Forests are vital for biodiversity and life on Earth. Deforestation, the permanent destruction of forests, is a major threat. Humans clear forest lands for many reasons like logging, farming, ranching, mining, and urban development. The main drivers of deforestation are economic needs of communities and industries. Crops like soy and palm oil are major contributors and destroy habitats. High demand for wood and paper also fuels deforestation. Animal grazing and infrastructure development like roads and settlements increase deforestation. Deforestation has negative economic and environmental impacts through increased greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and loss of species.

1. Is the World in Grave Danger?
JONALYN M. SHENTON

2. Importance of Forests
Forests and biodiversity are key to all life forms. The richer the
diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical
discoveries, economic development and adaptive responses to
such new challenges as climate change.

4. Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land
available for other uses.
Deforestation is when humans remove or clear large areas of forest
lands and related ecosystems for non-forest use. These include
clearing for farming purposes, ranching and urban use. In these cases,
trees are never re-planted. The cutting down and removal of all or most of
the trees in a forested area.

5. Deforestationis the clearing of trees, transforming a
forest into cleared land.
Clear-cutting in Borneo. (Photo by R.
Butler)

6. NATURAL THREATS TO RAINFORESTS
Throughout their existence, tropical rainforests
have been affected by natural forces like fire,
volcanic eruption, drought, and storms.

7.  Why do humans clear forest lands?
Trees are cut down (deforestation) for many reasons including
To be used, sold or exported as timber, wood or
fuel (charcoal). This is called logging.
To be used for farming purposes (grazing fields
for livestock, or large-scale farming activities)
To make room for human settlement and
urbanization (these include making space for
shelter, industries, and roads)
To make room for mining.

8. The driving forces of deforestation are very complex, but weigh heavily
towards economic needs of local communities, countries and large
multinational industries. Here are a few:
Soy, palm oil and other crop plantations
Palm oil, a very popular ingredient in many foods and now very common
for its use for biodiesel (fuel for transport industry), together with soya,
which is used in many foods and animal feed, are two major crops that
require a lot of space to cultivate. These two, together with banana and
others have contributed and still contribute to the loss of large forest
areas.
Deforestation for palm oil
production in Malaysian Borneo.

9. • Biofuels are produced from renewable resources such as: plants and
organic waste and can be used as an alternative to fossil fuels
• Palm oil plantations are posed as a major threat
• Destroying habitats of orangutans and other wildlife
• Orangutans spend about 80-90% of their time in the trees
• Demand for biofuels is on the rise

10. High demand for wood (logs or timber)
More need for pulp and paper, wood for furniture, real estate construction
fuel all mean that trees will be cut down. World population is growing and
more than ever before, our needs have increased too. —Increasing
demand was specifically cited as an underlying cause of
deforestation by the workshops in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ecuador,
Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. El Salvador, for example
pointed to the sale of timber to sawmills, and Nepal noted an
increased number of furniture factories. Nepal and Kenya both listed
the use of timber for house-building as a key issue1
— Logging is the principal threat to the tropical rainforests of
Cameroon, Congo and Gabon. It is estimated that every year 137,000
hectares are logged in these three countries alone2

11. Animal grazing fields
n many places in the world, animal farms have contributed to large areas
of green space being converted to grazing fields. Classic cases can be
found in Brazil. Animal rearing in the Amazon has increased remarkable
over the past few decades, obviously because of the increase in demand
for meat products over the world. Since 2002 cattle rearing expansion
increased about 30%. It is known that 80% of brazils livestock population
can be found in the Amazon, specifically in the states of Mato, Grosso,
Pará, and Rondônia, which were also the states with the greatest
deforestation in 20023

12. Construction
New settlements, roads and industries springing up in many forest
places surely add to the problem we face with deforestation today.
As roads are constructed to access remote areas in these forests,
they act as a magnet for new settlements. Once people begin to
settle too close to forests areas, they begin to rely on the resources
from that forest to make a living

13. Others
Other factors include trade policies such as those that discourage
certain foods and rather encourage production of soy beans. Another
cause of deforestation may be the poorly implemented environmental
regulations that encourage land owners to covert forest lands to
plantations, without any regard for authority and laws.
Mining is the big issue ( Gina Lopez)
Mining in PH: What Gina Lopez, Duterte
have said
During their term, the Dutertes banned mining in
Davao City. Meanwhile, Lopez, a known anti-mining
advocate, has been involved in spats with big
mining companies because of her strong
statements against mining.

17. The strong waves in Siargao Island has made the province
the Surfing Capital of the Philippines. ... There are six mining
companies operating in the province.

19. Data according to the FAO. Note the
differences from the chart above. FAO's
data is based on self reporting from
forestry departments, while Harris and
colleagues used satellite imagery.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO), the leading
source for information on the status of the
world's forests, defines forests as land with
a tree canopy cover of more than 10 percent
and an area of more than half a hectare.

25. Forest loss in the country is largely the result of
centuries of unrestrained colonial and industrial
logging practices. Logging and the export of
timber have been major sources of income for
the government, wood-based industries and
associated businesses, traders, entrepreneurs,
employees, workers and upland communities
throughout the Philippines (DENR-FMB and
CoDe REDD-plus Philippines 2010). The
country’s history of deforestation began during
the Spanish occupation, where the estimated
27 million ha in the 1500s would drop to a little
more than 7.2 million ha in 2003 (Philippine
Climate Change Commission 2010)
In 1987, the DENR was reorganized through
Executive Order No. 192, to better address
pressing environmental concerns. The PAWB
was also created to formulate and recommend
policies, guidelines, rules and regulations for the
establishment and management of an Integrated
Protected Areas System (IPAS) such as national
parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine parks and
biosphere reserves (Calderon 2013).

26. Causes of deforestation and forest
degradation
There are a number of factors that have
contributed to deforestation in the Philippines,
including illegal logging, fuel wood and timber
poaching, agricultural expansion, strip-mining,
migration and plantation development
(DENRFMB and CoDe REDD-plus Philippines
2010).
The most serious threat to forest ecosystems
has been logging (both legal and illegal) (DENR
2009). History of commercial logging that began
during the Spanish occupation has severely
decimated forest resources in the country. Illegal
logging operations have continued because of
poor law enforcement and the growing demand
for timber and wood products

27. Rapid population growth is another driving
force in the deterioration of the country’s forest
resources. With a population of around 92.34 million
as of May 2010 (NSO 2012). Forest continue to be
converted for infrastructure development including
housing, and building of hospital and schools.
Census Year
Census Reference
Date
Population
(in millions)
2000 May 1, 2000 76.51
2010 May 1, 2010 92.34
2015 August 1, 2015 100.98
Table 1. Population of the Philippines
(Based on the 2000, 2010, and 2015 Censuses)

28. Economic Implications
• Industries are over-using and over-cutting trees for prosperity and mostly for
profit
• Rapid globalization around the world is a major concern
• Increase in Supply & Demand
• Since the population around the world is constantly growing on a daily basis,
many corporations are clearing forests to build infrastructures
• Poverty stricken countries give their natural resources away to earn foreign
currency to pay off loans

29. • Increase in Global warming and Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
• Tropical rainforests are disappearing causing alterations to the climate
• Each day at least 80,000 acres (32,300) hectares of these forests disappear from
the earth
• Ozone depletion
• Forest fires (release about 370 million tons of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere every year)
• Deforestation rates in the Amazon Rainforests have not slowed

30. Deforestation in Brazil
Brazil looses the largest area of forest cover annually

31. Increase in Tropical Deforestation Around the World

32. Major Deforestation in Brazil

33. ~~~ If everybody does not stay ignorant and take little steps or solutions to
prevent deforestation from occurring in the future, then overall we all will
have a better world to live in. ~~~
• Reduce wasteful land use practices
• Improve already developed lands
• Businesses and corporations have to be more aware of the effects that
deforestation causes and they have to take little initiatives to prevent it from
increasing
• Governments have to make citizens aware of the issue
• Each person can plant trees once in a while to maintain the ecosystem
• Groups can be formed to decrease deforestation
• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Global Forest Watch Canada (GFWC)
are groups that have already been formed to prevent deforestation

34. References
• “A World Imperiled: Forces behind forest loss.” Mongabay. Online. Available.
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0801.htm
• Astor, Michael. “Global Warming could transform Amazon into savanna in 100 years:
researchers.” Canadian Press. 29 Dec. 2006. pg. A12
• Brummit, Chris. “Biofuel boom has hidden costs; producing palm oil for biofuels is boosting
Indonesia’s economy, but the resulting deforestation contributes to global warming and is
destroying the habitat of orangutans and other wildlife.” Record, The
(Kitchener/Cambridge/Waterloo, ON). 19 Sept. 2007. pg. A5
• Butler, Rhett. “Regional Deforestation”. Mongabay. 1994-2007. Online. Available.
http://photos.mongabay.com/07/regional_defor.jpg
• Forge, Frederic. “Biofuels- An Energy, Environmental or Agricultural Policy?”. Library of
Parliament- Parliamentary Information and Research Service. Online. Available.
http://www.parl.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0637-e.htm
• Friends of Red Hill Valley. Online. Available.
http://www.hwcn.org/~forhv/expressway/expresswaytitlepage.htm
• Hagan, Kevin. “Deforestation: An International Crisis.” Online. Available.
http://www.american.edu/TED/projects/tedcross/xdefor21.htm
• “Share of tropical deforestation”. Mongabay. 2000-2005. Online. Available.
http://photos.mongabay.com/07/trop_defor_pie-max.jpg
• Suzuki, David. “Forest protection vital to stem Global Warming.” Western Star, The (Corner
Book,NL). 19 May. 2007. pg 12.