How many trees are lost to deforestation every year?

#Deforestation #ClimateDictionary #EcoEducation

by Matt Wilce.

Deforestation facts

How many trees are we losing per year, how many are being planted and what are the reasons for deforestation?

Annually we cut down approximately 15 billion trees globally and plant around 5 billion. So we're losing about 10 billion trees a year. Imagine an area of forest the size of a football field disappearing every second, this is the rate of deforestation. There are approximately 3.04 trillion trees on earth, at this rate within 300 years there will be none left. There are 5 main drivers behind deforestation; commodities (agriculture, mining and drilling), logging, wildfires, energy and urbanisation.

Stats

In 2010 the world had 3.92 Gha (Global Hectares: a global hectare is a common unit that encompasses the average productivity of all the biologically productive land and sea area in the world in a given year) of tree cover, extending over 30% of its land area. In 2019, it lost 24.2 Mha (Million Hectares). From 2002 to 2019, there was a total of 61.4Mha of humid primary forest lost globally, making up 17% of its total tree cover loss in the same time period.

Total area of humid primary forest decreased globally by 5.9% in this time period. From 2001 to 2019, there was a total of 386Mha of tree cover loss globally, equivalent to a 9.7% decrease in tree cover since 2000 and 105Gt of CO₂ emissions. From 2001 to 2012, 80.6Mha of tree cover was gained globally (Global Forest Watch).

Figure 1: Top 10 tropical countries that lost the most primary forest in 2019. Source: Global Forest Watch.

Tree planting

There are various tree planting projects planned and taking place across the world. The USA has planted 40 million and has committed to planting 1 billion trees by 2030. Last year Ethiopia claimed to have planted more than 350 million trees in one day. The African nations are in the process of planting ‘The Great Green Wall’, an 8000km barrier of trees spanning the length of the African continent. They are currently at 15% completion. China is also building its own ‘Great Green Wall’ called the North Shelter Forest Program, albeit on desert land on which it still isn’t clear whether forest can grow or not. The UK has committed to planting 11 million trees by 2022, the government claims to have planted about 15 million in the past 8 years, but rates vary widely. In 2018 the European Outdoor Conservation Society planted over 2.5 million trees.

Exactly how many trees are planted per year across the world is difficult to pin down, stats seem to vary widely and results of tree planting projects always lag a few years behind real time as their success or failure is realised. The good news is that trees are being planted, in some places in astonishing numbers and, on the surface at least, our political will to reforest the earth seems strong. The bad news is that with 10 billion more trees being cut down than are planted every year we are struggling to compensate.

Hotspots

Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Indonesia are home to the largest remaining expanses of tropical forest and are consistently ranked among the top ten countries globally for deforestation, largely due to agriculture and the rising global demand for food. Between 2000 and 2014, Brazil lost an average of 2.7 million hectares of forest per year, in the same time period the DRC lost an average of 570,000 hectares per year and between 2001 and 2014 Indonesia lost about 1.3 million hectares annually. With the exception of Brazil these areas of tropical forest have become global hotspots of deforestation largely as a result of the lack of enforcement of environmental regulations. In Brazil, policies such as the Amazon Soy Moratorium seem to have been effective in slowing deforestation in previous hotspots in the Amazon biome. However new hotspots have simply emerged in unprotected areas, and they are getting worse.

Drivers

Agriculture

Expanding agriculture, driven by an increasing global food demand is a main cause of deforestation. It is estimated that by 2050 we will need about 70% more food calories than we did in 2006. Today, most agricultural deforestation is happening in tropical forests. This is because they are large areas of cheap land with a year-round growing season and relatively cheap labour costs. Overwhelmingly the main reason they are destroyed is down to the production of four commodities; beef, palm oil and soy and wood products.

Beef

Beef certainly has the biggest impact on deforestation. Forest land is cleared to accommodate pasture land for cattle at a rate of 2.71 million hectares per year, that’s about the area of Massachusetts (Union of Concerned Scientists) and accounts for more than half of all tropical deforestation in Latin America.

Figure 4: Chart of deforestation in the Amazon due to beef demanda. Source: tritontimes.com

Palm Oil

Palm oil is used in many parts of the world as a cooking oil. In developed countries however, it is mostly used in supermarket products like processed foods and snacks such as; icecream, cookies, chocolate, instant noodles, margarine, bread and pizza as well as cosmetic and beauty products like shampoo, soap and lipstick. The popularity and versatility of palm oil in particular is a huge incentive which fuels the clearing of forests, not to mention its profitability. In 2015 the global palm oil market was valued at $65.73 billion and is projected to rise to $92.84 billion in 2021 (Zion Market Research). Palm oil production is the second biggest contributor on this list, of global warming emissions and accounts for 270,000 hectares of deforestation annually.

Soy Beans

Every year in the tropics, around 480,000 hectares of forest are destroyed for soybean production, mostly to be used as feed for pork, poultry and dairy cows but also to produce vegetable oil and biodiesel. At Tree-Nation we specialise in planting in specifically tropical regions as trees grow faster there and due to such an alarming rate of deforestation trees are needed there much more urgently. Have a look at our projects from the tropics here and help us plant trees there.

Figure 6: Soybean related deforestation Argentina. Source: Greenpeace Argentina.

Mining and Drilling

What are the main causes of reforestation? Well, ranking as one of the main causes would be mining and drilling for oil, gas, coal and metals such as; manganese, tantalum, cassiterite, copper, tin, nickel, bauxite, gold silver and diamonds and the chemicals involved in the process of their extraction has a devastating effect on the environment, poisoning water supplies, flooding rainforest, disrupting river systems, decimating ecosystems, destroying people’s livelihoods and cultural traditions, increasing crime and even jeopardising world health. In terms of deforestation, mining and drilling requires that huge sections of, usually tropical, forest be cleared and burned so that mining companies can excavate deep in the earth. Drilling is something we normally associate with oil and gas, but it is also a method employed by small and middle scale mining operations which can be carried out by a little as 4/5 people, yet covers an even greater scale and is thought to do even more environmental damage.

Mining and drilling is estimated to account for 7% of global deforestation in the subtropics and exploration and development of more projects is set to take place in the Amazon and Congo as well as boreal forests in Canada and Russia. The tar sands infrastructure in Canada has already resulted in 750,000 hectares of forest being cleared and degraded since the year 2000. Extractive industries are located in some of the most ecologically sensitive forests in the world, 25% of all metal mines are within 10km of protected areas. In some areas like the Congo Basin, mining takes place within protected areas. Not just a reliance, but a growth in the fossil fuels industry and the rising price of minerals and metals has spurred everyone from small groups of working people, to billion dollar mining companies and governments to go on a mining spree.

Figure 7: Illegal gold mining deforestation enters Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios, Peru. Source: Global Forest Watch

Logging

When we think about deforestation, wood and paper production is perhaps what we most imagine and it is a major driver of deforestation. Logging has been shown to cause around 380,000 hectares of deforestation per year, although the actual number is likely to be higher. The forests of Indonesia are the primary hotspot for logging deforestation. Forests are cleared and replaced with fast-growing tree species. There are two main types of wood products: Timber and Pulp. Timber is used in construction and furniture and pulp is used in paper products. In the case of timber, valuable tree species are singled out and cut down, causing forest degradation. Once degraded these forests are more likely to be cleared later on to be used for one of the purposes listed in this article. In this way the logging industry causes direct and indirect deforestation.

While timber is mostly produced in the United States, Canada and China (temperate forests), the largest pulp producing countries are Brazil and Indonesia (tropical forests). In Brazil, former pasture land is often used for paper plantations and therefore does not have a great impact on creating more deforestation. However in Indonesia, “fast wood” (fast-growing tree species) plantations are replacing natural forests at an alarming rate. Between 2000 and 2010, deforestation for fast wood plantations surpassed palm oil or coal mining. To make matters worse, like palm oil plantations, many were cleared on carbon-rich peat soil, which releases methane (a green house gas which, in the first two decades of its release, is 84 times more potent than CO2).

Wood production can be and is sustainably managed, when wood plantations do not replace natural forests they have no impact on deforestation and can actually help store carbon and support biodiversity. Certification systems exist which meet ecological, economic and social standards, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Today more than 400 million acres of forest are FSC certified (fsc.org), approximately 10% of the world’s working forests and a further 320 million hectares are PEFC certified (pefc.org).

Figure 8: Deforestation caused by logging. Source: greentumble.com

WildFires

Wild fires burning around the world have received much media attention this year and last, particularly in Australia, the Amazon (which as of August 2019 has seen more than 80,000 fires, an increase of almost 80% since 2018 - National Geographic), California (Since the beginning of the year, there have been over 8,000 wildfires that have burned over 3.6 million acres in California. Since August 15, when California’s fire activity elevated, there have been 26 fatalities and over 6,500 structures destroyed - Cal Fire) and even in the Arctic Circle where CO2 emissions have increased by more than a third, compared to 2019, with 244 megatons of carbon produced from January 1st to August 31st, 2020 according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Over the past two decades, wildfires due to agricultural practices such as slash-and-burn, have intensified in areas such as Africa and Southeast Asia and climate change has led to an increased intensity in fires in the Northern Hemisphere. On balance,“Africa is truly the fire continent” (NASA). “On an average day in August, satellites typically detect 10,000 actively burning fires around the world – 70% of which are in Africa”.

The fact remains that the majority of forest fires are still due to human activity. The effect of wildfires on deforestation, although certainly devastating, is difficult to measure as farmers often target already deforested land in an attempt to clear it completely. The danger is that burning an area of land always has the potential to spread to other areas. For an accurate and up to date idea of the scale of global wild forest fires, go to globalforestwatch.org and take a look at their Global Forest Watch Fires map and for a comprehensive analysis of forest fires you can refer back to the previous article in our blog.

Energy

Today, more than 2 billion people depend on fuelwood or charcoal. In poor countries like Uganda, which is one of the world’s poorest countries, many people rely on wood and charcoal as their primary source of energy. Over the past 25 years, Uganda has lost 63% of its forest cover due to deforestation for firewood and charcoal, as well as timber and the growth of farms and towns (National Forest Authority). According to a 2015 study, (Burning biodiversity: Fuelwood harvesting causes forest degradation in human-dominated tropical landscapes- sciencedirect.com ), annual rural population demand for fuelwood in the northern portion of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, is equivalent to 1.2 to 2.1 thousand hectares of tropical forest. ). Fuelwood is a major source of forest degradation and subsequently deforestation. The relationship between poverty and a reliance on fuelwood is stark and in developing countries fuelwood harvesting is so important that it rivals other sources of industrial energy such as electricity, principally among poor people in rural areas. (FAO, 2011, Mead, 2005.

Figure 10: Burning charcoal in Mozambique. It takes 8-10 tonnes of wood to make 1 tonne of charcoal using this method. Modern kilns are more efficient, at around 3.5:1 ratio of wood to charcoal. Photo: Valter Ziantoni/ ICRAF. Source: worldagroforestry.com

Housing

While the vast majority of deforestation is either; commodity driven, due to shifting agriculture, forestry or wildfires, 1% of global tree cover loss between 2001 and 2017 was due to urbanisation (globalforestwatch.org). By 2050, the global urban population is predicted to be 6.3 billion, almost double that of 2010 (Convention on Biological Diversity). Although urbanisation has a relatively low impact on deforestation, “rapid urbanisation is occurring adjacent to biodiversity hotspot areas and faster in low-elevation, biodiversity rich coastal zones than in other areas'' (cbd.int).

Figure 11: The City of Manaus expanding into the surrounding jungle. Photo: Reuters

Conclusion

It is perhaps shocking that deforestation can be attributed to four main drivers and a handful of smaller ones and on the surface the motives behind deforestation may seem simple; our reliance on unnecessary products such as palm oil, poorly enforced environmental policy, global demand for food and money orientated farming practices, production of commodities and our need for energy and housing, but our relationship with natural resources is complex, and each of these causes deserve a more in depth look. In coming articles we will discuss each driver in more detail and look into their possible solutions.

Trends

• There are 5 main drivers of deforestation: Commodities, Logging, Wildfires, Energy and Urbanization. These drivers affect deforestation to greater or lesser extents in different parts of the world, for example agriculture is responsible for the majority of deforestation in the tropical forests of South America and South East Asia, whereas wildfires destroy most temperate and boreal forests in Russia and North America.

• There are positive environmental policies which are enforced in places like Brazil to protect deforestation hotspots and allow them to recuperate, however there is still much work to be done to ensure that the hotspots do not simply shift to other so far unprotected areas of rainforest.

• Drivers such as logging can be and in many places are managed sustainably by the involvement of environmental bodies such as the FSC and PEFC. However commodities such as beef and palm oil are not yet properly regulated or controlled and due to their profitability are doing increasing harm with no sign of slowing down.

• Political will around the world to reforest the Earth seems to be going in the right direction but we are yet to see if the ambitious projects planned will be realised.

Calculations

• Around 15 billion trees are cut down every year with about 5 billion being planted in their place, meaning that the planet loses approximately 10 billion trees annually. That's an area the size of a football field every second.

• We lose 2.71 million hectares of forest per year just for beef production, 480,000 hectares to produce soybeans mostly to feed livestock. According to Global Forest Watch from 2001 to 2018, 25.6 hectares of forest were lost to the palm oil industry in Indonesia alone. Logging causes around 380,000 hectares of deforestation per year.
• Wildfires caused by climate change have been intensifying. In California for example 8 of the 10 worst fires in its history have taken place in the last decade. The worst fire ever recorded, the August Complex (788,880 acres), was recorded this year on September 9th and along with 4 other huge fires is still burning now.

References

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