But we also need to know what products are driving this. This means they were responsible for 12% of global deforestation.31 It is therefore true that rich countries are causing deforestation in poorer countries. How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. The rate of forest loss changed a lot. But the solution is not so simple. Rather than looking at total figures by country [if youre interested, we have mapped them here] we have calculated the per capita footprint. Countries below the line such as the UK and Germany are not growing forests fast enough to offset the deforestation theyre creating elsewhere. The amount of land per person that was needed to produce enough food was not small in fact, it was much larger than today. Tropical forests are also large carbon sinks, and can store a lot of carbon per unit area.26. 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. 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. Forests are mainly cut and burned to make space for local, subsistence agriculture or for fuelwood for energy. But urban land accounts for just 1% of global habitable land. The change is permanent. [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. But it was then that England reached its transition point and since then, forests have doubled in size. Healthy environment: One hundred mature trees catch about 139,000 gallons of rainwater per year. Rudel, T. K. (1998). But its not the case for deforestation. The Forest Transition therefore tends to follow a development pathway.16 As a country achieves economic growth it moves through each of the four stages. 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. Countries with a positive change (shown in green) are regrowing forest faster than theyre losing it. The trees are not expected to regrow. This shifting agriculture category can be difficult to allocate between deforestation and degradation: it often requires close monitoring over time to understand how permanent these agricultural practices are. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings. Thats around half the size of Germany. It breaks the change in forests into four stages, explained by two variables: the amount of forest cover a region has, and the annual change in cover (how quickly it is losing or gaining forest).15. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. Economic development and forest cover: evidence from satellite data. The United States is the worlds largest consumer (and second largest producer, after Canada) of forest products. Cutting them down disrupts or destroys established, species-rich ecosystems. and an argument for why deforestation is worse than degradation. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. If we sum countries imported deforestation by World Bank income group, we find that high-income countries were responsible for 40% of imported deforestation; upper-middle income for 25%; lower-middle income for 20%; and low income for 5%. Stage 3 The Late Transition phase is when deforestation rates start to slow down again. Rome. England is similar: in the late 11th century, 15% of the country was forested, and over the following centuries two-thirds were cut down. On the x-axis we have imported deforestation. Many farmers rely on international buyers to earn a living and improve their livelihoods. 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. Noriko Hosonuma et al. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8753en. And its not just in forests eitherits also happening on farms, in cities, and on private property. There is some bad news, though: that number is likely to increase by 20% by 2023. How much deforestation happens every day? If we can take advantage of these innovations, we can bring deforestation to an end. 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. Since year-to-year changes in forest cover can be volatile, the UN FAO provide this annual data averaged over five-year periods. Why should we care most about tropical deforestation? [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. The world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to deforestation. The biodiversity of managed tree plantations which are periodically cut, regrown, cut again, then regrown is not the same. This helps consumers understand what products they should be concerned about, but also allows us to target specific supply chains. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. Firstly, international trade does play a role in deforestation its responsible for almost one-third of emissions. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. Thats equivalent to the area of South Africa. How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? (2020). In the chart we see how the cover of the earths surface has changed over the past 10,000 years. The breakdown of deforestation by region is shown in the chart. Many countries have not only ended deforestation, but actually achieved substantial reforestation. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Global forest resources. (2018), published in Science.20, Commodity-driven deforestation and urbanization are deforestation: the forested land is completely cleared and converted into another land use a farm, mining site, or city. A note on UN FAO forestry data Data on net forest change, afforestation and deforestation is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations Forest Resources Assessment. Notarnicola et al. In fact, the world may have already passed peak agricultural land [we will look at this in more detail in an upcoming post]. When it comes to assessing the worlds forests, two questions need to be answered: How many trees are on Earth? and. What activities are driving this? Rural Sociology, 63(4), 533-552. Lewis, S. L. (2006). Then, using a physical trade model across 191 countries and around 400 food and forestry products, they could trace them through to where they are physically consumed, either as food or in industrial processes.Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., Kastner, T., Moran, D., Schmidt, S., & Wood, R. (2019). Why? More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020: Main report. 59% occurs in Latin America, with a further 28% from Southeast Asia. Increasing human dominance of tropical forests. This means interventions at the national-level will be key: this can include a range of solutions including policies such as Brazils soy moratorium, the REDD+ programme to compensate for the opportunity costs of preserving these forests, and improvements in agricultural productivity so countries can continue to produce more food on less land. Science Advances, 3(4), e1601047. Countries that lie along this line would have a net-neutral impact on global forests: the area they are causing to deforestation overseas is exactly as large as the area they are regrowing at home. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. 38. Half of global forest loss occurred between 8,000BC and 1900; the other half was lost in the last century alone. We can calculate this increase as [(7.63 billion 3.09 billion) / 3.09 billion * 100 = 147%]. 2020. The definition of forest can vary depending on aspects such as tree density and height. Rome. Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., & Hansen, M. C. (2018). First, it reiterates that deforestation is not a new problem: relatively small populations of the past were capable of driving a large amount of forest loss. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. But there is good reason to make this our primary concern. Maxwell, S. L., Fuller, R. A., Brooks, T. M., & Watson, J. E. (2016). Forest transition theory and the reforesting of Scotland. This is because the latter only captures deforestation the replacement of forest with another land use (such as cropland). Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. Several studies have assessed the stage of countries across the world.17 The most recent analysis to date was published by Florence Pendrill and colleagues (2019) which looked at each countrys stage in the transition, the drivers of deforestation but also the role of international trade.18 To do this, they used the standard metrics discussed in our theory of forest transitions earlier: the share of land that is forested, and the annual change in forest cover. 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. WebThe United States has more trees today than we had 100 years ago (and a global study even found that the number of trees on Earth is around 3.04 trillion, a much higher number than previously believed.) Forest loss or tree loss captures two fundamental impacts on forest cover: deforestation and forest degradation. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. 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. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. And its not just in forests eitherits also happening on farms, in cities, and on private property. This interactive map shows deforestation rates across the world. Its domestic demand, not international trade, that is the main driver of deforestation. As we saw previously, this deforestation accounts for around one-quarter of global forest loss. By the mid-18th century, only 4% of the country was forested. 2020. But forest cover increases through reforestation. 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. How many trees have been cut down? Which countries are gaining, and which are losing forest? Belhaven Press. How much forest has the world lost? This is nearly always true of planted forests in temperate regions there, planted forests are long-established and do not replace primary existing forests. But, supply chains are international. The turn of the 20th century is when global forest loss reached the halfway point: half of total forest loss occurred from 8,000BC to 1900; the other half occurred in the last century alone. Deforestation in Africa is mainly driven by local populations and markets; only 9% of its emissions are exported. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. From the 1920s through to the 1980s, decadal losses quadrupled to almost 120 million hectares. What explains this? We can illustrate this through the so-called Forest Transition Model.14 This is shown in the chart. Even with the most basic of lifestyles compared to todays standards, the per capita footprint of our ancestors would have been large. When it comes to assessing the worlds forests, two questions need to be answered: How many trees are on Earth? and. For the last two centuries forests have been growing and are almost back to where they were 1000 years ago.13. How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? Are they causing more deforestation elsewhere than they are regenerating in forests at home? And, we might place more value on preserving primary, native forests that havent yet been deforested over regrowing forests that have lost their previous ecosystems. Classifying drivers of global forest loss. It would be good if there was data available that would capture these additional aspects. Instead of using wood for fuel we switch to fossil fuels, or hopefully, more renewables and nuclear energy. Before we look at trends in deforestation across the world specifically, its useful to understand the net change in forest cover. Global Environmental Change, 15(1), 23-31. At the top of the list we see some of the major producer countries Brazil and Indonesia. For this reason, data sources including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization tend to aggregate annual losses as the average over five-year or decadal periods. I have reconstructed long-term data using various studies which Ive documented here. High-income countries were the largest importers of deforestation, accounting for 40% of it. Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone. 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. Imported emissions are also high for Taiwan, Belgium and the Netherlands at around one tonne. The amount of land used for agriculture land to grow crops as well as grazing land for livestock was expanding. The data used in this chart comes from several sources. 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. WebHealthy trees mean: Healthy people: 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants per year. Africas emissions are high because people are clearing forests to produce more food. As I mentioned earlier, 14% of deforestation today is driven by consumers in rich countries. More than four times as much. Moving into the 20th century there was a stepwise change in demand for agricultural land and energy from wood. Deforestation was therefore responsible for [2.6 / 40.2 * 100 = 6.5%]. Thats an area 1.5-times the size of the United States. How much deforestation happens every day? For example, the US imported 64,000 hectares of deforested land, but increased its domestic forest area by 275,000 hectares. Not all forest is equal. At this stage, countries are still losing forest each year but at a lower rate than before. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. Note that in this study, the category of subsistence agriculture was classified as a deforestation driver, and so is not included. Lets take an example. Then things started to speed up. Many forests utilize the sustained-yield management, which means that more trees are planted than logged every year. The researchs results are Thats both an economic and environmental win. Data from 1990 onwards is sourced from the UNs 2020 Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020.References:Williams, M. (2003). This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. Most deforestation today occurs in low-to-middle income countries. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. Environmental Research Letters, 14(5), 055003. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. This demand for resources and land is not always driven by domestic markets. Countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are in the early transition phase and are losing forests quickly. In a previous post we looked at this change in global forests over the long-run. Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. When we think of the growing pressures on land from modern populations we often picture sprawling megacities. The default is shown for Brazil, but you can explore the data for a range of countries using the Change country button. To quote them, they wanted to prevent a common misperception that any tree cover loss shown on the map represents deforestation. 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? But by studying how forests have changed over time, theres good reason to think that a way forward is possible. Deforesting the earth: from prehistory to global crisis. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of The average across the EU was 0.3 tonnes CO2 per person. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. Most of todays richest countries all of Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea have passed the turning point and are now regaining forest. Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., & Kastner, T. (2019). All of our charts can be embedded in any site. By 1900, there were 1.65 billion people in the world (five times fewer than we have today) but for most of the previous period, humans were deforesting the world with only tens or hundreds of millions. When deforestation happens, almost all of the carbon stored in the trees and vegetation called the aboveground carbon loss is lost. 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%). Many consumers are concerned that their food choices are linked to deforestation in some of these hotspots. Humans have been cutting down trees for millennia. The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. Environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe. There is some bad news, though: that number is likely to increase by 20% by 2023. They are also richer sites of biodiversity. The rate of deforestation is declining, but we still lost forests at a whopping 10 million hectares per year between 2015-2020. This is true for some problems, such as climate change. Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. 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. We see massive differences in how important each driver is across the world. The State of the Worlds Forests 2020. Still, more than half of the worlds habitable land was forested. But when forests are cut, burned or otherwise removed they emit carbon instead of absorb carbon. 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. Deforestation, reforestation, and development. The world has lost one-third of its forest an area twice the size of the United States. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? Since 1961, the amount of land we use for agriculture increased by only 7%. The breakdown of forest loss globally, and by region, is shown in the chart.22. Nearly all 95% of this deforestation occurs in the tropics. Sometimes these restoration programmes pale in comparison to the deforestation theyre driving elsewhere. Global Environmental Change, 56, 1-10. For example, after we adjust for all the goods that the UK imports and exports, it caused more deforestation elsewhere than it did domestically. There are other aspects to consider. Across temperate forests the world gained 6 million hectares in the last decade. Agricultural and urban land: The UN FAO Statistical database provides data on global agricultural and urban land from 1961 onwards. 71% of deforestation is for domestic production.