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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 ...
However, massive deforestation for economic development threatens its forests and ecosystems. As of 2015, the country has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. [47] Deforestation has directly resulted from poorly managed commercial logging, fuel wood collection, agricultural invasion, and infrastructure and urban development.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that every year 130,000 km 2 of the world's forests are lost due to deforestation. Conversion to agricultural land, unsustainable harvesting of timber, unsound land management practices, and creation of human settlements are the most common reasons for this loss of forested areas.
From the approximately 16 million square kilometers of tropical rainforest habitat that originally existed worldwide, less than 9 million square kilometers remain today. [7] The current rate of deforestation is 160,000 square kilometers per year, which equates to a loss of approximately 1% of original forest habitat each year. [10]
Deforestation occurs when humans remove trees from a forested area by cutting or burning, either to harvest timber or to make way for farming. Most deforestation today occurs in tropical forests. The vast majority of this deforestation is because of the production of four commodities: wood, beef, soy, and palm oil. [15]
Land use change, especially in the form of deforestation, is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions from human activities, after the burning of fossil fuels. [4] [5] Greenhouse gases are emitted from deforestation during the burning of forest biomass and decomposition of remaining plant material and soil carbon.
Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by region, 2000–2010, from the Food and Agriculture Organization publication The State of the World's Forests 2020. Forests, biodiversity and people – In brief [3] Deforestation is much worse than forest degradation, but it is clear and visible.
Plantation forests cover about 131 million ha, which is 3 percent of the global forest area and 45 percent of the total area of planted forests. [1] Over 90% of the world's forests regenerate organically, and more than half are covered by forest management plans or equivalents. [32] [33] An image of a reforestation site in Praslin