Forests
cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They help people thrive and survive
by, for example, purifying water and air and providing people with jobs; some
13.2 million people across the world have a job in the forest sector and
another 41 million have a job that is related to the sector.
Forests
release oxygen by absorbing carbon dioxide from the environment. The larger the
forest would be, the more it will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and
release oxygen. Thus, forests maintain the amount of gases in our
atmosphere.
Also,
forests play a major role in rain. as they do transpiration in which they release their extra water through them
Many
animals also rely on forests. Eighty percent of the world's land-based species,
such as elephants and rhinos, live in forests. It provides habitat to wild
species, but due to continuous cutting of forests many species have lost their
habitat. Due to this, they are coming to places where humans live.
But
forests around the world are under threat, jeopardizing these benefits. The
threats manifest themselves in the form of deforestation and forest
degradation. The main cause of deforestation is agriculture (poorly planned
infrastructure is emerging as a big threat too) and the main cause of forest
degradation is illegal logging. In 2019, the tropics lost close to 30 soccer
fields' worth of trees every single minute.
Deforestation is a particular concern in tropical rain forests 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.
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