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Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forest to other land uses (regardless of whether it is human-induced). [14] Deforestation and forest area net change are not the same: the latter is the sum of all forest losses (deforestation) and all forest gains (forest expansion) in a given period. Net change, therefore, can be positive or ...
[10] [11] The relationship between deforestation and climate change is one of a positive (amplifying) climate feedback. [12] The more trees that are removed equals larger effects of climate change which, in turn, results in the loss of more trees. [13] Forests cover 31% of the land area on Earth.
Deforestation causes many threats to wildlife as it not only causes habitat destruction for the many animals that survive in forests, as more than 80% of the world's species live in forests but also leads to further climate change. [8] Deforestation is a main concern in the tropical forests of the world.
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]
In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares (25 million acres), down from 12 million hectares (30 million acres) annually in 2010–2015.
A consequence of deforestation is typically large-scale erosion, loss of soil nutrients and sometimes total desertification. Techniques for improved soil conservation include crop rotation, cover crops, conservation tillage and planted windbreaks, affect both erosion and fertility. When plants die, they decay and become part of the soil.
When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, the environment is degraded; direct environmental degradation, such as deforestation, which is readily visible; this can be caused by more indirect process, such as the build up of plastic pollution over time or the buildup of greenhouse gases that causes tipping points in ...
Deforestation by humans began taking place already in the Bronze Age but reached its peak under British colonial rule, particularly the 16th and 17th century Plantations, that saw mass scale deforestation to create agricultural lands, and to supplement the need for timber for shipbuilding for Britain's early phase of empire building. [92]