Deforestation

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regions and 42% in the tropics. For about a millennium,
people have benefited from the forests. Forest products range from simple
fuelwood and building poles to sophisticated natural medicines, and from high-
tech wood based manufactures to paper products. Environmental benefits include
water flow control, soil conservation, and atmospheric influences. Brazil's
Amozonia contains half of the world's tropical rain forests. The forests cover a
region 10 times the size of Texas. Only about 10% of Brazil's rain forests have
been cut to date, but cutting goes on at an uncontrollable rate.
Since pre-agricultural times the world's forests have declined one fifth
from 4 to 3 billion hectares. Temperate forests have lost 35% of their area,
subtropical woody savannas and deciduous forests have lost 25% and ever-green
forests which are now under the most pressure have lost the least area, 6%,
because they were inaccessible and sparsely populated. Now with new technology,
such as ...

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of forests to agricultural land, logging, demand for fuelwood, forest
fires and drought. Slash and burn clearing is the single greatest cause of
tropical rain forest destruction world wide. Air pollution is also a major
threat to the forests in the northern hemisphere and is expected to increase.
Reduced growth, defoliation and eventual death occur in most affected forests.
From 1850 to 1980 the greatest forest losses occurred in North America and the
Middle East (-60%), South Asia (-43%) and China (-39%). The highest rates of
deforestation per year are now in South America (1.3%) and Asia (0.9%).
Over the last two decades the world became interested in the loss of
tropical forests ...

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