Why does deforestation happen

Deforestation has been big concern for many years, as we witness more and more serious incidents of global flooding, landslides and global warming. Trees are typically felled to enable livestock farming as well as to produce and manufacture paper and lumber products, among other. Also, as the population of the planet continues to increase at an exponential (and seemingly unsustainable) rate more and more trees and forests have been felled in order to feed the ever-growing population.

To this end, preciously forested areas are converted into farmland as well as cleared to produce more inhabitable areas for the growing population. The effects of deforestation have also caused fewer trees to grow, as well as contributing to the elimination of some of the planet’s essential ecosystems.

Logging is one of the principal methods for continuing deforestation, both in a legal and illegal sense. Many countries where this takes place have few other viable industries that enable people to earn a living. Legal logging can be more closely monitored in order to protect remaining natural resources whilst new trees are planted, while those employed to protect natural areas also retain jobs and are paid decent wages. The key lies in sustainable management and possibly tourism such as that in Yellowstone National Park, which can help to contribute to conservation.

Forest fires also result in deforestation, and such fires can be the result of natural causes, accidents or else they can be started deliberately. Such fires are becoming an ever-more common occurrence as global temperatures rise. In such uncontrolled fires a very large area can become consumed by the fire very rapidly, which not only threatens the forests but also people and crops. The recovery from such incidents can be helped greatly by replanting and then leaving the affected area fallow, thereby facilitating its recovery. Forest fires are also accelerated by overgrowth in some areas, thus allowing afire to spread rapidly if a forest is left improperly cared for and undergrowth develops to an extreme level.

In general, deforestation has become more of a problem in non-diversified economies, and these types of economies tend to rely much more heavily on the trade for logging and the products produced from the wood from the trees they cut down. This economic necessity, coupled with the fact that poverty in these rural type of economies encourages families to have more children – which in turn puts greater population pressures on certain areas – serves to quickly cycle of deforestation and perpetuate its processing. Further, many deforested areas are becoming necessary for magnet production by utilizing key minerals left behind by felled trees, and as the market for magnets grows this can help increase the demand for deforested plots of land.

Education is a prime factor also in both preventing and perpetuating deforestation, and, along with the kind of help previously mentioned, education is vital along with training and support to ensure sustainability and a decent viable future for “the lungs of the Earth”.