1 It would be difficult to imagine life without the beauty and richness of forests.
If humankind does not act quickly, however, planet Earth and all living creatures are in danger of losing forests forever.
Deforestation has already resulted in the loss of over 80 percent of the natural of the world.
Currently, the disappearance of forests worldwide constitutes a global problem affecting the temperate forests of the Pacific Northwest area of the US and British Columbia, and more urgently, the tropical forests of Central and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
2 Deforestation occurs for many reasons.
In the temperate forests of the US and Canada, wood is harvested mainly for construction and paper products.
In tropical Rainforests, one of the most common reasons for deforestation is agriculture.
Because the soil in many tropical forests are found in the vegetation (and not the soil), many
Farmers practice an agricultural method known as “slash and burn.” This method consists of cutting down the trees of an area in the rainforest and burning them to
release their rich nutrients into the soil.
5 In addition, deforestation causes the extinction of thousands of species of
Wildlife annually.
It is estimated that worldwide, 5 to 80 million kinds of animals and plants makeup the biodiversity of the Earth, but only about 1.5 million have been studied and named by scientists.
Tropical rainforests, which cover about 7 percent of the Earth’s land, are home to over half of these plant and animal species.
If the rainforests disappear, many of these species will become extinct.
This means many species will vanish before we ever discover them.