Deforestation is the large-scale removal of forests, especially in tropical regions like the Amazon. It causes ecological problems like habitat loss that can drive species to extinction, as well as social issues in developing countries where it is often used to sustain populations. While logging and agriculture are significant drivers, shifting cultivation and commercial logging are two of the most commonly cited specific causes. The effects of deforestation include loss of biodiversity, increased carbon emissions, desertification, and disrupted ecosystems. Sustainable practices are needed to balance human and environmental needs.

1. Deforestation & loss of
Deforestation & loss of
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
by Cristina Coc
by Cristina Coc
and Amanda Navickis-Francois
and Amanda Navickis-Francois

2. What is deforestation?
Deforestation is the elimination of forest and
woodland areas on the large scale.
An area of tropical forest large enough to cover
North Carolina is deforested each year in South
America, most of this in the Amazon Basin !

3. Historical Background
Why did it emerge?
Deforestation emerged as a major problem because
of large scale losses evident particularly in tropical
regions.
Evidence of deforestation dates back much further
than modern times, owing to the fact that
deforestation is also a natural process.

4. Historical Background (continued)
Why is it a problem?
Deforestation causes problems on both the
evolutionary, social, and ecological scales.
• Ecological: Deforestation eliminates key habitats that
support highly specialized and sensitive species, and
eliminates the Forests ability to act as natural water and
air filters
• Evolutionary: With habitat loss comes the loss of
highly specialized species, eliminating continued
speciation, and often causing widespread extinctions

5. Historical Background (continued)
• Social: In many developing countries
deforestation is committed in an attempt to
sustain local human populations on the local
and global economic scale.
– Slash and burn
– Urbanization
– Boundary Waters and Old Growth

6. Current status
Where is deforestation still a problem?
Developing countries.
Tropical regions are at highest risk.
Developed countries.

7. Causes
Commercial Logging
Agriculture
Roads & Railways
Forest fires
Mining and drilling
Fuel-wood collection
Residential living
space

8. Two most commonly sited causes
Shifting Cultivation Commercial Logging
Indigenous farming of Business & trade
Rainforest
Minor disturbances
Grazing space
Rotation
No threat!
Exceed carrying
capacity
Sustainability
Intensive
mechanized logging
Insufficient recovery time
Intensive/ commercial
Accessibility to
farming remote areas

9. Effects of deforestation
Vanishing Rainforests
Topsoil accumulates slowly
Erosion
Unusable land
Disastrous Flooding
End of story?

10. NOT!!! Effects Continued…
Clearance = limited food and shelter
Desertification
Disappearance of ways of life
Negative impact on the climate
Global warming
Green house effect
Build up of CO2
Habitat fragmentation
When logging companies move into a forest area, they build roads through the center of the forest and then perform their logging operations
around those roads. If these roads come into common use, they can pose barriers for wildlife. As such, while only a small area may have
actually been harvested, a large portion of the forest's wildlife may lose access to certain essential nearby habitats.

11. Wait there is more…
Loss Scientific
possibilities
Identification of
species
Cures for deadly
diseases

12. “Good Reasons for…”
Economic benefits
Sustenance
development
Fertility
Services provided
Habitation

13. Striving for a Balance
Ecological function “Forest management with
O2 bank a focus and intention that
Replenish nutrient in it be used in the
land combination that will best
Prevent desertification meet the needs of people
Source of timber and not necessarily the
Effective use of renewable energy
combination of uses that
resources, will give the greatest
Alleviate use of wood as dollar return.”
fuel

14. Current status (belatedly
continued)
Key points needing further investigation
and study:
Connections between atmospheric CO2
concentrations and amount of global
forested regions
Deforestation as linked to Desertification
Solving economic and ecological problems
using more than short term solutions.

15. “certain species may live in a forest but depend on
a nearby grassland or wetland for a food source –”
~Elizabeth Brown
“While logging is, of course, necessary it should be done in a
carefully controlled, certified manner in order to ensure that it doesn't
destroy essential wildlife habitats – and, more obviously, in order to
ensure that we don't eventually completely run out of wood to log!”

16. Do the immediate benefits outweigh
the long-term costs? We don’t
think so…

17. So it’s bad, so what do you do
about it?
Stop cutting Suitably enforce
Sustainable logging legislation
Proper management Education and
FSC awareness
Indigenous people Life style changes
Forest capacity Greater appreciation
for Mother Nature
Sensitive regions as
protected areas

18. Citations
http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/facts/defore
station.htm
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/deforestati
on/deforestation.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Deforestat
ion/deforestation_3.html
http://www.globaled.org/issues/152/a.html
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/ontheline/expl
ore/nature/rainforest/deforest