Essays on Deforestation

Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use.

The overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture. Subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation; commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%; logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%.

Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations, as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record.Deforestation also reduces biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, increasing negative feedback cycles contributing to global warming. Deforested regions typically incur significant other environmental effects such as adverse soil erosion and degradation into wasteland.

We lose around 10 million hectares of forest every single year.
Beef is responsible for 41% of global deforestation.
Brazil and Indonesia account for almost half of tropical deforestation.
Soy plays a big role in deforestation.
No company in the world achieved its net zero deforestation commitment.