Why does farming cause deforestation

Unconventional production practices that illegally take down trees and use dangerous chemicals threaten forests and wildlife. In this way, exploiting crops such as palm oil, wood, coffee or avocados has side effects that affect the environment and the surrounding ecosystems.

Some of the animals under greatest threat are:. How can we stop deforestation? According to OECD , the human population is expected to continue to increase and reach over 9 billion people by At the current rate of consumption, and with more people inhabiting Earth, the need for more space to grow food and extract natural resources is only likely to increase — depending, of course, on tech development such as artificial foods.

As the demand for food or raw materials like cotton or minerals increases, so does the need to turn forests into farmland, pastureland, or mining spots. Under this broader perspective, how can we stop deforestation? According to the WWF , livestock-caused deforestation is responsible for the discharge of 3. In this way, reducing your meat consumption is also a big step to stop not only deforestation but also global warming on a larger scale.

Remember: a lot of space is needed to grow both animals and the food they consume, while other nutritious foods could be grown and result in larger food quantities using the same space. Why not saving meat for important occasions only? As consumers we can choose to buy less industrial and transformed products such as cookies, crips, noodles or cosmetics that use plenty of palm oil.

Instead, we can go for a home-made approach with fewer chemicals and food preservatives which is better for both the planet and our health. However, if you are not willing to make such changes — because they are time consuming — you can still consume more responsibly while keeping your lifestyle. To this regard, you can buy products from brands adopting eco-friendly business practices.

When it comes to food, buying directly to small farmers using agroforestry practices is the best choice for the planet. Your smartphone, your laptop or your car, to name a few, are all made of aluminium, plastic and rare Earth minerals, among other materials.

To get these, just like foods like coffee or cacao land was clear to build mining sites, roads and factories and where built to transport and transform them, powerplants provide them with energy…. Since diesel and petrol are mixed with biofuels, choosing other transportation methods such as walking, cycling or car-sharing can be good ways of reducing palm oil importations and production and to help stop deforestation.

If you start adopting the behaviors mentioned above to help stop deforestation you can lead by your example. Teach your family, friends or colleagues what deforestation is and why it is happening, the causes and consequences of deforestation, and what solutions individuals, consumers and organizations can adopt. What is being currently done do stop deforestation? Efforts to replant deforested areas are taking place every day. Unfortunately, some replanting is done with the goal of quickly growing trees to be exploited in the short-term by the logging industry.

These often consist of monotypic plantations less resilient, more appealing to harmful environmental management practices such as eucalyptus or pines. This is no small effort: there are 1.

Image credits to deforestation on Shutterstock , trees deforestation on Shutterstock and palm oil deforestation on Shutterstock. Log in and interact with engaging content: show how they matter to you, share your experience First Name. Last Name. What Is Deforestation?

Then you should find out some examples of how Life is interconnected: 2 — The Effects of Deforestation on Local People and Their Livelihoods Healthy forests support the livelihoods of 1. Understanding Deforestation In Video To understand the challenges of deforestation, check this National Geographic video. This page presents our report on the link between the EU Common Agricultural Policy, soy, and forest destruction.

To know more about the broader links between agriculture and deforestation, please visit 'What are the causes of deforestation'. The biggest cause of forest loss — accounting for around 70 per cent — is agricultural deforestation, notably for beef, soy, palm oil and commercial timber.

We must look at all environmental threats to make a difference. Illegal logging is the taking of more trees than allowed, harvesting protected species and taking trees from protected forests. In some developing countries, 50 percent of illegal logging occurs because they are using trees for heating and cooking.

There obviously needs to be replanting and alternatives for people using their local trees for daily life. Jeremy Hance. The environment, local peoples and the forestry industry suffer when trees are cut down without replanting or trees are cut down faster than forests can recover.

We must put a stop to illegal logging, protect, sustainably manage our forests and replant trees. Logging can be done responsibly and our trees can be preserved. It is important that the frontier forests remain untouched. The ecological and evolutionary processes of our frontier forests maintain diversity that makes our planet habitable — such as watershed protection and climate stabilization.

Meat consumption is a big cause of deforestation. Seventeen percent of the Amazon forest was lost in the past 50 years to cattle ranches. World Wildlife Fund. In tropical areas, agriculture consumes the land. Farmland is therefore responsible for 80 percent of global deforestation.

Corporations and local farmers take over forests and clear the trees for cattle ranching and high-demand crops such as soybeans and palm oils, and land is cleared for small family farms. Farmers clear the land by burning the forests or cutting down trees. Livestock and agriculture farming is responsible for roughly 95 percent of deforestation in Latin America, 75 percent in Africa and 70 percent in subtropical Asia.

In , global production of soybeans and palm oil reached record levels[ Around 6. This accounts for over half of deforestation in South America and is more than five times as destructive as any other commodity in the region. Soy production for animal feed is another quiet competitor that has doubled in the past 20 years as a result of the increased demand for meat and dairy products. Of the Around 60 million acres are exclusively devoted to soy production in Brazil, and that number continues to climb along with growing demand for meat.

A variety of industries cause deforestation either directly or indirectly, but the main driver is animal agriculture. Close behind are logging and infrastructural expansion. Natural forms of deforestation do exist, like forest fires and invasive species, but they are often exacerbated by human involvement.

Logging is the process of cutting and processing trees to create wood-based products. Large portions of our forests are cut down in order to build houses and produce paper products. Deforestation in tropical regions from logging and timber conversion accounts for 15 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

As the global population increases and more houses are built, logging is becoming a top deforestation driver. Clearcutting is a highly invasive method of tree removal that destroys all trees and seed sources from an area.

This method of logging is used for paper products and lumber, but is also common in ranching, to expand croplands and grazing pastures. This aggressive removal of forests threatens plant and animal species in addition to the natural regrowth of tree saplings. Selective logging, or the removal of only a few trees per area, is mildly less invasive and used for high-value wood products, but smaller trees are still damaged in the process and species native to those areas are still displaced.

A study has shown that selective logging can actually double the total number of trees felled per year instead of reducing the amount. Both clearcutting and selective logging make forests vulnerable to flooding and fires, since water is no longer hindered by trees and shrubbery, and logged areas are dried out by sunlight and made more susceptible to flames.

Forests are set ablaze to clear space for cattle and feed crops, taking vegetation and wildlife with them. These intentional fires — often called slash-and-burn fires — alter water cycles, compromise soil fertility, and threaten communities of people living and working within the forests. In , intentional fires set in Indonesia roared out of control, resulting in one of the largest wildfires in recorded history.

Hundreds of people, animals, and plants perished in the flames. Blankets of thick smoke hung in the air of neighboring countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia for months, and locals were advised to stay inside. Fast forward to and flames continue to engulf forests, fueled by the desire of large corporations and farming industries to increase their profits.

Agriculture is believed to be responsible for the recent Amazon fires — specifically land clearing for soy production, to feed livestock around the world. Brazil has already experienced over 70, fires so far in — more than double the amount in , and corporate greed is likely to blame. Intentional agricultural fires are scorching our planet, killing endangered wildlife, and threatening native communities.

A growing global population leads to the expansion of cities and highways, often to the misfortune of biodiverse forests. Roadways like the Interoceanic Highway , stretching over 1, miles across Brazil and Peru, rip through lush forests to make room for cars and trucks. The construction of roads throughout forests, especially the Amazon rainforest, increases the probability of animal deaths caused by loss of habitat and motor accidents.

New roads make the process of illegal logging and poaching more convenient as well. In the past 40 years, at least 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed. Farmers annihilate scores of trees by bulldozing, burning, or chopping them to create grazing areas and produce crops, mostly for cattle.

The chart above displays Amazon rainforest loss from to