2. What is Deforestation
• Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the
removal of a forest
• Examples of deforestation include conversion of
forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use..
• According to UN conference in 1992
deforestation is
• defined as “ Land degradation in arid, semi-arid
and sub-humid areas resulting from various
factors including climatic variation and human
activities.
3. Facts
• Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's land
surface, according to the World Wildlife Fund. These
forested areas can provide food, medicine and fuel for
more than a billion people. Worldwide, forests provide
13.4 million people with jobs in the forest sector, and
another 41 million people have jobs related to forests.
• Forests are a resource, but they are also large,
undeveloped swaths of land that can be converted for
purposes such as agriculture and grazing. In North
America, about half the forests in the eastern part of
the continent were cut down for timber and farming
between the 1600s and late 1800s, according to
National Geographic.
4. Causes of Deforestation
1) Shifting cultivation:-
• Most of the clearing of forest is done for agricultural
purposes.
• Poor farmers cut down trees or burn it and start
agriculture.
• Intensive or modern agriculture destroy the forest on
a large scale.
• It is principal cause of deforestation in some
countries like America(35%), Asia(50%),Africa(70%).
5. Causes of Deforestation
2) Commercial Logging
• It involves cutting trees for sale as timber or pulp.
• It employs heavy machinery to remove cut trees and
build roads.
• Logging roads enable people to access the interiors
of the forest, which in results in deforestation
6. Causes of Deforestation
3) Mining and Dams
• Mining, industrial development and hydroelectric
power plant projects are also causes of deforestation.
• Dams open the previously inaccessible forest and
damage ecosystems.
8. Deforestation and climate change
Deforestation is one of the main contributors to climate change.
It comes in many forms: wildfire, agricultural clearcutting,
livestock ranching, and logging for timber, among others.
