Harmful effects of deforestation
Humans have always been and probably always will be, to some extent, dependent on forests. Trees were their habitat, their environment, their food source, and their protection against enemies. Forests are very important to man and other organisms, and one of the biggest problems facing the world today is the threat of totally losing forests due to massive deforestation and suffering the harmful effects of deforestation.
Deforestation can be defined as the large-scale removal of forests. Deforestation occurs when forests are converted to non-forest areas for urbanization, agriculture, and other reasons without sufficient reforestation. It is the permanent destruction of forests and groves.
Currently, forests are considered among the most threatened on the planet. Every day at least 80,000 acres of forest disappear from the Earth. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that deforestation rates have not decreased and have in fact increased by 8.5% between 2000 and 2005 compared to the 1990s. FAO has estimated that about 10.4 million hectares of tropical forest have been permanently destroyed between 2000 and 2005 compared to 10.14 million hectares in the period 1990-2000.
The deforestation process is often a complex pattern of progressive fragmentation of forests. Mistakes from this spell could lead to the destruction of the forest. Along with this destruction is the extinction of many species, severe soil erosion, the greenhouse effect, siltation of rivers and dams, floods, landslides, denuded highlands, degraded watersheds, and even the destruction of corals along of the coast.
Extinction of Thousands of Species – The destruction of forests leads to a tragic loss of biodiversity. Millions of species of plants and animals are in danger of disappearing as a result of deforestation. Tropical forests are much more biologically diverse than other forests and a very serious effect of deforestation in tropical countries is the loss of biodiversity.
Strong soil erosion: One function of the forest is that its roots hold the soil in place. Without trees, soil erosion and landslides easily occur. When heavy rains and typhoons arrive, the soil is easily transported to lower-lying areas, especially to communities at the foot of the mountains.
Greenhouse effect: Deforestation increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The continued degradation of our forest increases the threat of global warming because the trees and other plants that take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to use for photosynthesis are gone. The burning of wood or its decomposition contributes to the release of more carbon that combines with oxygen in the atmosphere thus further increasing the levels of carbon dioxide that causes the greenhouse effect.
Sedimentation of rivers and dams: Deforestation causes sedimentation of river sediment deposits, which shortens their useful life and clogs the irrigation system. As a result of deforestation, the reservoir behind many dams is silting up faster than expected.
Floods – A great importance of forests is that they quickly absorb water in large quantities during heavy rains. But due to massive deforestation, there are no trees to absorb the water, resulting in the loss of many lives.
Landslides: Tree roots attach the soil to it and to the underlying bed. This is how trees prevent the soil from being eroded by natural agents such as wind or water. When trees are uprooted, there will be nothing holding the soil together, increasing the risk of landslides that can seriously threaten people’s safety and damage their property.
Cleared Upland: After several harvests of the forest, the cleared land is no longer suitable for planting trees. It has become a desert. The transformation of a forest to a semi-desert condition is called desertification.
Degraded watersheds: When forested mountains are stripped, watersheds become degraded, leading to the loss of sustained water supplies for lowland communities. This is because trees affect the hydrological cycle. They can change the amount of water in the soil, in groundwater, and in the atmosphere.
Destruction of corals along the coast: Coral areas are degraded and coral reefs are affected by sedimentation. As a result of deforestation, there is an increase in flooding during the rainy seasons and a decrease in stream flow in the dry seasons.
The forest provides us with many products and important services. It stops soil erosion, refreshes the air, and protects us from typhoons and other calamities. But if rampant deforestation is left unchecked, it will lead to various problems. One way or another, denuded forests will recede and people will certainly lose out due to the ill effects of deforestation.