Deforestation: Definition, History, Consequences, Causes, Effects, Topic

What Is Deforestation?

Deforestation is the permanent removal of forest cover. Agricultural change, industrialisation, and urbanisation all involve the removal of tree cover and scaler-level conversion of forests or tree cover with other permanent uses. It equally has influences on the general ecological system as well as those that depend upon the forests for their needs. In the past, these factors have caused significant losses to the world’s forest cover.

Causes Of Deforestation

Deforestation is caused by the following reasons:

Agricultural Expansion

• Subsistence Farming: Clearing forests for small-scale food production

• Commercial Agriculture: Soybean production, palm oil production, and cattle ranching for meat production, particularly in South America and Southeast Asia.

Logging

• Legal Logging: Timber and poles for the wooden goods and paper pulp under controlled methods results in large-scale depletion of forests if not controlled properly.

• Illegal Logging: Unregulated tree cutting causing severe forest loss, posing dangers to the protected area’s biodiversity.

Infrastructure Development

• Urbanisation: The transformation of metropolitan and urban centres calls for massive deforestation.

• Road Building: Road building helps in reaching out to this distant forest region, following which they are cleared for farming, timbering and mineral extraction.

Mining

• Extraction of minerals and ores requires the defeatism of great faculties of the forest.

• Causes habitat loss, water pollution, and land instability

Forest Fires

• Natural Fires: Started by dry conditions and are devastating and produce huge losses.

• Human-induced Fires: Actions like intentional burning to clear land especially for agriculture or illegal land clearing.

Effects Of Deforestation

The effects of the deforestation are:

Environmental Impacts

• Loss of Biodiversity: It reduces the natural accommodation for species by alienating their natural habitat hence eliminating species that depend on the forests. It eradicates genetic stocks that are very essential in the healthy internalisation of ecosystems.

• Disruption of Water Cycles: Forests provide an influential function by participating in the control of local evaporation and regional water regimes. This results in changes in the rainfall regimes, water quantity and quality, and alteration of floods or drought experiences.

• Soil Erosion: Tree roots hold the soil to prevent soil erosion. Thus, deforestation hampers the capacity of toils to resist storms, floods and other natural disasters and erodes the soil and washes nutrients in the wind and water, impeding fertility and enhancing sedimentation of water bodies.

• Climate Change: Forests store carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Sylviculture eradicates these elements into the atmosphere; thus, escalating global warming and climate change.

Social Impacts

• Forests, canopies and other elements of wildlife, non-timber products, fruits, herbs and indigenous people’s food and other essential resources are restricted or eliminated by deforestation.

• Losing the right to land and being evicted only intensifies social problems such as rivalry and social injustice.

Economic and Health Impacts

• Temporary benefits such as food, timber and other resources result in long-term costs such as erosion.

• These are for example decreased availability of ecosystem services like water supply and climate change affecting the production resources like agricultural produce and tourist attractions.

• They result in the depletion of breathable air and potable water since forests clean the air and water which are some of the human necessities.

Mitigation and Control of Deforestation

The efforts that can help control deforestation are:

Conservation Efforts

Creating new and enlarging protected territories, national parks, and countryside sanctuaries to conserve variety, notably in those regions where deforestation and habitat destruction threaten critical ecosystems.

Reforestation and Afforestation

Activities that include reforestation, which involves replanting trees in areas that have been decimated by human and natural activities, and afforestation which involves growing trees where there were no forests previously to enable the ecosystem to restore itself and combat climate change.

Sustainable Forestry Practices

Certification Programs (e.g., FSC): Certifying the supply chain and encouraging participation in bona fide certification schemes such as the FSC that guarantees procurement of timber and wood products from well-managed forests.

Reduced Impact Logging (RIL): Applying logging practices that are not detrimental to the environment by avoiding cutting young and valuable trees, constructing unuseful roads and hindering special areas by involving changeless protection.

Case Studies – Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest has been threatened by a high deforestation rate mainly due to land transformation for agricultural production, timber production, construction projects and mining industries.

This constitutes massive deforestation and hence becomes a threat to fauna and flora as well as the disruption of climate systems both locally and globally. This practice has the additional effect of loading such huge emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that a highly significant member of the global warming and climate change process is created.

Efforts To mitigate

Efforts to mitigate deforestation in the Amazon include:

• Protected Areas and Reserves: Protection or lengthening of natural reserves and indigenous territories to mitigate the illegal cuts in logging and deforestation.

• Policy and Regulation: Reducing the tolerance level for polluters and offering better protection to the environment by tightening environmental standards and enforcement of laws that prevent people from exploring this vice and instead encourage the establishment of sustainable agriculture practices.

• International Collaboration: Signing international treaties and forging partnerships that would enhance the effort in conserving resources like ACTO and Amazon funds.

• Monitoring and Surveillance: Applying the satellite measures of monitoring and enforcing the protection of deforestation activities and measures.

• Community Involvement: Support for the advancement of local people and indigenous populations in determining and implementing sustainable forest management and providing alternatives to those who are destructively using their land.

Deforestation NEET MCQs (With Answers & Explanations)

Important questions asked in exams from this topic are:

• Causes of deforestation

• Effects of deforestation

Practice Questions for NEET

Q1. Which of the following human activities can negatively impact ecosystem services?

1. Sustainable agriculture

2. Conservation efforts

3. Deforestation

4. Ecotourism

Correct answer: 3) Deforestation

Explanation:

Human activities such as deforestation, land-use change, pollution, and climate change can negatively impact ecosystem services by disrupting natural processes, reducing biodiversity, and degrading ecosystems. Conservation efforts, sustainable agriculture, and ecotourism can all help to maintain or enhance ecosystem services if managed correctly.

Hence, the correct answer is option 3)Deforestation.

Q2. Assertion: Deforestation leads to a decline in biodiversity.

Reason: Trees provide habitats for many different species of plants and animals.

1. Both assertion and reason are true, and the reason is the correct explanation of the assertion.

2. Both assertion and reason are true, but the reason is not the correct explanation of the assertion.

3. The assertion is true, but the reason is false.

4. The assertion is false, but the reason is true.

Correct answer: 1) Both assertion and reason are true, and the reason is the correct explanation of the assertion.

Explanation:

The assertion is true, and the reason is the correct explanation for the assertion. Deforestation leads to a decline in biodiversity because trees provide habitats for many different species of plants and animals. Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on Earth, including the diversity of species, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity. Trees are an essential part of many ecosystems, and when they are removed through deforestation, it can lead to a loss of habitat for many different species. This loss of habitat can cause a decline in biodiversity as many species are no longer able to survive in the area.

Option(B) Both assertion and reason are true and the reason explains the assertion correctly. Hence option B is incorrect.

Option(C) Both assertion and reason are true. Hence option C is incorrect.

Option(D) Both assertion and reason are true. Hence option D is incorrect.

Hence, the correct answer is Option (1) Both assertion and reason are true, and the reason is the correct explanation of the assertion.

Q3. Montreal Protocol aims at

1. Biodiversity conservation

2. Control of water pollution

3. Control of CO2 emission

4. Reduction of ozone-depleting substances

Correct answer: 4) Reduction of ozone-depleting substances

Explanation:

Recognising the deleterious effects of ozone depletion, an international conference treaty, known as the Montreal Protocol, was signed in Montreal (Canada). In 1987 (effective in 1989) to control the emission of ozone-depleting substances. Subsequently, many more efforts have been made and protocols have laid down definite roadmaps, separately for developed and developing countries, for reducing the emission of CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals.

Hence, the correct answer is option 4) Reduction of ozone-depleting substances.

Also Read-

• MCQs on Deforestation

• Biomagnification

• Air Pollution and its Control

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