What Is Deforestation?
Deforestation is the process of removing a forest or a stand of trees and then converting the land to a non-forest use. Conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use are examples of deforestation. Tropical rainforests have the highest concentration of deforestation. Forests cover approximately 30% of the Earth's land surface.
What are the 14 Causes of Deforestation?
Deforestation occurs for a variety of reasons, some of which are listed below:
1. AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION
• Deforestation is caused by a number of factors, the most significant of which is agricultural expansion. Due to rising global demand for food grains and commodities such as soybeans and palm oil, forests are being cleared at an alarming rate.
• There has been a massive reduction in forest cover worldwide since the beginning of agriculture to allow for agricultural expansion.
• According to estimates, over 40% of the world's forests have already been cleared to make room for agriculture and wood production. Agricultural expansion has largely depleted the world's original forests.
• Forests are cleared to make way for commercial crops like palm oil plantations. Simply put, deforestation occurs when forest land is no longer economically viable.
• As a result of this trend, the Savannah vegetation has been cleaned and a large area has been converted to agricultural land, resulting in widespread destruction of Savannah grasslands. The grasslands and trees of temperate tropical regions (such as North America's prairies and Russia's steppes) have been cleaned.
• Forests have been cleared and converted to gardens and agricultural lands on a large scale. In the monsoon areas of south and south-east Asia, forest areas have also been extensively deforested in order to expand agricultural land and alleviate hunger among the rapidly growing population.
2. INCREASING URBANIZATION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION
• Trees have been cut down for years in order to facilitate development work. One of the major causes of deforestation is increased urbanization.
• Forests are being cleared on a large scale to meet residential and industrial requirements, such as for mass housing development, road construction, mineral exploitation, and industrial expansion.
• The road expansions also lead to illegal logging, where people take advantage of the law of presumed innocence and cut down trees without permission from authorities.
3. GROWTH IN POPULATION
• To accommodate the explosive growth in population, deforestation is occurring at a faster rate. Because of the rapid increase in human population in developing countries, it has become necessary to clean and farm vast areas of forest in order to meet the needs of the growing population.
• The demand for wood is steadily increasing. As a result, tree cutting is steadily increasing. Every year, 20 million hectares of equatorial mangrove forests are lost.
• The increasing collection of wood for fodder and burning of wood by the rural masses in developing and developing countries contributes to forest depletion.
4. DIVERSE HUMAN NEEDS
• For centuries, trees and forests have been burned or cut down to meet a variety of human needs, including the need for wood for fuel, the construction of houses, boats, match boxes, and furniture, and the need for wood for many other purposes.
• Deforestation has been occurring at such a rapid rate since the turn of the century that many environmental issues have arisen. The greedy man has forgotten that massive forest destruction would put his own life in jeopardy.
5. LIVESTOCK RANCHING AND LOGGING
• Forests have already been cleared for livestock ranching, or cattle farming, in many parts of the world. Cattle ranchers have burned vast swaths of rainforest to turn them into cattle pastures.
• They graze cattle across vast swaths of forest land. They sell the land and profit later when the land prices rise. In developing countries, this type of deforestation is very common.
• In the normal density forests of hot and subtropical, dry and semi-arid regions, forests have decayed due to animal grazing. Milch animals are known to feed on bushes and plants scattered on the ground and in open forests in these developing and underdeveloped countries. They also trample the land with their hooves, preventing plants from blooming. Large herds of sheep have completely wiped out the grass in most countries.
• Another major cause of deforestation is logging. To make money from wood, some greedy people engage in activities that lead to deforestation. Illegal logging operations, which are common in developing countries, wreak havoc on the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.
6. CHANGES OF FORESTS INTO PASTURES
Forests have been converted to livestock pastures in temperate regions of the world, particularly in North and South America and Africa, in order to expand and develop dairy farming.
7. MULTIPURPOSE RIVER-VALLEY PROJECTS
• Large forest areas are lost during the implementation of multipurpose river valley projects because the extensive area covered in forest is submerged in water in the large reservoirs built behind the dams, disrupting not only the natural forest wealth but also the ecological balance of that area.
8. JHUM (SHIFTING) CULTIVATION
• Jhum agriculture is one of the primary causes of forest decay and destruction in southern and south-eastern Asia's mountainous regions. The land is cleaned by burning forests on hilltops in this agricultural practice.
• Farmers shift to another location when the productivity of that land declines, re-burning the jungle.
9. MINING OPERATIONS
• Forests are also being cut down for oil and coal mining operations. Large-scale mining operations result in significant deforestation due to forest clearance. Deforestation is also caused by the construction of roads into forests for such purposes.
10. PAPER PRODUCTION
• Tree pulp is used to make paper. Environmentalists have already focused their attention on rising paper consumption and the cutting down of trees for paper manufacturing around the world. The use of paper has increased 400% in the last four decades. One tonne of good quality paper requires twelve to seventeen fully grown trees.
11. FOR FUEL
• Due to the need for wood for fuel, extensive deforestation occurs.
12. DUE TO CORRUPTION
• For their ulterior motives, forest contractors and forest mafia resort to massive forest cutting. To make more money, they cut down trees on a large scale and smuggle the wood.
13. LACK OF AWARENESS
• Deforestation occurs because most people are unaware of the importance of forest conservation.
14. OTHER CAUSES
• Global warming, landslides, and earthquakes are natural causes of deforestation; hail, strong winds, hurricanes, lighting, and other natural disasters also contribute to the loss of forest cover, in addition to forest fires.