Interesting Facts on Deforestation

1/7/2018

Phoenix Voyage has entered 2018 with GREAT news! Our Phoenix Hamlet edible parks have been getting lots of attention and since last fall, the project is expanding with great enthusiasm. We have had government officials in Tanzania stating that they "would like to see this project go into more villages because it is a solution for poverty and hunger. "

The Phoenix Hamlets began to get attention thru the pilot project that our new partner Christopher Simwinga has begun in Tanzania. Chris is the director of EnviroCare, a NGO in Tanzania that focuses on deforestation issues and to date, the EnviroCare team have planted over two million trees with community participation.

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Our joint efforts in creating Phoenix Hamlet edible parks with the goal to offer a place for communities to eat and learn from... will also form a 'network' of caring individuals who can also participate in reforestation efforts that we plan to begin in 2018.

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Please read the following deforestation statistics... and if you feel moved to support planting trees around the world...you can check out our amazing partners at ONE TREE PLANTED and give some love to our beautiful earth. The easy to navigate website makes it a fun experience to plant ONE TREE for ONE DOLLAR.

Statistics on Deforestation:

Deforestation is the 2nd biggest, human-caused, contributor to Global Warming in terms of rising greenhouse gas emissions (electricity and heat production being the 1st). The biggest impact of deforestation is the effect on the global carbon cycle, contributing between 12 -17% annually to global greenhouse emissions.
To date 7.3 million hectares of forest have been destroyed. (1 hectare = 10,000 sq meters, roughly the size of an international rugby field, there are 2.37 acres in a hectare).
Forests are being destroyed for: land development, agriculture purposes, commercial logging (production of paper, furniture, and houses), bio-fuels (palm, soy oils), fuels (wood is used for cooking in developing countries), roads and motorway construction, land clearing in the cases of mining for natural resources.
Within the next 25 years at least 28,000 plant and animal species will become extinct due to deforestation.
Deforestation is responsible for rising statistics in flooding, erosion, landslides and air pollution (air pollution is one of the biggest killers, affecting 100 million worldwide). Trees naturally produce and release oxygen.
1.6 billion people worldwide, rely on deforested products for all or part of their livelihoods.
Indigenous populations and their way of life are being negatively impacted as they rely on the forests for food and medicine.

Global Warming

Research shows that trees store up to 300 billion tons of CO2.
They naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and it is an important factor in their structural development.
The Sun’s energy and heat converts carbon dioxide into building blocks for their trunk and branches
When they are cut down, burned or die, the carbon dioxide is released back in to the atmosphere. Impacting on weather patterns and climate changes.
Release of carbon dioxide is measured in ‘gigatons’. A gigaton is one unit of explosive power equivalent, to one billion tons of TNT. If an earthquake’s magnitude were to be measured in gigatons then an 8.8 is roughly around 50 gigatons. Tropical rainforests store more than 210 gigatons of carbon dioxide.
China is the world’s biggest producer of carbon dioxide emissions. The USA is second.
Carbon emissions are lowering the Ph balance in the worlds’ oceans, making them even more acidic.
Carbon emissions are not the only greenhouse gases affected by deforestation. Trees absorb rain water and release water vapor back into the atmosphere. Global vapor flows have decreased by 4% resulting in climate disruptions and water pollution through contamination.

References:
The World Preservation Foundation
2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment
World Resources Institute
The Guardian
Greenpeace

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3 Comments

M M Hasan

1/13/2018 11:05:03 pm

Hi, I am Hasan. I am from Bangladesh. In my country here is 11% forest of the total land. Our government is taking lots of program for reforestation.
Only for deforestation the global warming is increasing.
We all should take action on this. we have to reduce cut tree. and increase planting tree.
I personally making garden on my roof terrace.
and in my little empty yard.

Thanks for a nice share.

I am sharing another article i got from a page.
its about breathtaking acts about deforestation.

""51 Breathtaking Facts About Deforestation""

Deforestation or felling trees has become a favorite activity of man to extract assorted needs- be it medicines or precious paper to waste. For obvious reasons, it is shameful to read the statistics on how discriminating man has been, especially when it comes to deforestation… but at the end there is always hope.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 18 million acres (7.3 million hectares) of forest are lost each year. In the last two decades, Afghanistan has lost over 70% of its forests throughout the country. Read more facts about global warming, climate change and pollution here. Just check few of the facts on deforestation below.

What is Deforestation?
Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land for use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area, or wasteland. Deforestation can also be seen as removal of forests leading to several imbalances ecologically and environmentally and results in declines in habitat and biodiversity. Urbanization, Mining, Fires, Logging and Agricultural activities are few of the causes of deforestation.

forestry-logging-deforestation
Below are 51 facts on deforestation
Facts 1: Forests cover 30% of the earth’s land.

Facts 2: It is estimated that within 100 years there will be no rainforests.

Facts 3: Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation

Facts 4: One and a half acres of forest is cut down every second.

Facts 5: Loss of forests contributes between 12 percent and 17 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. (World Resources Institute)

Facts 6: If the current rate of deforestation continues, it will take less than 100 years to destroy all the rainforests on the earth.

Facts 7: The rate of deforestation equals to loss of 20 football fields every minute.

Facts 8: There are more than 121 natural remedies in the rain forest which can be used as medicines.

Facts 9: According to Rainforest Action Network, the United States has less than 5% of the world’s population yet consumes more than 30% of the world’s paper.

Facts 10: The over exploitation of forests is making it extremely difficult to replant a new ecology.

Facts 11: 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon forest.

Facts 12: Up to 28,000 species are expected to become extinct by the next quarter of the century due to deforestation.

Facts 13: 25% of cancers fighting organisms are found in the amazon.

Facts 14: 13 million hectare per year in South America and Africa and south East Asia is converted from a forest to an agriculture land.

Facts 15: Deforestation has considerably stopped in places like Europe, Pacific, North America and some parts of Asia due to lack of agricultural land.

Facts 16: Half of the world’s tropical forests has already been cleared.

Facts 17: 4500 acres of forests are cleared every hour by forest fires, bull dozers, machetes etc.

Facts 18: Poverty, over-population and unequal land access are the main causes of man- made deforestation.

Facts 19: The total world forest loss till date is 7.3 million hectares per year.

Facts 20: 1.6 billion people across the globe depend on forest products for their livelihoods there by adding more to deforestation.

Facts 21: Almost half of world’s timber and up to 70% of paper is consumed by Europe, United States and Japan alone.

Facts 22: Industrialized countries consume 12 times more wood and its products per person than the non-industrialized countries.

Facts 23: The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population but consumes more than 30% of the world’s paper.

Facts 24: Fuel wood in sub Saharan African countries is consumed up to 200% times more than the annual growth rates of the trees. This is causing deforestation, lack of timber resources and loss of habitat for the species living in it.

Facts 25: Trees are important constituents of the ecosystem by absorbing carbon.

annual-rings-wood-sawed-off-deforestation-tree-cut

Facts 26: Soil erosion, floods, wildlife extinction, increase in global warming, and climate imbalance are few of the effects of deforestation.

Facts 27: Worldwide more than 1.6 billion people rely on forests products for all or part of their livelihoods.

Facts 28: Tropical forests, where deforestation is most prevalent, hold more than 210 gigatonnes of carbon.

Facts 29: According to Forestry Department Fo

Mithila Orna

2/19/2018 09:00:43 pm

This is really very sad feelings that what we doing. we are ruining the whole world. Please see the overview of the recent position of forest and deforestation.

"Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter.

But forests around the world are under threat from deforestation, jeopardizing these benefits. Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change. This impacts people’s livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species. We’re losing 18.7 million acres of forests annually, equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute.

Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change because they act as a carbon sink—soaking up carbon dioxide that would otherwise be free in the atmosphere and contribute to ongoing changes in climate patterns. Deforestation undermines this important carbon sink function. It is estimated that 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions are the result of deforestation.

Deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rainforests because these forests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. For example, in the Amazon around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years, mostly due to forest conversion for cattle ranching. Deforestation in this region is particularly rampant near more populated areas, roads and rivers, but even remote areas have been encroached upon when valuable mahogany, gold and oil are discovered.

WWF has been working to protect forests for more than 50 years. With a focus on protected areas management and sustainable forestry, WWF works with governments, companies, communities and other stakeholders to promote certification for responsible forest management practices, combat illegal logging, reform trade policies and protect forested areas.

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Calvin

10/18/2018 09:10:24 am

I hear it's wasteful to harvest palm oil too.. it is cause of deforestation

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