Since three-quarters of tropical deforestation is driven by agriculture, thats a valid concern. The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) Note that in this study, the category of subsistence agriculture was classified as a deforestation driver, and so is not included. How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. Over the decade since 2010, the net loss in forests globally was 4.7 million hectares per year.1 However, deforestation rates were much significantly higher. A new study published in Nature estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion trees. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. But we also need to know what products are driving this. The fact that the per capita emissions after trade are very high means that a lot of their food products are consumed by people in Brazil and Indonesia. On balance, it would still have a positive impact on the size of global forests; its net contribution would be increasing forest area by 25,000 hectares.32 However, this country might still be causing more damage than this for a couple of reasons. Environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe. Agricultural and urban land: The UN FAO Statistical database provides data on global agricultural and urban land from 1961 onwards. Across Africa, fuelwood and charcoal played a much larger role it accounted for more than half (52%). The Earth System (Vol. Approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are being cut each year according to a report referenced on the Rainforest Action Networks website (RAN) and other publications. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? Belhaven Press. Loss of Biodiversity: Forests are the only liveable habitat for a variety of species around the globe many of which have not even have been discovered. Countries below the line such as the UK and Germany are not growing forests fast enough to offset the deforestation theyre creating elsewhere. Estimates vary, but on average only 10-20% of carbon is lost during logging, and 10-30% from fires.27 In a study of logging practices in the Amazon and Congo, forests retained 76% of their carbon stocks shortly after logging.28 Logged forests recover their carbon over time, as long as the land is not converted to other uses (which is what happens in the case of deforestation). In a previous article I showed that the types of food you eat matter much more for your carbon footprint than where it comes from this is because transport usually makes up a small percentage of your foods emissions, even if it comes from the other side of the world. We know where deforestation emissions are occurring, and where this demand is coming from. Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. Lewis, S. L., Edwards, D. P., & Galbraith, D. (2015). But it can bridge between deforestation and degradation depending on the timeframe and permanence of these agricultural practices. The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? These countries might have high levels of afforestation at home, but theyre still having a net negative impact on the size of the worlds forests. If we fast-forward to 1700 when the global population had increased more than ten-fold, to 603 million. The paths between these end boxes indicate where emissions are being traded the wider the bar, the more emissions are embedded in these products. Less than one-third (29%) is for the production of goods that are traded. Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, As to the number of trees this represents, its impossible to get an accurate count. How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. Deforestation, reforestation, and development, Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change, Economic development and forest cover: evidence from satellite data, Deforestation displaced: trade in forest-risk commodities and the prospects for a global forest transition, Classifying drivers of global forest loss, What we know and dont know about Earths missing biodiversity, Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers, Tropical forests and the changing earth system, Types and rates of forest disturbance in Brazilian Legal Amazon, 20002013, Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions, Environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. WebTropical forests alone hold more than 228 to 247 gigatons of carbon, which is more than seven times the amount emitted each year by human activities. From the 1920s through to the 1980s, decadal losses quadrupled to almost 120 million hectares. The researchs results are How much do people in rich countries contribute to deforestation overseas? The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. What explains this? 2020. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. That was 6.5% of global CO2 emissions.35. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. And its not just in forests eitherits also happening on farms, in cities, and on private property. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. Given the current estimate of the total tree cover on the planet, that could equate to about 0.11% of trees being cut each year. By Georgina Rannard. How much deforestation happens every day? [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of This is calculated by taking each countrys imported deforestation and subtracting its exported deforestation. Ellis, E. C., Beusen, A. H., & Goldewijk, K. K. (2020). An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries. This topic page can be cited as: All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. The turn of the 20th century is when global forest loss reached the halfway point: half of total forest loss occurred from 8,000BC to 1900; the other half occurred in the last century alone. How many trees are cut down each year?. In the map we see their assessment of each countrys stage in the transition. The world has lost one-third of its forest an area twice the size of the United States. Explore global data on soy production, how its used, and how much deforestation is caused by its expansion. Lets take an example. Healthy communities: Tree-filled neighborhoods lower levels of domestic violence and are safer and more sociable. Mapping tree density at a global scale. But forest cover increases through reforestation. I have therefore excluded these categories so we can focus on how habitable land is used. Note that this only measures the emissions from tropical deforestation it doesnt include any other emissions from agricultural production, such as methane from livestock, or rice, or the use of fertilizers. But when forests are cut, burned or otherwise removed they emit carbon instead of absorb carbon. In the chart we see the decadal losses and gains in global forest cover. For the last two centuries forests have been growing and are almost back to where they were 1000 years ago.13. In a study published in Global Environmental Change, Florence Pendrill and colleagues investigated where tropical deforestation was occurring; what products were driving this; and, using global trade models, they traced where these products were going in international supply chains.34, They found that tropical deforestation given as the annual average between 2010 and 2014 was responsible for 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. WebHealthy trees mean: Healthy people: 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants per year. From 1700 to 1850, 19 million hectares were being cleared every decade. For this reason, data sources including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization tend to aggregate annual losses as the average over five-year or decadal periods. In a previous post we looked at this change in global forests over the long-run. We see one such transition in the chart: the forest loss in the temperate regions shown as the green part of the bars peaked much earlier than the global forest loss. We can illustrate this through the so-called Forest Transition Model.14 This is shown in the chart. Latin America exports around 23% of its emissions; that means more than three-quarters are generated for products that are consumed within domestic markets. Why? 14% of deforestation is driven by consumers in the worlds richest countries we import beef, vegetable oils, cocoa, coffee and paper that has been produced on deforested land.12. What are the major impacts of mass deforestation and forest loss? Approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are being cut each year according to a report referenced on the Rainforest Action Networks website (RAN) and other publications. This rapid swapping of green for gray is harmful to the people living in these spaces, and it sets cities up for long-term environmental decline, according to the scientists. Then things started to speed up. At their Global Forest Watch platform they were already presenting maps of forest loss across the world. The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. The rate of forest loss changed a lot. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. The 11-month balance shows that 1,539,970 trees were cut down each day, which means 1,059 trees per minute or almost 18 trees per second. Low agricultural productivity and a reliance on wood for fuel meant that large amounts of land had to be cleared for basic provisions. Countries that lie along this line would have a net-neutral impact on global forests: the area they are causing to deforestation overseas is exactly as large as the area they are regrowing at home. Given the current estimate of the total tree cover on the planet, that could equate to about 0.11% of trees being cut each year. Its useful to make this distinction because as we will see where the world has lost forests has shifted. Healthy communities: Tree-filled neighborhoods lower levels of domestic violence and are safer and more sociable. In the chart we see how the cover of the earths surface has changed over the past 10,000 years. Cities, and so is not included, S. L., Edwards, D. ( 2015 ) United.... Impacts of mass deforestation and forest loss if we fast-forward to 1700 when the global population had increased than! Area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate are used Paper. Is over 470 million trees since January 1st for basic provisions one-third of its an! 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