Our Green Attitude

DEFORESTATION AND EROSION

WHAT IS DEFORESTATION?

 Is the permanent destruction of forests in order to use that

land for other diverse purposes, for example, make more land available for housing and urbanization; another one is to create ingredients that are highly prized costumer items, such as the oil from palm trees. Approximately 18 million acres (which is equivalent to 7.3 million hectares) of forest are lost each day according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (also known as FAO).

Deforestation is a problem that happens worldwide, most likely in countries or zones with tropical rainforests which are the main target in most cases. Countries with the higher rate of deforestation in 2016 were Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This problem brings a lot of concerns because it affects the people and also animals that live in them, for 250 million people that live in savannahs and in forests this has a really big influence in terms of income and subsistence. It also leads to extreme ups and downs in temperature which affects most animals and plants that are found around or in these areas.

One of the most remarkable causes of deforestation is Soil Erosion. Basically without trees the soil is free to wash or blow away which alters and causes vegetation growth problems. Soil Erosion also leads to problems in Life Quality, particularly on water quality, what happens is that silt can enter easily in lakes, streams and other water resources.

To solve this problematic, there is a very particular way to do it, which is counteracting deforestation. Some people think that the only thing you need to do is planting more trees and off course! it alleviates a lot the problems deforestation causes, but sadly it won´t completely fix them all. 

That process is called reforestation, this mechanism

facilitates a lot of other processes; for example, rebuilding wildlife habitats or reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but for all the problems to be solved or at the moment to slow down the process of deforestation we have to add other tactics, such as shifting the human-population to a plant-based diet.

By Nashla Puerta, Step 9.