What is deforestation

Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica. The country won an Earthshot prize this year for its work in stopping and reversing deforestation. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica. The country won an Earthshot prize this year for its work in stopping and reversing deforestation. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian F orests and nature are centre stage at Cop26. On the second day of the Glasgow summit, world leaders are announcing a commitment to halting and reversing deforestation. As the second largest source of greenhouse gases after energy, the land sector accounts for But why do forests matter to the climate, and how can we halt deforestation? What is a forest? There are an estimated Scientists cannot decide on a single definition of a forest due to disagreements over tree density, height and canopy cover. But the Temperate, tropical and boreal are the three main types of forest that include a great diversity of ecosystems: cloud forest, rainforest, mangrove swamps, and tropical dry forest, among many others. But they are being cleared at a relentless pace. About 10% of tree cover has been lost since 2000, “There are two main points on forests and carbon,” says Yadvinder Malhi, a professor of ecosystem science at the University of Oxford. “Forests are a carbon store, meaning that when you deforest, you’re releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. The other thing is that intact forests have been shown to be a carbon sink, absorb...

Technically speaking, a “forest” covers over 0.5 hectares of land (about 1.24 acres) and has trees that are higher than 5 meters (about 16 feet) with a canopy cover of more than 10%. A forest can also include areas with younger trees that are expected to reach a canopy cover of at least 10% and a height of 5 meters. Deforestation is different from forest degradation, which occurs when a forest continues to exist but has lost its capacity to provide quality ecosystem services like carbon storage or goods and services to people or nature. Forest degradation can be driven by overgrazing, demand for wood products, fires, pests or disease, and storm damage. Large-scale commercial agriculture continues to be the main driver of deforestation, primarily for cattle ranching and soy, rubber, or palm oil cultivation. Another cause of deforestation is fires, which can occur due to either natural causes like lightning and drought or be man-made. Often, fire is purposefully used to convert forests into areas for agriculture. Scientists have been able to use satellite-based forest monitoring technology to locate where and why deforestation is happening. A study in 2018 found that 27% of all forest loss is caused by permanent land use change for the production of commodities (essentially, land to grow long-term commercial crops). Even worse, the researchers discovered that the drivers for deforestation remained constant throughout the 15-year study period, suggesting that corporate agreem...

• • • • • • • • Go Solar Today • Top Companies By State • • • • • • Top Incentives By State • • • • • • Solar Panel Costs By State • • • • • • Value of Solar by State • • • • • • Company Reviews • • • • • • Common Solar Questions • • • • • • • Solar Resources • • • • • • Companies Compared • • • • • What is Deforestation? Trees have been around for about 370 million years. Today, there are about three trillion trees and ten billion acres of Deforestation is the clearing of The biggest human causes of deforestation are Quick Facts • More than 30 percent of the Earth’s land is covered by forests. • The Earth loses about 38,610 square miles of forest every year. • Ninety-six percent of • More than half of the planet’s tropical • Due to deforestation, as many as 28,000 species are predicted to become extinct by 2050. • Forty-one percent of deforestation can be attributed to the clearing of land for cattle and other livestock, with 80 percent of that land located in the • Nearly half of tropical deforestation occurs in Indonesia and • Twelve percent of deforestation is due to soy production, and most soy produced globally is used for animal feed. • Palm oil, used in products from chocolate and cookies to potato chips, is a major contributor to deforestation. • More than 100 countries have made a commitment to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. Why Should We Care About Deforestation? Poland’s Extinction Rebellion activists hold banners during a protest against the heavy defo...

Before we look at trends in deforestation across the world specifically, it’s useful to understand the net change in forest cover. The net change in forest cover measures any gains in forest cover – either through natural forest expansion or afforestation through tree-planting – minus deforestation. This map shows the net change in forest cover across the world. Countries with a positive change (shown in green) are regrowing forest faster than they’re losing it. Countries with a negative change (shown in red) are losing more than they’re able to restore. Net forest loss is not the same as deforestation – it measures deforestation plus any gains in forest over a given period. Over the decade since 2010, the net loss in forests globally was 4.7 million hectares per year. 1 However, deforestation rates were much significantly higher. The UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. This interactive map shows deforestation rates across the world. Many people think of environmental concerns as a modern issue: humanity’s destruction of nature and ecosystems as a result of very recent How much forest has the world lost? When in history did we lose it? In the chart we see how the cover of the earth’s surface has changed over the past 10,000 years. This is shortly after the end of the last great ice age, through to the present day. 2 Let’s start at the top. You see that of the 14.9 billion hectares of land on the planet, only 71% of it is habitable – ...

Forests, a vital component of life on Earth, cover approximately 31% of our planet’s land area . However, more than 75% of the Earth’s surface has been modified and degraded by human activities such as deforestation. Destroying forests alters weather patterns, destroys habitats, and negatively affects rural communities, leading to food insecurity and causing irreversible damage to entire ecosystems. So how does deforestation affect the environment and what threats does it pose to living species? — To answer the question of how deforestation affects the environment, it is important to look at why humans need forests in the first place. Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. 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. Studies show that 15,3 billion trees are chopped down every year and over the past 12,000 years, nearly 50% of the world’s trees have been purposefully cleared by humans. This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals. You might also like: JOIN THE MOVEMENT TODAY How Does Deforestation Affect the Environment? 1. Effects on Climate Change The scientific consensus on defore...

LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) - As a new European Union zero-tolerance deforestation law looms, several major investors told Reuters they are concerned about their exposure to the issue, with some saying they could quit consumer goods makers with "risky" supply chains. The EU Germany's Union Investment, a top-20 investor in Unilever "The fines can be a risk for the performance of these companies in the stock market," said Henrik Pontzen, head of ESG at Union Investment, which has about 424 billion euros ($467 billion) in assets under management and stakes in Nestle An internal Union Investment document seen by Reuters shows that the firm received just 30 responses to its outreach. Of those, only 14 companies said they had zero-deforestation goals. "As a major investor, this is very atypical," said Pontzen. "Typically, we receive an answer from any company we write to. Maybe the reason for not answering is they don't have anything to say." Union "will exclude companies when all our escalation options have been exhausted," Pontzen said. He is not alone in his frustration over the companies' lack of engagement. Eight major institutional shareholders - Schroders, Janus Henderson, NBIM, Union Investment, KLP, Aviva, Fidelity International and Ninety One - told Reuters they were talking to consumer goods makers about this issue, three of whom said they will identify stocks they may exit. The legislation is expected by lawmakers to be implemented by the end of 2024 for "big operators...

When you hear about the massive tree-planting efforts happening around the world, it's easy to forget just how harmful deforestation can be. Who cares if we lose a tree if we go on to plant one, or even two, in its place, right? Wrong! This mentality doesn't account for the major threat that deforestation plays to human, animal, and ecosystem health. Here's an overview of why deforestation is so harmful, what can be done about it, and why it happens in the first place. Deforestation is the process of clearing forested lands, often to make way for human industries like agriculture, transportation, or fossil fuel extraction. Most of this is occurring in 24 key regions, which the WWF calls "deforestation fronts." "Those are areas of forests across the tropics and subtropics of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania," Terrana explains. Deforestation can occur on primary forests (old growth that has never been significantly altered) as well as secondary forests (which have been cleared before and regrown). While both types of forests are essential to conserve for reasons we'll get to later, primary forests are usually considered the most ecologically valuable. The drivers of deforestation will differ depending on where in the world you look. Terrana explains that while many forests in the Congo Basin are being cut for roads and railways, for example, forests in Southeast Asia are largely cleared to make way for palm oil production. It's difficult to keep...

• • • • • See the positive change our work is making around the world. LEARN MORE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • There are many ways you can protect rainforests, fight climate change, and help people and wildlife thrive. EXPLORE YOUR GIVING OPTIONS • • • • • • • • • • • • The Rainforest Alliance certification seal means that the product (or a specified ingredient) was produced by farmers, foresters, and/or companies working together to create a world where people and nature thrive in harmony. LEARN MORE • Email What, exactly, is the relationship between deforestation and climate change? The Rainforest Alliance breaks down the numbers for you—and explains our innovative approach to keeping forests standing. Among the many gifts forests give us is one we desperately need: help with slowing climate change. Trees capture greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide, preventing them from accumulating in the atmosphere and warming our planet. When we clear forests, we’re not only knocking out our best ally in capturing the staggering amount of GHGs we humans create (which we do primarily by burning fossil fuels at energy facilities, and of course, in cars, planes, and trains). We’re also creating emissions by cutting down trees: when trees are felled, they release into the atmosphere all the carbon they’ve been storing. What the deforesters do with the felled trees—either leaving them to rot on the forest floor or burning them—creates further emissions. All told, deforestati...