Deforestation: Diminishing the Natural Habitat

One problem that is currently still going on in the world around us today is the fact of deforestation. This has been a worldwide issue for quite some time; however, it seems to be occurring across seas in other countries and on other continents more. The Rainforests, vast lands of natural habitat, are being destroyed by the acre. Humans are coming into this world faster than ever and find themselves needing more and more space each and every year. What do they do? Wipe out the lands and homes of thousands of other species just to support themselves. Not realizing the harm that is being caused, humans continue to deplete natural resources that are found in rainforests across the world. If something is not done to stop humankind from this path of destruction, complete devastation with hit planet earth.

                There are many driving forces behind the reason of why to deforest land but the main cause is for money and to provide for a family. Possibly the biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Small time, even big time farming companies and families continue to clear out areas of forests in order to provide space for planting crops or just for grazing livestock. If every farmer cuts out only a few acres for their needs we begin to see huge accumulations of missing forest land. This is absolutely devastating to the animals that reside within forests and rainforests. Something that many farmers will do now is a procedure known as “cut-and-burn.” The farmer will cut down acres of forests and take burn them to dispose of the wood instead of properly recycling the wood for other uses.

                Although, farmers do play a big role in deforestation, it is not all their fault. Lodging operations, which provide most all wood and paper products, will make new roads, sometimes illegally, that meander through the forests to remote areas that were earlier inaccessible.  In doing this, not only are they breaking laws but they are also allowing for more and more acres of forests to be cut down, that, in turn, should never have been cut down in the first place.

 Now, deforestation would not be as big of a problem if there were not any species that lived in forested areas. But in fact, millions of different birds, insects, rodents, animals, etc. as well as trees, flowers and shrubs, many of which are endangered, reside in forested areas.  When humans deforest land at such an extreme rate, not only are we clearing space for us, but we are also taking away the homes of hundreds of thousands of innocent animals. Not to mention that deforestation drives climate change at a faster rate. The soil at the bottom of a forest is moist and wet but with no protection from the canopy of trees, it will quickly dry out and will not be able to provide water for living vegetation. Trees also play a huge role in the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without the help that trees provide, many of the former forest land will dry out into a barren desert.

There are some things that can be done to help slow the rate of deforestation. The easiest way to control deforestation is to completely stop cutting completely. However, this is something that is inevitable and will definitely not happen. Humans have a drive in their mind to make it so they are comfortable in living, without any real care or attention to what they are harming around them. Also, due to the fact that illegal cutting is occurring today, what says that this will not continue to occur? An easier solution to the problem is to closely manage clear-cutting to make sure that forests stay intact. With the cutting that will occur, a proper balance must be highly watched in the cutting to planting ratio of trees. Basically, there should never be more trees cut down in a year then there are being planted. This will help with the rate of deforestation but will not completely discontinue the process of cutting. I am unsure if deforestation can ever be completely eliminated but there are certainly things that humans can do to reduce our own damage to the natural habitat that surrounds us.