Causes of deforestation in tropical rainforest

• Deforestation


  The process of clearing forests, often to use the land for other purposes
• Deforestation in the Amazon has been trending higher over the past decade
• Causes of deforestation in the Amazon

  • Growing demand for beef and land
  • Government development policies that encourage expansion into forests
  • Increasing vulnerability of the rainforest ecosystem to drought and fire
• Brazil accounts for more than 60% of forest cover in the Amazon and is the leader in the region for deforestation
• Deforestation trend in the Congo, the world's second largest rainforest, is also up due to rising conversion for agriculture and increased logging
• During the COP26 summit in 2021, 141 countries signed an agreement to make stronger efforts to protect their forests, aiming to work collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2050 while delivering sustainable development
• Causes of deforestation


  • Logging
  • Mineral extraction
  • Energy development (hydroelectric power through dams)
  • Commercial agriculture
  • Subsistence agriculture
  • Road building and settlement building
• Logging

  Trees are felled for timber, which only accounts for a small percentage of rainforest deforestation but is the first step in the conversion of forest land to other uses
• It is estimated that 50% of deforestation is legal; unregulated and ignores environmental laws
• Mineral extraction


  Land is cleared to obtain precious minerals, which often leads to mercury poisoning that pollutes soils and streams
• Energy development (hydroelectric power through dams)


  Involves flooding vast areas of rainforest, sometimes displacing communities, and disturbing the migration patterns of fish
• Commercial agriculture


  Cattle rearing accounts for 80% of the tropical rainforest destruction in Brazil, and forests are also being cleared to make way for vast plantations growing cash crops such as bananas, palm oils, and soybeans
• Subsistence agriculture


  A third of tropical deforestation is caused by subsistence activities on a local level by people who use the rainforest resources for their survival, often using the slash-and-burn technique to clear the forest for short-term agriculture
• Road building and settlement building

  Roads are needed to bring in equipment and transport products to markets, as well as to make the forest accessible to other explorers of the rainforest's resources, and workers and their families need homes and services, which requires clearing the forest to build settlements