This blog provides you information about Deforestation. In the start, it defines deforestation and introduces it in detail. Then it elaborates few main Causes of Deforestation. It also explain the Effects of Deforestation with clear perspectives. Then it explain some of the Preventive Strategies for preventing Deforestation in detail. This blog contains Causes, Effects and Prevention of Deforestation in detail.
Definition of Deforestation:
Deforestation is the act of cutting down the forests. It is the forest clearing process or destruction of forest. Deforestation can be cutting of forests because of any major or minor cause.
Forests are the biggest biodiversity hotspot. This contains a wide range of species because of the availability of wide variety of habitat and shelter for them.
Deforestation not only clears the forest, but clears the natural nutrients from the forest location for life. It also leads to many environmental problems such as desertification, erosion, nutrient runoff and more problems.
Forests are useful and valuable natural resources we can find on earth. If we are cutting forests, we are taking life away from the planet. It is because forests inhale atmospheric carbon dioxide CO2 and exhale large amounts of oxygen. Oxygen is the part of atmosphere by which we breathe and survive on Earth.
By cutting trees, we are snatching life and survival abilities of life on Earth. Because Earth is the only planet that is suitable to live and this is because of oxygen presence on Earth.
We will learn about the Causes, effects and Preventive Measures of Deforestation
Causes of Deforestation:
Following are the main causes of Deforestation:
Urbanization:
Urbanization is the process of making the certain area or region more urban. It includes development of the area i.e. buildings, housing societies, market places etc. Urbanization makes an area up to date with more facilities for people to raise their standards of living. Forests are spread over large spaces, this space is utilized for the development and residency. This is the main cause of deforestation now a days.
Farming and Agriculture:
Due to exponential rise in population in last few years, there is a risk of food insecurity and shortage in agricultural needs is also increased. This has lead to utilization of forested land for the farming practices to fight with food insecurities. The farming and agricultural practices are started in forested land when the land is cleared and trees are cut.
Need of Forest resources:
Forests are so much rich in valuable natural resources that we use in daily life and are essential for humans. These resources include wood, rare plants, medicinal plants, herbs, shrubs and many other forest resources. As the population increases, the need of these resources also increases for medicine production, food needs, etc. That is why forests are cut for utilization of wood, plants and other valuable resources. These resources are very expensive and provide lots of economic benefits to the people.
Mining:
Mining is the process of extracting valuable resources from the crust of the earth. If any type of extractable resources from the surface of the earth at forested location. Mining has a very damaging impact on the environment. One of its bad impact is deforestation on sites. It cause the deforestation because it need clear land to implement. We should take precautionary measures during mining of minerals.
These are few causes of Deforestation. This blog contains information about Causes, Effects and Prevention of Deforestation.
Effects of Deforestation:
Following are the effects of deforestation:
Increased Concentration of CO2:
When there is excessive destruction and cutting of trees, no CO2 is absorbed by the trees. So automatically there is a high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. This cause respiratory diseases and toxic air quality for breathing of living organisms. It is the main cause of circulation of excessive GHG emissions throughout the atmosphere. And CO2 is the biggest contributor in Global warming on Earth.
Oxygen Depletion:
Trees are the emitters of oxygen into the atmosphere. They inhale CO2 from the atmosphere, that is toxic for living things and environment. And emit or exhale Oxygen O2 into the atmosphere, that is essential for living organisms. So automatically, cutting of trees cause oxygen depletion into the atmosphere and in overall environment. We should think thousand time before cutting a tree.
Habitat loss:
Forests provide a wide range of habitats for the wildlife and every type of biodiversity. It provide food and shelter to rare plants and animals. They are home to many valuable and useful herbs and shrubs. If the forests are destructed, they finish habitat of thousand of wild species and beautiful biodiversity. Birds migrate to other areas and animals become open to environmental and natural hazards. That is why it is a big support to biodiversity and variety of flora and fauna.
Soil Erosion:
Deforestation leaves the fertile soil open for the erosion. Trees of the forests have combined roots and the ability to hold the nutrients tightly to keep the soil fertile for the plants. Soil erosion is the washing away of the upper layer of the soil. This phenomenon takes all the nutrients suitable for plants and living materials from away through wind, surface runoff, etc. So cutting down of the forests is a big reason for soil erosion.
Desertification:
Cutting of forests makes the fertile land empty and may take all the nutrients away through erosion or tree logging. Desertification is the extreme dryness and infertility of land. It can even turn extremely fertile land into desert forever. This leads to the extreme dryness and cause us to loose fertile land turn into a dry desert. This is the condition when all of the nutrients are washed away with the abandonment of the forest.
Floods:
Trees plays an important role by becoming flood barriers. As, their deep root system help to hold the Earth and prevent floods from reaching the resident areas. Flood is the condition in which water overflows from the rivers and other water resources as a result of excessive rainfall. In this condition, forests acts as natural flood barriers to prevent flood and to reduce the flow of flood that cause less damage of life and infrastructure.
These are the few major effects of Deforestation. This blog contain Causes, Effects and Prevention of Deforestation.
Prevention from Deforestation:
Deforestation is the act that is never positive in any way. We should avoid deforestation as much as we can. Deforestation should be prevented or reduced by using following methods:
Green infrastructure:
It is the concept of protecting forests and greenery along with the infrastructure for economic development. We can construct wildlife bridges, buildings surrounded by trees, green buildings, tunnels with green roofs and much more. In this method we can have the required infrastructure and also conserve the existing forest and greenery. Every tree is taken as a priority and construction design is according to the existing greenery in the given area. In this way, we can manage and maintain both of the things infrastructure and forests.
Plant more trees:
If you have to cut the trees for some obvious reasons, the huge construction companies should take responsibility to plant same number of trees or more trees than the deforested trees. This will provide our environment with all the trees that are deforested and it will not effect the economic development too. We should try to use all spare spaces to plant trees because it helps us to cleanse the air we breathe in and protect our Earth.
Use of Deserted Land:
When we plan big construction projects such as markets, malls, housing societies etc. we should first consider the deserted and barren lands for construction. We should avoid using forested land for construction projects. This will have two positive effects. First is that, it will take the barren land in use and secondly, it will not cause deforestation and forest abandonment in any way. This will be useful in both directions.
Promote Responsible Companies:
We should give more and more construction projects to the companies that show responsibility about plantation of trees on suitable locations. These companies make sure to replant all the trees that were abandoned from the construction site. In this way, these companies will gain profit and they will do their work with more passion and try to make the region green.
Boycott Irresponsible Companies:
While promoting eco-friendly and plantation promoting companies, we should also boycott the companies that promote deforestation for new construction projects. These companies make huge housing societies and other construction projects on the forested lands without using barren and deserted land. Public should boycott such companies who don’t save the trees for their projects.
Buy and Use:
Any person who can buy a forested or agricultural land, should buy it for the sake of environment. Buying land and keeping it green and useful can be a big contribution towards climate change and tree protection. So, we will promote buying forests and then conserving them to keep them added into the tree cover and also provide habitat and natural environment to rare and valuable species of flora and fauna.
Afforestation and Reforestation:
Afforestation is the process of planting trees at a location which was not a forest earlier. While reforestation is the process of planting trees at a location which was a forest in the past. These both concepts are a good answer to the problem of Deforestation. By applying these methods we can fill the gap between the deforested trees and climatic needs. This can contribute in preventing extreme effects of Climate Change.
These are few Prevention Strategies for Deforestation. This blog contain Causes, Effects and Prevention of Deforestation.
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