This document discusses deforestation, including its causes and effects. It begins by defining deforestation as the clearing of forests, usually to make way for agriculture, timber harvesting, or urban development. Some of the key causes discussed are commercial agriculture, cattle ranching, palm oil and timber production, subsistence farming, and infrastructure development. The effects of deforestation mentioned include loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Strategies proposed to reduce deforestation include sustainable forestry practices, protected areas, and programs like REDD+ that provide incentives for conservation.

1. Dr. RAJESH KUMAR SAHU
M.V.SC
VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH
WEL COME TO ALL OF YOU
DEFORESTATION

2. DEFORESTATION
OUTLINE :-
• Meaning of deforestation
• Causes of deforestation
• Effects of deforestation
• Mitigation strategies

3. DEFORESTATION
• Deforestation is the destruction / clearing
/ conversion of forested lands, usually for
the purposes of expanding agricultural
land, for timber harvesting & urban uses.
• It involves permanent end of forest cover
to make that land available for
residential, commercial or industrial
purpose.

4. FOREST
• A forest is highly complex,
constantly changing
environment made up of
living and non-living things.
• Trees are the biggest part of
this complex community.

5. FOREST TYPES
1
• BOREAL FOREST
(CONIFERS)
2
• TROPICAL FOREST
( mixed deciduous
hard woods)
3
• TEMPERATE FOREST
( Conifers and Hard
woods)

6. World distribution of forest

7. Characteristics of Earth’s Forests
Forest
Type
Where?
Area
(km2) Rainfall Soil
NPP
gC/km2/yr
Biodiv-
ersity
Boreal
Temperate
Tropical
Rainforest
High N
Latitudes
(50-60 °N)
Mid-
Latitude
(30° - 50°)
Low
Latitude
(0 - 30°)
12 M
12 M
17 M
Low
20-50
cm/yr
Moderate
50 to 100
cm/yr
High
2 to 10
m/yr
Immature, but
abundant
minerals yet
to be released
Rich, fertile,
abundant
nutrient
reserves
Poor, highly
leached. Most
nutrients
recycles
300 M
500 M
1000 M
Low
High
Moderate

9. CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION
1. Fire
2. Commercial
agriculture
3. Cattle ranching
4. Palm oil production
5. Subsistence farming
6. Logging for timber
7. Mining
8. Infrastructure building
( Urbanization )
9. Charcoal production
10. Firewood collection

10. FIRE
• Fire is often used to clear
forested land, as it is cheaper
than employing labourers and
bringing in machinery to
remove the trees and
vegetation.
• The Vegetation is cleared and
left to dry then the area is set
on fire.
• Burning is also employed by
large companies to clear areas
of forest to make way for
agriculture, mining or other.

11. FIRE Continue….
SLASH / BURN agriculture
• Slash-and-burn is an
agricultural technique that
involves the cutting and
burning of plants
in forests or wood lands to
create fields.
• Tribal groups in the india and
also in the districts of
Bangladesh refer to slash and
burn agriculture as "Jhum" or
"Jhoom cultivation

12. Commercial agriculture
• commercial agriculture is responsible for 32% of
deforestation.
• When farmers donot grow crops or raise animal
for their own good but to sell it in the market and
earn money is called commercial agriculture. The
farmers sell the crops and goods earned from
animals in the market place and buy their livings
with that income earned.

13. Commercial agriculture
• In Brazil rain forests is
converted into
1- pasture for cattle
ranching ( for beef )
2- soyabeans ( used as
raw materials in many
food products )

14. Cattle ranching
• During the 1990s, the portion of the globe covered
by forests shrank by an estimated 94 000 square
kilometres a year, an area roughly the size of
Portugal.
• Most of the land that was cleared and burned was
converted to growing crops and grazing livestock .
• Latin America, in particular, most of the
deforested land ended up as pasture used to raise
cattle in extensive grazing systems.

15. Cattle ranching

16. Cattle ranching

17. Cattle ranching
• In Brazil, cattle ranches occupy somewhere around
8.4 million hectares ,(averaging 24,000 hectares
each, with some as large as 560,000 hectares.
• Costa Rica( Central america) averaged an annual
loss of 3.9% of its forests, largely due to the vast
expansion of cattle ranching.
• By 1983, about 83% of Costa Rica forests had been
felled ,mostly for beef production

18. Palm oil production
• Palm oil is an edible plant oil which has
become a common ingredient in many
consumer products.
• Today, around 50 percent of the goods we use
every day contain palm oil, from processed
foods to candles, grooming products and
“biofuels”.

19. Palm oil production
• Since oil palms need a rainforest climate
consistently high humidity and temperatures
and a lot of land, plantations are often
established at the expense of rainforests.

20. Palm oil production
• About 90% of the palm
oil of world has been
produced by Indonesia
and Malaysia.
• As the demand for palm
oil increasing it is
estimated that around
2032 the all the rain
forest of Indonesia
would be degraded.

21. Subsistence farming
• It’s the type of farming in which most of the
products is consumed by the farmer and his
family leaving nothing or little for market.
• A third to two-fifths of tropical deforestation is
caused by subsistence activities on a local level
by people who simply use the rainforest's
resources for their survival.
• subsistence farming accounts for 46 percent
of the total deforestation in the world.

22. Subsistence farming

23. Logging for timber
• According to the report of
WWF in Dec 97
International timber trading
is the main cause of
deforestation.
• 500,000 Ha forest degraded
each week.
• Half of the world's 233 most
important sites for plant
diversity are threatened by
commercial logging;

24. Logging for timber
• In the past harvesting woods
were not particularly
damaging to the ecosystem
because there were relatively
few people.
• In areas with large human
populations the number of
people collecting wood from
a rainforest.
• Also like wise timber is also
used for furniture . So its
become a habit of people to
cut down the trees.

25. Mining
• Mining is the process of removal of minerals
and metals from core of the earth
underground.
• Which region of earth’s crust having the plenty
of minerals that area is cleared if there is
presence of dense forest.
• Gold mining is one of the main causes of
deforestation in the Amazon.

26. Mining

27. Infrastructure building
Includes
1. Roads
2. Buildings
3. Urbanizations
These things are only due to over population.

28. Infrastructure building
• Forests need to be cleared to make way for roads
like railways and high ways.
• For example in Canada, clearing forests for
agricultural use, such as pasture or crops
accounted for almost half (41%) of the
deforestation in 2010.
• The remainder was caused by resource
development and transportation (37%); urban
expansion and recreation (12%), forestry (mainly
forest roads, 8%) and hydroelectric infrastructure
(1%).

29. Infrastructure building

30. Charcoal production
• Production of charcoal has remarkably become
a factor of deforestation in most parts of the
Coast region of tanzenia.
• It contributes about 75% of the deforestation .
• Charcoal made from old-growth hardwood
trees is the most valuable because it burns
hotter and longer.

31. Charcoal production

32. Fire wood collection
• Demand for fuel destroys forests near villages
and towns in many countries.

34. Effects of deforestation

36. Effects of deforestation

37. Effects of deforestation

39. Forested Deforested

40. IN WORLD VIEW

42. Deforestation in the Amazon
• The Amazon rainforests
have the highest rate of
deforestation
• It’s home to 60% of the
world’s remaining
tropical rainforest
• In these regions
deforestation is mostly
caused by cattle ranching
and agriculture
Chart From: http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

44. India forest area

45. Present Forest Cover Scenario in India
• India, being seventh largest country in area and second
most populated country, posses a little amount of
forest cover.
• The National Forest Policy in 1953 suggested for the
necessity of overall 33% forest cover for the country as
a whole (25% in plains and 60% in hilly areas)
• In India the per capita average of forest land is only
0.11 ha which is much lower than the world average of
1.08 ha.

46. Present Scenario of Deforestation in India
• The data released by the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA)
in mid 1984 show that India lost 1.3 million hectares of forests
every year between 1972-73 and 1980-81.
• The maximum deforestation has occurred in Madhya Pradesh,
which lost nearly two million ha.
• Maharashtra over a million ha. Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu
and Kashmir nearly a million ha.
• Deforestation has been disastrous in the western Himalayas where
the forests below 2000 m have almost been removed.
• In 1950 Himachal Pradesh had 38.5% of its area under forests which
has now gone down to 15%.
• In Jammu and Kashmir the actual forest cover is only 6% of the total
area against the official record of 60 per cent
• TOTAL FOREST COVER IN INDIA IS 78.92 MILLION HECTARE WHICH IS
24.01 % OF TOTAL GEOGRAPHICAL AREA.

47. Mitigation
• The conventional solution aims to target and
fix poverty which they consider to be the
cause of deforestation.
• Tropical Forest Action Plan (TFAP) is one of
the anticipated problem solutions by the
government.
• Sustained Yield Forestry is one of the
projected ways to minimize the output of
timber in its yearly harvest

48. Mitigation
• Reserve Strategies are also one of the
seemingly impossible ways of treating the
problem. So it should be practiced.
• International Biodiversity Program is also one
of the seen probabilities by the government to
finish the problem of deforestation.

49. Mitigation
• Clear cutting of forests must be banned
• cutting must be replaced by planting young
trees to replace the older ones that were cut.
• curb the felling of trees, by employing a series of
rules and laws to govern it.
• Re use paper and plastic bags to discourage
deforestation.
• Be active and plant trees. It can be at your
homes, backyards or you can join any
organization keen on stopping deforestation

50. Reducing emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation (REDD)
• REDD was first discussed in 2005 by the UNFCCC at its 11TH
SESSION of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention
(COP) at the request of Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea,
on behalf of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations.
• Main aim is: Reducing emissions from deforestation in
developing countries: approaches to stimulate action.
• *UNFCCC- UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE

51. REDD+
• “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation in developing countries, and the role
of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and
enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries“
ITS ACTIVITIES
1. Reducing emissions from deforestation.
2. Reducing emissions from forest degradation
3. Conservation of forest carbon stocks.
4. Sustainable management of forests.
5. Enhancement of forest carbon stocks"

52. MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
AND FORESTS
• Government of India established a separate Department of
Environment in 1980 and elevated it to the Union Ministry of
Environment and Forests in 1985.
Some important legal instruments are
1. Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
2. Water (Prevention and Control of pollution) Act,1974
3. forest Conservation Act, 1980
4. Air (Prevention and Control of pollution) Act,1981
5. Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
6. National Environnent Tribunal Act, 1995
7. National Environment Appellate Authority Act,1997.

53. MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
AND FORESTS
• As part of promotion of R&D, the Ministry has set up a network of autonomous and
other institutions which carry out original work and also offer expert and specialist
advice in respective areas.
SOME OF IMPORTANT INSTITUTES
• Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehra Dun
• Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun
• G.B Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kosi-
Katarmal, Almora, UP
• Centres of Excellence in Environmental Education: Centre for Environment
Education Ahmedabad and CPR Foundation for Environment Education,
Chennai.
• Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata
• Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata.
• Forest Survey of India, Dehra Dun
• Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, University of
Delhi, Delhi
• Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

55. THANK YOU ALL
THANK YOU ALL