EFFECTS OF DEFORESTATION

Deforestation means large scale cutting of forests.Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families.The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as “slash and burn” agriculture. The forest lands are converted in to farms, ranches and urban areas through deforestation. Another cause behind deforestation is the cutting of trees for timber and fuel. Deforestation has also been used in war situations to deprive an enemy of cover for its forces and other vital resources. It essentially leads to extinction of vital things and destroys the ecological balance of nature. Destruction of the forests leads to a tragic loss of biodiversity. Millions of plants and animal species are on the verge of extinction due to deforestation. Countries with tropical forests suffer the greatest causalities due to deforestation.Many wild animals have started relocating to urban areas as a result of massive deforestation.

 

There have been many cases of various wild animals like snakes, bats etc causing accidents in urban areas. Many times wild animals get killed in an effort to capture them. There have been instances of carnivorous predators like lions, tigers and wolfs preying on humans in villages surrounded by forests.Deforestation is one of the causes behind the conversion of many fertile tracts of land to deserts. This phenomenon is known as desertification. When mountain forest faces desertion, watersheds are degraded and this leads to the loss of sustained water supplies for lowland communities.

 

Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sun-blocking tree cover they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere.

 

Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts.Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.A more workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting to make sure that forest environments remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced by the planting of enough young trees to replace the older ones felled in any given forest. The number of new tree plantations is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny fraction of the Earth’s forested land.

 

By: Ammara Siddique

 

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