Deforestation

Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. An estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Some other statistics:

· About half of the world's tropical forests have been cleared, according to the FAO.

· Forests currently cover about 30 percent of the world’s landmass, according to National Geographic.

· The Earth loses 18.7 million acres of forests per year, which is equal to 27 soccer fields every minute, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

· It is estimated that 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation, according to the WWF.

· In 2016, global tree cover loss reached a record of 73.4 million acres (29.7 million hectares), according to the University of Maryland.

· Location

· Deforestation occurs around the world, though tropical rainforests are particularly targeted. If current deforestation levels proceed, the world's rainforests may completely vanish in as little as 100 years, according to National Geographic. Countries with significant deforestation in 2016 included Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other parts of Africa, and parts of Eastern Europe, according to GRID-Arendal, a United Nations Environment Program collaborating center. The country with the most deforestation is Indonesia. Since the last century, Indonesia has lost at least 39 million acres (15.79 million hectares) of forest land, according to a study by the University of Maryland and the World Resource Institute.

· Though deforestation has increased rapidly in the past 50 years, it has been practiced throughout history. For example, 90 percent of continental United States' indigenous forest has been removed since 1600, according to the University of Michigan. The World Resources Institute estimates that most of the world's remaining indigenous forest is located in Canada, Alaska, Russia and the Northwestern Amazon basin.

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Causes

There are many causes of deforestation. The WWF& reports that half of the trees illegally removed from forests are used as fuel.

Some other common reasons are:

· To make more land available for housing and urbanization

· To harvest timber to create commercial items such as paper, furniture and homes

· To create ingredients that are highly prized consumer items, such as the oil from palm trees

· To create room for cattle ranching

Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear cutting. These tactics leave the land completely barren and are controversial practices.

Clear cutting is when large swaths of land are cut down all at once. A forestry expert quoted by the Natural Resources Defense Council describes clear cutting as "an ecological trauma that has no precedent in nature except for a major volcanic eruption."

Burning can be done quickly, in vast swaths of land, or more slowly with the slash-and-burn technique. Slash and burn agriculture entails cutting down a patch of trees, burning them and growing crops on the land. The ash from the burned trees provides some nourishment for the plants and the land is weed-free from the burning. When the soil becomes less nourishing and weeds begin to reappear over years of use, the farmers move on to a new patch of land and begin the process again.