Rich black soil, towering tropical trees, the distant sound of a hollering monkey and the smell of damp leaves paint the picture of a tropical rainforest. The most famous and valuable tropical forests include the Amazon, Congo Basin, Indonesia and the forests of the Russian Far East and have been debated as endangered for decades. These rainforests mainly differ in soils, geology, precipitation patterns, the wildlife which resides there but all share the abundance of natural wealth including sturdy woods, medicines and spices and are sought out by many. However the long debated question still stands if deforestation is something of the past or an on going and current threat. Deforestation is defined as the intentional or natural clearance of forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land and adverse environment effects. () Today forests still cover roughly 30% of the worlds land area however this number is sure to dwindle down due to the loss of 46-58 thousand square miles annually, equivalent to approximately 48 footballs fields every minute.” (WWF) The decline in trees translates for loss of habitat and homes for the millions of exotic creatures which call rainforests for example the Amazon, home. The Amazon alone is home to more than two-thirds of the 1.4 million species known to man however this is not even close to the extent of the wealth the drizzly rainforest has to offer. (Rothbard, David and Craig Rucker) Species who’s habitats are threatened by deforestation are often unable to prosper in the small forested acres left behind. Therefore species become vulnerable to trophy hunters or poachers causing numbers to begin to dwindle, some eventually succumbing to extinction. Even a lighter non commercial local deforestation can result in extinctions due to many unique species living in small isolated parts of the rainforests across the globe. (WWF) According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) affected species includes: giant pandas, tigers, rhinos, orangutans, Asian elephant, many species of apes like the gorilla and the Amur leopard (WWF). Rainforests are not only threatened by the effects of commercial and large scale deforestation but also by the communities of people
Deforestation presents in an abundance of ways, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. The foremost reason of deforestation in Latin America is the requirement for food, fuel, shelter, and foreign exchange. Year on year, a space of tropical forest the size of Great Britain is "converted" from an area equal to the size of Europe. Ever since 1950, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), half of the world 's forests have disappeared. “Latin America has lost 37 percent of its tropical forests,” says the FAO. As more and more of Latin American forest are degraded, more and more detrimental effects are being seen. Deforestation is changing a number of resources for tribal groups, altering their way of life, temperatures are increasing at a dangerous rate because of a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, habitats and species such as plants and wildlife are being annexed due to the destructive effects of deforestation. Deforestation is inarguably helpful to supplying money to countries that sell the products from the forest, but huge wealth being generated from the forests comes with large-scale environmental and social costs. The local residences are not benefitting and the funds are being siphoned out of the region.
Brazil’s rainforests and America’s rainforests are great examples of the negative effect that deforestation has on these specific areas. One of the rising challenges in our rapidly growing world is the destruction of rainforests and how it is slowly ruining the world that we live in. Deforestation has a lot of destructive impacts on the environment that is surrounding us, one of the most important being its effect on the climate. The fast rise in the world’s population, calling for high demand of resources, is only hastening the effects of deforestation, which can hopefully be put an end to through the enforcement of a handful of simple, key, and sustainable solutions.
As a result of deforestation and other causes, as few as 10,000 species go extinct every year, with a multitude lost in the rainforests across the world. The Amazon Rainforest, the largest rainforest in the world, houses roughly, “40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1,300 birds, 378 reptiles, and around 3,000 freshwater fish,” as well as more than 100,000 of invertebrate species (Amazon Wildlife). The rapid loss of the Amazon rainforest, precisely 17% in the last fifty years, critically cripples the biodiversity of the rainforest. To explain, every vehicle that destroys any sort of foliage is a loss to the animals that live in the forest. As known, every animal consumes a multitude of different plants or animals, and the more plants in the area,
Today, the total percentage of forest cover of the earth is approximately thirty percent (“Deforestation”). That is about nine percent of the world’s total surface. The largest rainforest is the Amazon River Basin, located in South America. The Amazon is home to many species of animals, insects, plants and trees. Many of the trees and plants in the Amazon produce about twenty percent of the oxygen on earth, and absorb carbon. However, the Amazon is decreasing in size every day due to the ongoing deforestation of the land. Deforestation is when the forest of the land are cleared or destroyed, in order to be used for other actions (“Deforestation”). The Amazon is twenty percent less than it was about forty years ago (Wallace). In just about
Deforestation has been a major concern in tropical rainforests, this is an act of destructing a forest for multiple reasons including wood supply, agriculture purposes or the extraction of minerals and energy. Forest loss till date is 18.03 million acres per year and it has been estimated that within 100 years all rainforests will be destroyed.
Within the forest, deforestation destroys the homes of the forest’s inhabitants. Animals with habitat sensitivity such as the Three-Toed Sloth will be forced to evacuate their homes and will perish from excessive amounts of stress. Animals that depend on the large trees such as Scarlet Macaws will have their homes (and nests) destroyed. Animals that are already endangered such as the Jaguar, Amazon River Dolphin, Spider Monkeys, Poison Dart Frog, and Three-Toed Sloth are in critical condition and are at
From 1990 to 2005, deforestation, or the removal of trees, was happening at an average rate of 13 million hectares (32.11 million acres) per year (Hope 247). In many ways, deforestation has been the reason for great economic success which turns people on to the idea even more. Deforestation is an essential element in promoting and encouraging developmental growth. Some places around the world may feel obligated to resort to deforestation due to population increases around the world. The concept of deforestation may seem to have a positive impact on society, but many people fail to consider the importance of replanting the trees that were harvested and removed. Deforestation mainly affects North and South America, but because of the Transamazon
Rainforests have been declining rapidly over the last few decades. There are various factors responsible for this decline, resulting in serious impacts on the environment and the economy. Critically discuss the causes of deforestation and solutions to it.
The rainforest supports the greatest biodiversity on Earth, playing an important role in various areas. Unfortunately, parts of these biological wonders are almost constantly being wiped out. Thousands of acres of rainforest are lost every day. At one point they covered 20% of the land surface on Earth. Now they cover less than 6% but hold over half of the world's plant and animal populations. Scientists predict that if this rate of loss continues, all the rainforests could be gone in less than 50 years (Taylor). Human impacts such as deforestation and combustion are destroying the rainforests now more than ever and are creating extreme damage. Some reasons for rainforest destruction include wood needed for fires or timber, pulp to make paper, road construction, agriculture, extraction of energy and minerals, or land for people, crops, and animals (Butler). This disturbance that humans are creating can have a great effect on the cycles of matter.
Over the course of the past few centuries, the Earth as a whole has felt anthropogenic effects due to increased human presence and impacts such as habitat loss. Habitat loss is the process of damage and eventual destruction in some cases of ecosystems on a local and global scale which result in them not being able to systematically support the species present due to displacement or destruction which successively reduces biodiversity of endemic species. Habitat loss and fragmentation have been known to be the greatest threats to biodiversity worldwide. The cause and effect of human impacts on tropical rainforests has led to extinction of local organisms on a grand scale which has resulted in what is
The rapid rate of tropical deforestation has raised widespread concern about the consequential irreversible environmental changes that lead to the loss of plant and animal species, on scale never before experienced in human history. Tropical deforestation is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. Behind fossil fuel combustion, tropical deforestation is the second leading cause of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with almost 20% of all global CO2 emissions are caused by deforestation.
The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, covering about forty percent of the South American continent, with most of it in Brazil. It is home to more species than any other single ecosystem and has the richest biodiversity than anywhere else on the planet. Sadly, the Amazon has become a victim of deforestation, and has been occurring since European colonists arrived in South America. Deforestation is the cutting down, removal, burning, or clearing of trees in forested lands for urban, industry, logging, wasteland, or agricultural use, and it has devastating effects. The amount of Amazon acres that have already been destroyed is heartbreaking, and it is negatively affecting many different habitats, species, and human population in a multitude of ways.
Many animals are going extinct because of rainforest destruction. People are cutting the trees down and causing them to lose their homes. However most animals need the rainforest habitat they are
The rate of deforestation is increasing and the tropical forests are falling at approximately 140,000 acres per day (Miller & Tangley 1991: xvi). The forests are crucial to the environment. They are important in minimizing erosion, providing a stable habitat for many animals, and helping to keep the environment clean. Deforestation has devastating effects, not only on the biological dependents within the depleted forests, but also on the surrounding human-populated communities.
Rainforests today are disappearing at an alarming rate as a result of deforestation for commercial purposes such as logging, agriculture, and livestock and the probable solution are becoming far from realistic as the expansion becomes bigger and bigger. Every year, an estimated 18 million acres are destroyed for various reasons, including paper, timber. An average of two football field sizes of precious rainforest are torn down, killing millions of animals and destroying valuable pharmaceutical plants. A huge amount of these animals and plants have never, and will never be discovered. Experts say, "Close to eighty percent of the terrestrial species of animals and plants are to be found in the rainforests" As people tear down the rainforests they are affecting the ozone layer, and disrupting the process that lets plants fight the deadly amount of pollution the world produces every day.