Planet Earth Robbed Off Its Forest Cover

 A look at some startling facts:

Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world's most threatened and endangered animals live in forests and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter.

Some 129 million hectares of forest - an area almost equivalent in size to South Africa - have been destroyed since 1990, according to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) most comprehensive forest review to date.

The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015: An estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year.

In the Amazon around 17% of the forest has been destroyed in the last 50 years, mostly due to forest conversion for cattle ranching.

About half of the world's tropical forests have been cleared (FAO)

Forests currently cover about 30 percent of the world’s land mass (National Geographic)

Forest loss contributes between 6 percent and 12 percent of annual global carbon dioxide emissions (Nature Geo sciences)

About 36 football fields worth of trees lost every minute (World Wildlife Fund) 

NASA predicts that if current deforestation levels proceed, the world's rain-forests may be completely lost in as little as 100 years. Countries with significant deforestation include Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other parts of Africa, and parts of Eastern Europe, according to GRID-Arendal, a United Nations Environment Program collaborating center. The country with the most deforestation is Indonesia. Since the last century, Indonesia has lost at least 15.79 million hectares of forest land, according to a study by US University of Maryland and the World Resource Institute.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) report stresses the critical importance of forests to people, the environment, and the global economy. The forest sector contributes about $600 billion annually to global gross domestic product (GDP) and provides employment to over 50 million people.

90 percent of continental United States’ indigenous forest has been removed since 1600. The World Resources Institute estimates that most of the world’s remaining indigenous forest is located in Canada, Alaska, Russia and the Northwestern Amazon basin.

The WWF reports that half of the trees illegally removed from forests are used as fuel.

Some other common reasons are:

To make more land available for housing and urbanization

To harvest timber to create commercial items such as paper, furniture and homes

To create ingredients that are highly prized consumer items, such as the oil from palm trees

To create room for cattle ranching

Loss of forest contributes between 12 percent and 17 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. (World Resources Institute)

There are more than 121 natural remedies in the rain forest which can be used as medicines.

According to Rain-forest Action Network, the United States has less than 5% of the world’s population yet consumes more than 30% of the world’s paper.

The over exploitation of forests is making it extremely difficult to replant a new ecology.

20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon forest.

4500 acres of forests are cleared every hour by forest fires, bulldozers, machetes etc.

Almost half of world’s timber and up to 70% of paper is consumed by Europe, United States and Japan alone.

Fuel wood in sub Saharan African countries is consumed up to 200% times more than the annual growth rates of the trees. This is causing deforestation, lack of timber resources and loss of habitat for the species living in it.

Worldwide more than 1.6 billion people rely on forests products for all or part of their livelihoods.

Tropical forests, where deforestation is most prevalent, hold more than 210 gigatonnes of carbon.

According to Forestry Department Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about half the world’s tropical forests have been cleared or degraded.

Tropical rain-forests which cover 6-7% of the earth’s surface, contain over half of all the plant and animal species in the world!

Deforestation affects water cycle. Trees absorb groundwater and release the same into the atmosphere during transpiration. With deforestation, the climate automatically changes to a drier one and also affects the water table.

Deforestation is considered to be one of the contributing factors to global climate change. According to Michael Daley, associate professor of environmental science at Lasell College in Newton, Massachusetts, the No. 1 problem caused by deforestation is the impact on the global carbon cycle. Gas molecules that absorb thermal infrared radiation are called greenhouse gases. If greenhouse gases are in large enough quantity, they can force climate change, according to Daley. While oxygen is the second most abundant gas in our atmosphere, it does not absorb thermal infrared radiation, as greenhouse gases do. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent greenhouse gas. In 2012, Carbon Dioxide accounted for about 82 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Trees can help, though. 300 billion tons of carbon, 40 times the annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, is stored in trees, according to Greenpeace.

According to the 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment, deforestation releases nearly a billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year, though the numbers are not as high as the ones recorded in the previous decade. Deforestation is the second largest anthropogenic (human-caused) source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, ranging between 6 percent and 17 percent. (Van Der Werf, G. R. et al., 2009)

To date, 21 African nations have signed onto the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and committed to restore 63.3 million hectares (156 million acres) of degraded land.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest are lost each year. In the last two decades, Afghanistan has lost over 70% of its forests throughout the country.

photo: rajesh joshi on flickr

Other effects of deforestation

Loss of species: Seventy percent of the world’s plants and animals live in forests and are losing their habitats to deforestation, according to National Geographic. Loss of habitat can lead to species extinction. It also has negative consequences for medicinal research and local populations who rely on the animals and plants in the forests for hunting and medicine.

Water cycle: Trees are important to the water cycle. They absorb rain fall and produce water vapor that is released into the atmosphere. Trees also lessen the pollution in water, according to the North Carolina State University, by stopping polluted runoff. In the Amazon, more than half the water in the ecosystem is held within the plants, according to the National Geographic Society. 

Soil erosion: Tree roots anchor the soil. Without trees, the soil is free to wash or blow away, which can lead to vegetation growth problems. The WWF states that scientists estimate that a third of the world’s arable land has been lost to deforestation since 1960. After a clear cutting, cash crops like coffee, soy and palm oil are planted. Planting these types of trees can cause further soil erosion because their roots cannot hold onto the soil. "The situation in Haiti compared to the Dominican Republic is a great example of the important role forests play in the water cycle," Daley said. Both countries share the same island, but Haiti has much less forest cover than the Dominican Republic. As a result, Haiti has endured more extreme soil erosion, flooding and landslide issues.

Life quality: Soil erosion can also lead to silt entering the lakes, streams and other water sources. This can decrease local water quality and contribute to poor health in populations in the area.

In India

At Present India, is the poorest in the world so far the per capita land is concerned. The per capita forest Land in India is 0.10 hectare compared to the world average of 1 hectare, Canada 14.2 hectare, Australia 7.6 ha and USA 7.30 ha. Indian forests comprise only 0.50 per cent of the world forest area. India is losing about 1.5 million hectares of forest cover each year.

During a period of 25 years (1951-1976) India has lost 4.1 million hectares of forest area. Large-scale deforestation has been done for fuel, fodder, valley projects, industrial uses, road construction etc. India consumes nearly 170 million ton of firewood annually, and 10-15 million hectares of forest cover is being stripped every year to meet fuel requirements.

In the Himalayan range, the rainfall has declined 3 to 4 per cent due to deforestation. The national project of interlinking rivers if carried out without a forestation then we may reach zero forest value by 2020.

The maximum deforestation has occurred in Madhya Pradesh, which lost nearly 2 million hectare, Maharashtra over a million hectare, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir nearly a million hectare and Himachal Pradesh and Haryana and Gujarat have lost over half of their forest cover. Deforestation has been disastrous in the western Himalayas where the forest below 2000 m has almost been removed.

Let’s discuss how the humanity can stop deforestation and reverse this to gain back the planet earth