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Deforestation: Forests
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Deforestation may be distinguished from forest degradation, which is a reduction in forest quality. The two are linked, and result in several problems. They cause soil erosion and watershed destabilization, resulting in flooding or drought. They reduce biodiversity (the range of habitat, species, and genetic types), particularly significant in tropical forests which are home to much of the world's biodiversity. The culture and knowledge of many forest peoples have evolved through centuries of nurturing the forest; they are diminishing as forest area reduces, access to forest is increasingly restricted, and traditional rights are eroded by governments. Deforestation affects the livelihoods of between 200 and 500 million people who depend on forests for their food, shelter, and fuel.
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Deforestation is the process of changing land use from forestry to a non-forest use. Western Europe has already lost over 99% of its primary forest. Today, deforestation programmes focus on the major rainforests of the tropics. In the 1980s global deforestation was estimated at 17 to 20 million hectares per year, equivalent to the size of Britain. Current tropical tree planting programmes are not keeping pace with this rate of deforestation. Countries in these areas are often under-developed and striving for improved economies.
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Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficient reforestation; ... even with reforestation, significant biodiversity loss may occur. There are many causes, ranging from slow forest degradation to sudden and catastrophic wildfires. Deforestation can be the result of the deliberate removal of forest cover for agriculture or urban development, or it can be an unintentional consequence of uncontrolled grazing (which can prevent the natural regeneration of young trees). The combined effect of grazing and fires can be a major cause of deforestation in dry areas. In addition to the direct effects brought about by forest removal, indirect effects caused by edge effects and habitat fragmentation can greatly magnify the effects of deforestation.
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Deforestation ... affects water cycling, because conversion of forest to cattle pasture results in the water running off into the rivers and flowing directly to the ocean without being recycled through the trees. A significant part of the rainfall in Amazonia, especially in the dry season, depends on water that has been recycled through the trees of the forest. This water is critical to preventing droughts from exceeding the forest’s tolerance for water stress, leading to death of trees and degradation of the forest through fire and further drought. Water from Amazonia is also critical to maintaining rainfall in the heavily populated regions in south-central Brazil, such as São Paulo, and in neighboring countries such as Argentina.
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Deforestation is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect. Trees and other plants remove carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis. Both the decay and burning of wood releases much of this stored carbon back to the atmosphere. Deforestation ... causes carbon stores held in soil to be released. Forests are stores of carbon and can be either sinks or sources depending upon environmental circumstances. Mature forests can be net sinks of CO2 (see Carbon dioxide sink and Carbon cycle).
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Deforestation is caused by what human beings do to the forests, and can be accentuated by drought. Generally deforestation occurs when people clear forests for their personal need such as, for fuel, hunting, when they need the land to grow and harvest crops, for building houses, and at times because of religion beliefs (Sucoff 2003). The main causes of deforestation in Ethiopia are shifting agriculture, livestock production and fuel wood in drier areas (Sucoff 2003). Basically deforestation is the process of removing the forest ecosystem by cutting the trees and changing the shape of the land to different type of land use (Sucoff 2003). Ethiopia is a country in Eastern Africa it has the second largest population in Africa and has been hit by famine many times, because there was a shortage of rain, and a depletion of natural resources. Deforestation may have lowered the chance of getting rain, which is already low.
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