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The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push the planetary boundaries too far. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] These activities include habitat destruction [ 4 ] (for example deforestation ) and land use intensification (for example monoculture farming).
In these areas, the loss of grass due to the presence of trees and other shrubbery leads to more erosion than when trees are removed. [207] Soils are reinforced by the presence of trees, which secure the soil by binding their roots to soil bedrock. Due to deforestation, the removal of trees causes sloped lands to be more susceptible to landslides.
Summary of major biodiversity-related environmental-change categories expressed as a percentage of human-driven change (in red) relative to baseline (blue) It has been estimated that from 1970 to 2016, 68% of the world's wildlife has been destroyed due to human activity. [132] [133] In South America, there is believed to be a 70 percent loss. [134]
Tropical deforestation: In most cases of tropical deforestation, three to four underlying causes are driving two to three proximate causes. [19] This means that a universal policy for controlling tropical deforestation would not be able to address the unique combination of proximate and underlying causes of deforestation in each country. [19]
Biodiversity loss: Forests are home to a wide variety of plant and animal species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. [8] Deforestation is threatening these species with extinction. Ecosystem disruption: Forests play a vital role in regulating the environment. [ 9 ]
Other effect of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is seen through the greater amount of carbon dioxide emission. The Amazon rainforest absorbs one-fourth of the carbon dioxide emissions on Earth, however, the amount of CO 2 absorbed today decreases by 30% than it was in the 1990s due to deforestation. [35]
Deforestation in the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state, 2009. Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. [147] Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use.
This degradation makes the forest less valuable and may lead to deforestation. Forest degradation is a type of the more general issue of land degradation. Deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, which contributes significantly to the ongoing loss of biodiversity. [2]