Impacts of deforestation in tropical rainforest

• Deforestation


  The clearing or removal of trees and forests
• Deforestation leads to


  Economic development in the short term
• Deforestation leads to


  Decline in biodiversity and soil fertility in the long term
• Almost a quarter of Brazil's GDP comes from activities in the deforested areas of the Amazon
• Deforestation only leads to short term development
• Loss of trees leads to loss of potential medicine
• Indigenous tribes


  • Have a traditional way of life that is closely linked with the rainforest
  • There are now only around 240 tribes left compared with 330 in 1900
  • Many indigenous people have been forced out by the construction of roads, logging, the creation of plantations and reservoirs, and the opening of mines
• Deforestation


  • Reduces biodiversity
  • Decreases interception and infiltration, reducing transpiration and precipitation
  • Increases leaching of nutrients
  • Increases amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, contributing to enhanced greenhouse effect
  • Reduces soil fertility and makes it more prone to erosion
• The Amazon rainforest absorbs 1/6 of the CO2 absorbed by all the land on Earth
• The amount of CO2 absorbed by the Amazon today is 30% less than it was in the 1950s because of deforestation
• Deforestation contributes to global warming and climate change by reducing the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere
• Deforestation causes the main store of nutrients to be removed, leaving the soil bare and unable to support plant life
• The roots of plants and trees no longer hold the soil together, making it easily eroded
• Nutrient cycle


  1. Nutrients held in biomass

  2. Deforestation removes main store of nutrients

  3. Soil left bare

  4. Nutrients washed away

  5. Soil no longer able to support plant life
• Soil is no longer fertile


  Plants and trees' roots no longer hold soil together
• Soil not held together by plant roots


  Soil is easily eroded