Tropical rainforests are being destroyed at some of the fastest rates but it's difficult to measure how much is being destroyed every year (or every day) and estimates vary widely. Photo courtesy Naomi Woods. |
| Humans have cut down forests for thousands of years, but never as extensively as in the present. Still, even with primitive tools, ancient civilizations managed to destroy forests around the Mediterranean Sea. More recently, deforestation occurred in Britain and North America. Massive deforestation is now occurring in the Amazon Rainforest. People have cut down trees for fuel, for ships, to make way for agriculture, and to make wood products for sale. |
When the soil is burned, essential fungi and micro-organisms die. Photo by Maya Walters.
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Overcutting threatens forest health in many ways, and it also threatens human social and economic well-being. Widespread cutting, particularly clearcutting, creates forest fragmentation and leads to a loss of biodiversity. Soil degradation is also a result, but in some areas soils may recover after a number of centuries while a loss of genetic diversity is permanent. |
overcutting -- page 1 of 4
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related topics
[forests through time] [humans & forests] [wood & forest products] [biodiversity] [loss of biodiversity] [soil]
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