How Does Deforestation Affect Animals?

 Forests cover 31 percent of earth’s land surface and house a majority of the plants and animals found on earth. It is estimated that these diverse ecosystems house 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Rainforests have especially high species density, covering 2 percent of earth’s surface, but housing nearly 50 percent of all plant and animal species.

These plants and animals are integral to forest ecosystems and provide countless ecosystem services to humans. If forests ceased to exist humans would be unable to survive.

As important as forests are both environmentally and economically, many of our global forests are severely affected by deforestation. Deforestation is one of the leading causes of climate change and species extinction.

Deforestation defined as “the cutting down of trees in a large area, or the destruction of trees by people,” is a huge problem and it is estimated that between 3 and 7 billion trees are cut down each year.

At this rate all of the earth’s forests will be gone within 100 years.

Why is deforestation happening?

Forests are often cut or burned to make way for farming or cattle grazing. Commercial logging also contributes to deforestation, and forests are cut down for development.

Deforestation in developing nations is primarily due to a competitive global economy, where poorer countries sell their natural resources to pay their debts to wealthy countries. The poor in these countries also utilize the land for farming and sustenance, and these pressures continue to increase as population levels increase.

References

https://greentumble.com/how-does-deforestation-affect-animals/.

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