list down five causes of deforestation and solutions
Share
list down five causes of deforestation and solutions
Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
What are the main causes of deforestation?
Industrial Agriculture. Look no further than your dinner plate, because industrial agriculture accounts for around 85% of deforestation worldwide. ...
Timber Logging. ...
Mining. ...
Expansion and Infrastructure. ...
Climate Change.
Answer:
1. Agricultural Activities
As earlier mentioned in the overview, agricultural activities are one of the significant factors affecting deforestation. According to the FAO, agriculture leads to around 80% of deforestation. Due to the overgrowing demand for food products, a huge amount of trees are felled to grow crops, and 33% of agriculture-caused deforestation is because of subsistence agriculture.
2. Livestock Ranching
Livestock is believed to be responsible for about 14% of global deforestation. Farmers often clear the land by cutting down trees and burning them to raise livestock and grow food. They continue to use the property until the soil is completely degraded and repeat the same process on new woodland. Eventually, it’ll reforest, but it will take many years to return to its original condition. Surprisingly, over the past 40 years, the forest area has reduced by almost 40 percent, and during the same period, pasture regions and cattle populations have grown significantly and rapidly.
3. Illegal Logging
Apart from this, wood-based industries like paper, match-sticks, furniture, etc. also need a substantial amount of wood supply. Wood is used as fuel, both directly and indirectly. Therefore trees are chopped for meeting the demand for supplies. Firewood and charcoal are examples of wood being used as fuel. Some of these industries thrive on illegal wood cutting and felling of trees.
4. Urbanization
Further, to gain access to these forests, the construction of roads is undertaken; here again, trees are chopped to build roads. Overpopulation too directly affects forest covers, as with the expansion of cities, more land is needed to establish housing and settlements. Therefore forest land is reclaimed.
5. Desertification of Land
Some of the other factors that lead to deforestation are also partly natural and partly anthropogenic, like desertification of land. It occurs due to land abuse, making it unfit for the growth of trees. Many industries in petrochemicals release their waste into rivers, which results in soil erosion and make it unfit to grow plants and trees.