Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land and related ecosystems, where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use.

1.Agriculture Activities 2.Logging 3.Urbanisation

4.Desertification 5.Mining 6.Forest Fire

Agriculture is the most important cause of deforestation on the planetcomprising nearly about 50-70%. Due to huge demand for food products, huge amount of trees are fell down to grow crops and for cattle grazing. They often clear acres of trees in what is called “slash and burn technique”. Besides this, local cattle, goats, sheep etc. ,not only destroy the vegetation but also pull out the roots of plants. Statistics shows that 60-70% of amazon forests are deforested due to cattle ranching. Over-grazing and the growing hunger for land have hit the ecology of the India so badly that India may soon have more of wasteland than productive land.

Logging contributes around 14% in deforestation. Wood based industries like paper, match sticks, furniture etc. need a substancial amount of wood supply for our ever growing population. Some of these industries thrive on illegal wood cutting. Illegal logging is now being strictly implemented and most business are moving into a paper free environment. National laws regulate the production and trade of timber products. These laws can be violated in any number of ways, such as taking wood from protected areas, harvesting more than is permitted and harvesting protected species. This destruction threatens some of the world’s most famous and valuable forests, including Amazon, Congo Basin, Indonesia and the forests of the Russian Far East.

Overpopulation too directly affects forests covers, as with the expansion of cities more land is needed to establish housing and settlements.Further in order to gain access to these forests the construction of roads are undertaken. Therefore forest land is reclaimed. Our progress required that we travelled from one place to another the fastest possible way. This means roads and highways.

Some of the other factors that lead to deforestation are also part natural and part anthropogenic like desertification of land. Destruction of biotic potential of land leads to desertification. It occurs due to land abuse making it unfit for groth of many trees. Such problem arises due to over-grazing, indiscriminate falling of trees and over-exploitation of land resources. Many industries in petrochemicals release their waste into rivers which results in soil erosion and making it unfit to grow plants and trees.Soil erosion increases manifold and the soil actually gets washed, leading to an accentuated cycle of floods and drought.

A lot of forested areas are rich in minerals and are vulnerable to mining operations. What are trees, compared to gold or diamonds?Oil and Coal mining require considerable amount of forest land. Apart from this, roads and highways have tobe built to make way for trucks and other equipment. The waste that comes out from mining pollutes the environment and effects the nearby species.

Another example would be the forest blazes; Hundreads of trees are lost every year due to forest fires in various portions of the world. This happens due to extreme warm summers and milder winters. Fires whether causes by man or nature results in huge loss of forest cover.According to a study conducted by the Forest Survey of India (1996), on an average, 53.1% forest vegetation is affected by fire. Data further indicate that fire destroys about 0.5 million hectares of forests annually.

Impacts

Increaesd soil

erosion

Disruption of water

cycle

Climate change

Reduced bio

diversity

Disruption of

livelihood

Erosion is sweeping the land into rivers. Deforestation generally increases rates of soil loss, by increasing the amount of runoff and reducing the protection of the soil from tree litter. The agricultural plants replacing the forests are unable to hold onto the soil. China's Loess Plateau was cleared of forest millennia ago. Since then it has been eroding, creating dramatic incised valleys, and providing the sediment that gives the Yellow River its yellow color and that causes the flooding of the river in the lower reaches (hence the river's nickname 'China's sorrow').Tree removal on steep slopes with shallow soil also increases the risk of landslides, which can threaten people living nearby.

Trees play a key role in the water cycle by helping to keep a balance between the water on land and water in the atmosphere. But when deforestation occurs, that balance can be thrown off, resulting in changes in precipitation and river flow. Trees extract groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the trees no longer transpire this water, resulting in a much drier climateTropical rainforests produce about 30% of our planet's fresh water.

This is probably most serious consequence of Deforestation. About 80% of the world’s documented species can be found in tropical rainforests .When species lose their forest homes, they are often unable to subsist in the small fragments of forested land left behind. They become more accessible to hunters and poachers, their numbers begin to dwindle and some eventually go extinct. Even localized deforestation can result in extinctions as many unique species exist in small isolated geographic locations in the world. It has been estimated that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation, which equates to 50,000 species a year

Deforestation also causes the Greenhouse effect that leads to global warming, a contributor to climate change. Loss of tree cover also upsets the oxygen carbon dioxide balance leading to lower oxygen levels and higher levels of pollution. Forests help to mitigate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, but they become carbon sources when they are cut, burned or otherwise removed. Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions.These greenhouse gas emissions contribute to rising temperatures, changes in patterns of weather and water and an increased frequency of extreme weather

Millions of people around the world depend on forests for hunting, gathering and medicine, forest products such as rubber and rattan, and small-scale agriculture.In Brazil, poor people have been lured from their villages to remote soy plantations where they may be abused and forced, at gunpoint, to work under inhumane conditions.Some indigenous people’s may of life and survival are threatened by the loss of forests. Fewer trees results an in secure future for forests workers.

•PLANT MORE TREES – Encourage your friends to plant a tree and keep your local forest safe.

•EXERCISE YOUR POWER AS A CONSUMER – Buy products of

the companies supporting zero deforestation policy.•PRACTICE THE 3 R’S – Reduce,Reuse and Recycle to lower the need

for more raw materials from trees.•TAKE A STAND ON POLITICAL ISSUES – Ask your local government to create more parks.

•SUPPORT NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS – Donate small amount of money to organisations to help them fight against deforestation.

This Chipko Movement was started by group of villagers in reni villiage in Uttrakhand who opposed the cutting of trees. It is the first organised movement started in April 1972 to protect the trees against the commercial forest policy. This revolutionary movement soon got worldwide support and attention. Chipko Movement was very successful in influencing policy both at center and state level. The participants in Chipko Movement were primarily small town women who fought for their bread and communities, these women were determined to protect the forests from deforestation even at the cost of their lives. Gradually men also were involved in the Chipko Movement.The chief people in this movement were Amrita Devi, Gaura Devi , Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sundarlal Bahuguna.Chipko Movement leader like Mr Sundarlal Bahuguna believed that, “Ecology is the permanent economy. There are many movements that formed to save natural resources inspired by Chipko Movement in India and abroad.

If corporations have the ability to destroy the world’s rainforests, they also have the power to help save them.

•Implement Anti-deforestation policies - Corporations can implement anti deforestation policies that require suppliers and other stakeholders to operate in ways that do not harm the environment.

•Minimise paper wastage and encourage recycling -Corporatons are huge consumers of paper. Management can work towards a paper-free office by shifting towards email and soft-copies,and also encourage their employees to recycle.Many big organisations are working towards finishing deforestation like WWF.

WWF’s is an organisation that focusses on sustainable forestry around the world. WWF works with local communities and other partners in forest management efforts.It is working in the following areas:-•Working to reduce deforestation - Paraguay reduced the rate of deforestation in their country by 85% •Offsetting carbonn emissions from forests - WWF focuses on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (called REDD+).•Creating protectred areas - WWF has worked to create and continue support for protected areas in more than 100 countries around the world•Promoting sustainable bioenergy - WWF’s vision is that by 2050, 100% of the world’s energy will come from sustainable, renewable sources, including bioenergy.•Stopping illegal logging – WWF encourages US consumers to buy wood products that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Government have the resources to allow anti deforestation organisation to get their sphere of influence. This is a good way to indirectly solve deforesatation.Government shoould make strict rules for deforestation and illegal logging. It should promote small parks in the cities. It should promote reforestation on the cost for deforestation. The cutting down of trees must be countered by replacing old one that were cut with young ones.

And We Should protect them