Deforstation ecology

1. DEFORSTATION

2. Deforestation

3. KEY POINTS
 What is deforestation
 Forest
 Importance of forest
 Reasons of deforestation
 Effects of deforestation
 Deforestation: as a positive feedback loop
 Pakistani ecosystem
 Solution
 Preventing deforestation
 Conclusion

4. What is deforestation?
 Deforestation is the
clearing, destroying, or
otherwise removal of
trees through deliberate,
natural or accidental
means.
 The USEPA defines
deforestation as the
"permanent removal of
standing forests.”

5. Forest
 Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's land
surface, according to the WWF.
 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.

6. Cont…
 About 3/4 of Canada, 1/2 of US, all of Europe and
significant proportion of rest of world has been
forested in the past.
 Internationally, there should be 25% area under forest
cover.
 but in Pakistan covering only 4.8 percent of total land
area.

7. Importance of forest
 Source of timber
 Fiber
 Paper
 Wild life habitat
 Economic source
 Modify climate
 Reduce water runoff
 Protection from erosion

8. Reasons of deforestation
 Population increases
 Industrialization
 Urbanization
 Road construction
 Mining
 Building material

9. Causes
Cultivation
Overgrazing
Fuel wood
Forest fires
Timber
Forest diseases
Land slides

10. 1.Cultivation:
 Countries clear large
areas of land so that they
can grow and develop
them.
 Nutrients depleted:
 Fertility of soil is
exhausted due to
repeated cropping,a
natural forest area is
destroying.

11. 2.Overgrazing:
 Overgrazing in forests
destroys newly
regenerated growth.It
also makes soil more
compact and
impervious.
 Overgrazing also
accelartes the soil
erosion

12. 3.Fuel wood:
 People living near forests
get fuel wood.
 Charcoal for cooking and
heating.
 Uses such as keeping
the fire on for warmth at
night.

13. 4.Forest fires:
 Frequent fires are there
major cause of the
destruction of forests.
 Some fires are incidental
while the majority of
them are deliberate.

14. 5.Timber:
 Timber and playwood
industries are mainly
responsible for the
destruction of forest
trees.
 Thus the increases
demand for timber led to
rapid depletion of forest.

15. 6.Forest diseases:
 Many diseases caused by
parasitic fungi,rusts,
viruses cause death and
decay of forest plants.
 Diseases such as heart rot,
blister rust,oak wilt,
phloem necrosis and
Dutch elm diseases etc
damage the forest in large
numbers.

16. 7.Land slides:
 Deforstation due to land
slides in the hills is of
great.
 Developmental activities
were in progress for past
few decades.

17. Conti..
 removal of vegetation ->removal of CO2
 produces greenhouse gas emissions.
 The FAO of the United Nations says that deforestation
is the second-leading cause of climate change. In fact,
deforestation accounts for nearly 20% of greenhouse
gas emissions.

18. Conti…
 When forests die, ecological balance maintained by
nature breaks away; and floods and droughts are the
dangerous consequences.
 In the Himalayan range, the rainfall has declined 3 to
4 per cent due to deforestation. and leads to changes in
that system.

19. Deforestation: as a positive
feedback loop
 A positive feedback loop causes a system to change
further in the same direction (Figure 2-11).
 In the Hubbard Brook experiments,
 vegetation was removed from a stream valleyflowing
water from precipitation  erosion and loss of
nutrients,  more vegetation to die  water caused
even more erosion and nutrient loss,  even more
plants to die.

21. Pakistani Ecosystem:
 Juniper forests of nothern Balochistan have been heavily
harvested for timber and fuel wood.
 Indus River..... Large tracts have been cleared for
agriculture.
 Himalayan...... logging for timber and fire wood and
making cleanings for agriculture.
 Mangrove forests....... coastal areas.

22.  Threats
 The major threat to Pakistani forest's is
uncontrolled and unsustainable cutting
 Lack of political will and commitment
 Poor planning
 Unrealistic forest working plans
 Weak implementation of forest protection laws

23. Solutions:
 Propagating modern technologies and farming
techniques.
 We can encourage a tree planting.
 Use solar energy and hydal energy (air power)
to generate energy.
 Reducing political interference in the Forestry
and Wildlife Departments.
 Improving other institutions and departments
for other sustainable development of forests,
wildlife and biodiversity resources.


24. Preventing Deforestation
Plant trees in your yard.
Use recycled products
Recycle
Why: Recycling is a very simple way to reduce the trees
needed to make new products.

25. Overall…
Deforestation can negatively impact our
environment as well as our own lives. We all
can make simple changes in our life to help
preserve our natural forests.

26. References
 Ecology by PS Verma and VK Aarwal
 Ecology: Concepts and Applications by MC Molles
Colchester, M. And Lohmann, L. Londo.The Struggle for
land and the fate of forest. Zed books, London.
 Deforestation|Threats|WWF.Worldwildlife.rg. Retrieved 13
November 2016.
Sheram, K. 1993. The Environmental Data Book. The
World Bank, Washington DC.
 Essentials of Ecology by G. Tyler Miller and Scotte.
Spoolman