how many trees are cut down each yearhow many trees are cut down each year

Countries may lose some forest each year, but this is at a very slow rate. (2017). The United States is the worlds largest consumer (and second largest producer, after Canada) of forest products. Absolute estimates of forest cover from other sources may differ for this reason. They are also richer sites of biodiversity. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down every year. But there are real reasons to believe that this century doesnt have to replicate the destruction of the last one. Forest Transitions: why do we lose then regain forests? The first step in doing this is for rich countries to monitor their deforestation impacts overseas more closely. For the past 30 years, temperate regions have seen a continued increase in forest cover through afforestation: you see this as the bars are now positive (pointing upwards). Since then, deforestation rates have steadily declined, to 78 million hectares in the 1990s; 52 million in the early 2000s; and 47 million in the last decade. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. From this understanding we can define five reasons why we lose forests: Thanks to satellite imagery, we can get a birds-eye view of what these drivers look like from above. The remaining 73% came from the three drivers of forest degradation: logging of forestry products from plantations (26%); shifting, local agriculture (24%); and wildfires (23%). It assumes the impact of clearing primary rainforest in the Amazon to produce soybeans is the same as logging planted forests in the UK. In the chart we see deforestation emissions per person, measured in tonnes of CO2 per year. They also contribute to global deforestation through the foods they import from poorer countries. For example, after we adjust for all the goods that the UK imports and exports, it caused more deforestation elsewhere than it did domestically. Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. Forest transition theory and the reforesting of Scotland. This might paint a bleak picture for the future of the worlds forests: the United Nations projects that the global population will continue to grow, reaching 10.8 billion by 2100. International trade plays an important role in this growth, and may allow farmers to see the yield gains they need to produce more food using less land. Maxwell, S. L., Fuller, R. A., Brooks, T. M., & Watson, J. E. (2016). How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? WebEvery year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. People cut down 15 billion trees each year and the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. It was predominantly temperate forests that were being lost at this time. Its State of the Worlds Forests report provides estimates of global forest cover today, and rates of change over previous decades. If we can take advantage of these innovations, we can bring deforestation to an end. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. But, supply chains are international. The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. Economic development and forest cover: evidence from satellite data. If you struggle to increase crop yields but want to produce more food, then expanding your agricultural land is the only option. 79% of exported deforestation ended up in those countries that had stopped losing domestic forests. Lets take a look at which countries are causing deforestation overseas and the size of this impact. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. How much forest has the world lost? This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. The problem is that it treats all forest loss as equal. Clearing of the Brazilian Amazon for pasture and croplands was a major driver of this loss. 27% of forest loss results from commodity-driven deforestation cutting down forests to grow crops such as soy, palm oil, cocoa, to raise livestock on pasture, and mining operations. But forest cover increases through reforestation. Many people think of environmental concerns as a modern issue: humanitys destruction of nature and ecosystems as a result of very recent population growth and increasing consumption. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. Habitat loss is the leading driver of global biodiversity loss.25 When we cut down rainforests we are destroying the habitats of many unique species, and reshaping these ecosystems permanently. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. One of the reasons poorer countries clear forest to make room for farmland is that they achieve low crop yields. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. The United Nations, as well as experts at the World Wildlife Fund and Global Forest Watch, found that one million animals are in danger of extinction as a result of how much deforestation has occurred. But, it would be wrong to think that the only impact rich countries have on global forests is through changes in their domestic forests. But a small global population overall meant there was little pressure on forests to make space for land to grow food, and as wood for energy. It feeds into the popular idea that eating local is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? The net change in forest cover measures any gains in forest cover either through natural forest expansion or afforestation through tree-planting minus deforestation. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. Countries below the line such as the UK and Germany are not growing forests fast enough to offset the deforestation theyre creating elsewhere. With increasing development, urbanization and access to other energy resources, Africa will shift from local, subsistence activities into commercial commodity production both in agricultural products and timber extraction. In the tropics, some forestry production can be classified as deforestation when primary rainforests are cut down to make room for managed tree plantations.21. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. Brazil, for example, went through a period of very rapid deforestation in the 1980s and 90s (its early transition phase) but its losses have slowed, meaning it is now in the late transition. Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., & Hansen, M. C. (2018). 71% of deforestation is for domestic production. Cuaresma, J. C., Danylo, O., Fritz, S., McCallum, I., Obersteiner, M., See, L., & Walsh, B. Rural Sociology, 63(4), 533-552. Forest cover falls quickly, and the annual loss of forest is high. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Licenses: All visualizations, data, and articles produced by Our World in Data are open access under the Creative Commons BY license. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. From 1850 to 1920, losses were around 50% higher at 30 million hectares per decade thats like losing a forested area the size of Italy every 10 years. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. The world lost 1.5 billion hectares of forest over that period. We need more fuelwood to cook, more houses to live in, and importantly, more food to eat. 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.) If we fast-forward to 1700 when the global population had increased more than ten-fold, to 603 million. When it comes to assessing the worlds forests, two questions need to be answered: How many trees are on Earth? and. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. Increasing human dominance of tropical forests. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. For example, the average German generated half a tonne (510 kilograms) of CO2 per person from domestic and imported foods. Stage 2 The Early Transition phase is when countries start to lose forests very rapidly. 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. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. Tropical forests and the changing earth system. Its useful to make this distinction because as we will see where the world has lost forests has shifted. In a related post we have combined this FAO data with global deforestation rates from Williams (2003) to document forest change over the last 300 years this gives us data on forest change from 1700 onwards. More than four times as much. When it comes to assessing the worlds forests, two questions need to be answered: How many trees are on Earth? and. We can calculate this increase as [(7.63 billion 3.09 billion) / 3.09 billion * 100 = 147%]. Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, This increase was mostly driven by tropical deforestation as countries across Asia and Latin America followed the path of Europe and North America. There is some bad news, though: that number is likely to increase by 20% by 2023. The United Nations, as well as experts at the World Wildlife Fund and Global Forest Watch, found that one million animals are in danger of extinction as a result of how much deforestation has occurred. Its the foods and products we buy, not where we live, that has the biggest impact on global land use. From 1700 to 1850, 19 million hectares were being cleared every decade. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Less than one-third (29%) is for the production of goods that are traded. Can we bring it to an end? The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. 71% of this is driven by demand in domestic markets, and the remaining 29% for the production of products that are traded. Are they causing more deforestation elsewhere than they are regenerating in forests at home? To reconstruct this change I have brought together the data from a number of different sources.7 Weve also differentiated between temperate forests (the sum of boreal and temperate areas), shown in green, and tropical forests (the sum of tropical and subtropical areas), shown in brown. But, understanding the role of deforestation in the products we buy is important. Many countries have not only ended deforestation, but actually achieved substantial reforestation. We therefore look at them both individually in more detail, to better understand what we can do about it. Healthy environment: One hundred mature trees catch about 139,000 gallons of rainwater per year. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. 40% of traded deforestation ends up in high-income countries, meaning they are responsible for 12% of deforestation.29. We see massive differences in how important each driver is across the world. The researchs results are Pre-1961 land use is sourced from the work of Ellis et al. When we treat these impacts equally we make it difficult to prioritize our efforts in the fight against deforestation. But we also need to know what products are driving this. By the mid-18th century, only 4% of the country was forested. Before we look at trends in deforestation across the world specifically, its useful to understand the net change in forest cover. It would be good if there was data available that would capture these additional aspects. Help us do this work by making a donation. A new study published in Nature estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion trees. Rome. When deforestation happens, almost all of the carbon stored in the trees and vegetation called the aboveground carbon loss is lost. [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of According to CNN, each year over 1,000 plants and animal species go extinct due to deforestation and subsequent habitat loss. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forest Resources Assessment estimates global deforestation, averaged over the five-year period from 2015 to 2020 was 10 million hectares per year. Environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe. Thats more than the countrys CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, which are around 2.2 tonnes per person. All other material, including data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data, is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. Low agricultural productivity and a reliance on wood for fuel meant that large amounts of land had to be cleared for basic provisions. Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. Global deforestation reached its peak in the 1980s. In the coming decades this is where we might expect to see the most rapid loss of forests unless these countries take action to prevent it, and the world supports them in the goal. But this is no longer the case: forest loss across North America and Europe is now the result of harvesting forestry products from tree plantations, or tree loss in wildfires. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Humans have already destroyed around 46% of the trees on Earth. But most emissions are driven by domestic markets this means policies in the major producer countries will be key to tackling this problem. How much do people in rich countries contribute to deforestation overseas? That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. At the top of the list we see some of the major producer countries Brazil and Indonesia. 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. 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. Estimates vary, but most date the end of the last great ice age to around 11,700 years ago.Kump, L. R., Kasting, J. F., & Crane, R. G. (2004). Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. Classifying drivers of global forest loss. 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. This often comes at the cost of forests. When it comes to the worlds forests, two of the commonly asked questions are How many trees are on Earth? and How many trees are cut down each year? 432). 2020. The history of deforestation is a tragic one, in which we not only lost these wild and beautiful landscapes but also the wildlife within them. This is also true for major economies such as China and India. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. How many trees does IKEA cut down a 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. 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. Stage 1 The Pre-Transition phase is defined by having high levels of forest cover and no or only very slow losses over time. Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V., De Fries, R. S., Brockhaus, M., Verchot, L., & Romijn, E. (2012). For farmland is that it treats all forest loss as equal not where we live, has! Differences in how important each driver is across the world substantial reforestation the... 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