Amy Larsen

1B
May 18, 2016
AP ES

Deforestation
Research Paper

The history of deforestation is as old as humans themselves. During prehistoric times

humans would use fire to burn down the forests as a hunting technique and to clear land for
cultivation. Before the industrial revolution and coal many forests were cut down and used as a

source of fuel source of fuel.

What exactly is a forest? And what constitutes deforestation'? Well a Forest is a large
area that is covered with trees and other vegetation. Deforestation has existed a long time ago
and to find out the exact density of a forest before human intervention is quite hard. What
constitutes and deforestation is when a large heavily wooded area is cut down for the profits of
humans.

In areas where there are extensive deforestation like in the tropical rain forests of Brazil
and Africa, individuals and groups have been protesting and boycotting the products that are
produced by companies that have been cutting down local forests. One such group is the
International Rainforest conservation organizations which helps fund these groups.

In 2008 The United States of America passed the Lacey Act which banned the trade of all
illegal plants and wood from being exported and imported into the US. As you can see in the
graph below America has fallen below 70 on the consumption of forest products in the past 10
years. This helped reduce the united states impact of deforestation of the tropics, however it did
not even come close to solving the problem.

The causes of deforestation is quite extensive. Most likely deforestation was used for
farmland and for towns and to help cook food and keep warm in the early days of our society.
Some of the consequences that have been created from deforestation are; soil erosion, loss of
biodiversity, loss of clean air, and a shift in weather patterns. If a forest in the Amazon has all its
trees cut down, the summer rain will wash much of the soil away, degrading the area and taking a
longer time for the forest to regenerate. Also the cutting down of the forests destroys the habitats
of all animals that call the forest home, leading to mass extinction and loss of biodiversity. If
there are fewer trees in the world they will not be able to keep up with the human production of
CO2 so the air will become dirtier.

Unfortunately deforestation is still very much a problem today. The world has lost the
equivalent of 1,000 football fields of forests per hour for the last 25 years, according to official
figures. South america is reported to have lost over 970,00 square miles from 1990 t0 2015.

scientist say that deforestation is estimated to increase in the next 25 years. Then they
say it will slowly level off into where the forests can regenerate successfully.

Some of the solutions to deforestation are setting and enforcing laws that prohibit the
cutting of tropical forests. Also the banning of clear cutting techniques and also require
companies to replant forest after they have used them for logging.

In order to preserve the world's forests there needs to be a set of Action steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Get the word out

Make people care
protest/boycott unsustainable logging practicing in the us
Make steep laws against deforestation

You may ask why deforestation is so bad. It helps stimulate the economy, creates jobs and
more space for growth for families to develop. It does look enticing to have more room for
people to live on, but humans need the trees to survive. If society were to cut down all the trees
then the planet could potentially become sick and could not survive. We depend on the trees for
clean air and to prevent erosion and

Deforestation -National Geographic author and date written unknown

Deforestation/Threats -WWF Nigel Dickson, Date unknown
Deforestation: Comprises of a Growing World- conserve-energy-futures.com - Rinkesh April 9,
2009
Deforestation facts and statistics Our World Counts - author unknown - april 15 2014
Deforestaion Staticsics WPF.com -akuthor unknown- June 29, 2010