Deforestation is……..
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When a big percentage of the forest is eradicated , for various reasons.
E.g.
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People needing to provide food and supplies for their family.
Illegal loggers
Supplies for factories
More farm land
Urban Sprawl
Overgrazing
Wild fires
Deforestation is clearing earth’s forests on a massive scale. If
deforestation continues at its present rate the worlds rainforests could
completely disappear in a hundred years.
Slash and burn is a common technique used to clear areas
of the forest.
First of all the trees and vegetation
are cut down and taken away.
Then, the land is left to dry out until just
before the rainforest season. This
ensures a more effective burn.
The remaining land and vegetation is
burned to get rid of any pests and to
make the soil ready for use.
Burning the land makes the soil better
quality because it provides nutrients from
the ash.
Illegal loggers are people who illegally chop down trees for a lot of money.
They can build roads to get to more remote forests leading to even more deforestation
(clearing the trees to make a pathway. )
Illegal loggers would be looking for valuable wood or plants such as mahogany.
Urban sprawl is when man made factories, buildings, towns
or cities spread throughout the landscape. The cities tend to
expand and when they reach the forest, they will just begin
to gradually chop it down. Urban sprawl is one of the many
causes of deforestation. When Urban Sprawl spreads,
forests disappear.
On our eco-system
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Loss of habitats- A big concern in rainforests as this is where most
of the earths Biodiversity lies
Loss of species- From animals and insects to plants and
vegetation
Losing trees doesn’t help the planets very
important Carbon Sink Function.
As well as the carbon Sink Function the
world would have less vital oxygen that we
need to survive.
Global warming will increase as there would be more
greenhouse gases.
70 percent of earths land animals and plants live in forests.
In the Amazon, around 17 percent of forest has been lost
in the last 50 years .
About 15 percent, of all green house gas emissions are
because of deforestation.
There is NO proper solution to the destruction of rainforests other than
trying to prevent large areas of forest being cut down. However , if we
planted a new tree for every tree we cut down, the problem would
perhaps be less of a massive issue and concern to the planet.
www.nationalgeographic.com
The Usborne internet linked children's encyclopaedia
www.livescience.com
Geography.about.com
wwf.panda.org