Aerial view of deforestation in eastern Madagascar. Click image for more pictures of deforestation. (Photo by R. Butler)
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CONSEQUENCES OF DEFORESTATION
By Rhett Butler | Last updated July 22, 2012
Rainforests around the world still continue to fall. Does it really make a difference? Why should anyone care if some plants, animals, mushrooms, and microorganisms perish? Rainforests are often hot and humid, difficult to reach, insect-ridden, and have elusive wildlife.
Actually the concern should not be about losing a few plants and animals; mankind stands to lose much more. By destroying the tropical forests, we risk our own quality of life, gamble with the stability of climate and local weather, threaten the existence of other species, and undermine the valuable services provided by biological diversity.
While in most areas environmental degradation has yet to reach a crisis level where entire systems are collapsing, it is important to examine some of the effects of existing environmental impoverishment and to forecast some of the potential repercussions of forest loss. Continuing loss of natural systems could make human activities increasingly vulnerable to ecological surprises in the future.
The most immediate impact of deforestation occurs at the local level with the loss of ecological services provided by tropical rainforests and related ecosystems. Such habitats afford humans valuable services such as erosion prevention, flood control, water filtration, fisheries protection, and pollination—functions that are particularly important to the world's poorest people, who rely on natural resources for their everyday survival. Forest loss also reduces the availability of renewable resources like timber, medicinal plants, nuts and fruit, and game.
Over the longer term, deforestation of tropical rainforests can have a broader impact, affecting global climate and biodiversity. These changes are more challenging to observe and forecast from local effects, since they take place over a longer time scale and can be difficult to measure.
Extreme Deforestation - Easter Island
Review questions:
- Why are rainforests important?
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INTERACT
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Recent news
Amazon deforestation rate pacing ahead of last year
(01/18/2013) Data released by Imazon, a Brazil-based NGO, shows that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continues to pace well ahead of last year's record low rate.
Palm oil sustainability initiative must rule out deforestation, says group
(01/18/2013) The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) must implement standards that protect forests and account for greenhouse gas emissions to remain credible, said an environmental group ahead of a that will determine the body's 'Principles and Criteria' for the next five years.
Bureaucratic reform plays a part in reducing deforestation in Indonesia
(01/17/2013) Reforming Indonesia's bloated and underperforming bureaucracy will play an important part in reducing the country's high rate of deforestation and forest degradation, the head of the country's Ministry of Administrative Reform told mongabay.com in an exclusive interview. Administrative Reform Minister Azwar Abubakar said that a smaller and more meritocratic bureaucracy will help cut corruption while more effectively governing the sprawling archipelago.
World Bank REDD+ forest carbon fund gets $180m injection
(01/11/2013) The World Bank's forest carbon fund got a $180 million injection from Finland, Germany and Norway, reports Point Carbon.
Dead tigers, dead people: logging by paper industry worsens human-tiger conflict in Sumatra, alleges report
(01/10/2013) Destruction of rainforests and peatlands on the Indonesian island of Sumatra by the pulp and paper industry is worsening conflict between tigers and humans, including fatal encounters, alleges a new report published by a coalition of environmental groups in Riau, Sumatra. The report looks specifically at five concessions operated by companies that supply wood to Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its corporate parent, the Sinar Mas Group (SMG). The report says that the majority of human-tiger conflict incidents in Riau between 1997 and 2009 occurred within these concessions.
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