help reduce
deforestation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
What is Deforestation? Causes, Consequences:
https://youmatter.world/en/definition/definitions-what-is-definition-deforestati
on-causes-effects/
Deforestation:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/deforestation/
Deforestation and Forest Degradation:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation