Stage 4 The Post-Transition phase is when countries have passed the transition point and are now gaining forest again. are added every year. This highlights an important point: less than 20% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to clean fuels for cooking, meaning they still rely on wood and charcoal. What are the major impacts of mass deforestation and forest loss? Stage 2 The Early Transition phase is when countries start to lose forests very rapidly. When it comes to assessing the worlds forests, two questions need to be answered: How many trees are on Earth? and. Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. That is why we should be focusing on tropical deforestation. On the horizontal axis we have time, spanning from 1700 to 2020; on the vertical axis we have the decadal change in forest cover. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Forest Transitions: why do we lose then regain forests? These are big numbers, and important ones to track: forest loss creates a number of negative impacts, ranging from carbon emissions to species extinctions and biodiversity loss. are added every year. In the chart we see historical reconstructions of country-level data on the share of land covered by forest (over decades, centuries or even millennia depending on the country). Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 753-765. Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down every year. That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. Over the decade since 2010, the net loss in forests globally was 4.7 million hectares per year.1 However, deforestation rates were much significantly higher. Brazil and Indonesia alone account for almost half. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of land per person that was needed to produce enough food was not small in fact, it was much larger than today. Scottish Geographical Journal, 120(1-2), 83-98. Thats a lot of trees! How many trees have been cut down? This is true for some problems, such as climate change. Humanitys biggest footprint is due to what we eat, not where we live. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. 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. We can calculate this increase as [(7.63 billion 3.09 billion) / 3.09 billion * 100 = 147%]. In just over 100 years the world lost as much forest as it had in the previous 9,000 years. Lets now focus on the consumers of products driving deforestation. For example, Ellis et al. This interactive map shows deforestation rates across the world. Across Africa, fuelwood and charcoal played a much larger role it accounted for more than half (52%). The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) However, most align on the relative change in forests over this period. But international markets alone cannot fix this problem. Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. At this stage, countries are still losing forest each year but at a lower rate than before. At the top of the list we see some of the major producer countries Brazil and Indonesia. As of 2020, the UN estimates the planet is losing over 7,000,000 hectares per year to deforestation.27Between 1990 and 2015, the world lost 129 million hectares of forest an area about the size of South Africa.11 Natural forests lost by continent9include: Africa 3.2 million hectares But there is good reason to make this our primary concern. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. How many trees are cut down each year? It was predominantly temperate forests that were being lost at this time. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. 2020. Not only would this be bad for people, it might also be bad for forests. The rate of deforestation is declining, but we still lost forests at a whopping 10 million hectares per year between 2015-2020. Thats both an economic and environmental win. Deforestation is the complete removal of trees for the conversion of forest to another land use such as agriculture, mining, or towns and cities. This follows the classic forest transition model with development, which we look at in more detail in a related article. Around half of this deforestation is offset by regrowing forests, so overall we lose around five million hectares each year. The carbon footprint of diets across the EU vary from country-to-country, and estimates vary depending on how much land use change is factored into these figures. But, supply chains are international. When deforestation happens, almost all of the carbon stored in the trees and vegetation called the aboveground carbon loss is lost. 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. Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions. Lets take a look at which countries are causing deforestation overseas and the size of this impact. That depends on who you ask, but we do know that around 47 million hectares of primary forest were lost between 2000 and 2020. The United States is the worlds largest consumer (and second largest producer, after Canada) of forest products. 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. The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data. This is shortly after the end of the last great ice age, through to the present day.2. 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. The scale of deforestation today might give us little hope for protecting our diverse forests. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. We see very clearly that the large Brazilian footprint is driven by its domestic demand for beef. Forest cover falls quickly, and the annual loss of forest is high. Clearing of the Brazilian Amazon for pasture and croplands was a major driver of this loss. Many forests utilize the sustained-yield management, which means that more trees are planted than logged every year. [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. In China, the biggest driver is demand for oilseeds which is the combination of soy imported from Latin America and palm oil, imported from Indonesia and Malaysia. I have therefore excluded these categories so we can focus on how habitable land is used. A future with more people and more forest is possible. In the chart here we see the breakdown of deforestation emissions by product for each consumer country. If we add 0.3 tonnes to this figure, deforestation would account for around one-sixth [0.3 / (1.5+0.3) * 100 = 17%].Notarnicola, B., Tassielli, G., Renzulli, P. A., Castellani, V., & Sala, S. (2017). We need more fuelwood to cook, more houses to live in, and importantly, more food to eat. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. This helps consumers understand what products they should be concerned about, but also allows us to target specific supply chains. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. In a previous article I showed that the types of food you eat matter much more for your carbon footprint than where it comes from this is because transport usually makes up a small percentage of your foods emissions, even if it comes from the other side of the world. Share of deforestation that is driven by domestic consumption, Annual CO emissions from deforestation for food production, trade-adjusted. Increasing human dominance of tropical forests. This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. Nearly all 95% of this deforestation occurs in the tropics. By the 19th century the forest area was reduced to a third of what it once was. By the mid-18th century, only 4% of the country was forested. These countries might have high levels of afforestation at home, but theyre still having a net negative impact on the size of the worlds forests. This is very close to our estimate of a one-third loss. Science Advances, 3(4), e1601047. This rapid swapping of green for gray is harmful to the people living in these spaces, and it sets cities up for long-term environmental decline, according to the scientists. Why? (2012).Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V., De Fries, R. S., Brockhaus, M., Verchot, L., & Romijn, E. (2012). On balance, they add to the global forest stock. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. You see that of the 14.9 billion hectares of land on the planet, only 71% of it is habitable the other 29% is either covered by ice and glaciers, or is barren land such as deserts, salt flats, or dunes. 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. Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. Estimates vary, but on average only 10-20% of carbon is lost during logging, and 10-30% from fires.27 In a study of logging practices in the Amazon and Congo, forests retained 76% of their carbon stocks shortly after logging.28 Logged forests recover their carbon over time, as long as the land is not converted to other uses (which is what happens in the case of deforestation). 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.) That these countries have recently regained forests is also visible in the long-term forest trends above. In the chart we see the comparison between the change in domestic forest area, and deforestation driven by imported goods.33 On the vertical axis we have the domestic change in forest area: this is shown only for countries where the forest area is increasing. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. It doesnt capture trees that are cut down in planted forests; the land is still forested, its now just regrowing forest. Forests: this data is primarily sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The 11-month balance shows that 1,539,970 trees were cut down each day, which means 1,059 trees per minute or almost 18 trees per second. In the United States, thats about 34 million trees cut down each year just for paper. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. People cut down 15 billion trees each year and the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. Countries which lie above the grey line such as the United States, Finland, China restore more forest each year domestically than they import from elsewhere. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? This emphasises two important points. How many trees are cut down each year? 59% occurs in Latin America, with a further 28% from Southeast Asia. Forests, biodiversity and people. Instead of using wood for fuel we switch to fossil fuels, or hopefully, more renewables and nuclear energy. Most deforestation today occurs in low-to-middle income countries. Even with the most basic of lifestyles compared to todays standards, the per capita footprint of our ancestors would have been large. We see this in the chart. are added every year. There is some bad news, though: that number is likely to increase by 20% by 2023. Moving into the 20th century there was a stepwise change in demand for agricultural land and energy from wood. Noriko Hosonuma et al. As we covered in a previous article, 60% of tropical deforestation is driven by beef, soybean and palm oil production. The world has lost one-third of its forest an area twice the size of the United States. (2012) gathered this data from a range of sources including country submissions as part of their REDD+ readiness activities, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) country profiles, UNFCCC national communications and scientific studies. The story of both soy and palm oil are complex and its not obvious that eliminating these products will fix the problem. The Earth System (Vol. Many forests utilize the sustained-yield management, which means that more trees are planted than logged every year. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. [1] That's 15.3 billion every year. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. But forest cover increases through reforestation. Lewis, S. L., Edwards, D. P., & Galbraith, D. (2015). Scheffers, B. R., Joppa, L. N., Pimm, S. L., & Laurance, W. F. (2012). Are they causing more deforestation elsewhere than they are regenerating in forests at home? This gives us an indication of the impact of the average persons diet. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8753en. Notarnicola et al. The global population at this time was small and growing very slowly there were fewer than 50 million people in the world. When we treat these impacts equally we make it difficult to prioritize our efforts in the fight against deforestation. Rome. One of the reasons poorer countries clear forest to make room for farmland is that they achieve low crop yields. Humans have been cutting down trees for millennia. Luxembourg has the largest footprint at nearly three tonnes per person. How many trees does IKEA cut down a How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, Today, most deforestation occurs in the tropics. All of our charts can be embedded in any site. This topic page can be cited as: All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. Deforesting the earth: from prehistory to global crisis. 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). As to the number of trees this represents, its impossible to get an accurate count. 38. Population growth meant that todays rich countries across Europe and North America needed more and more resources such as land for agriculture, wood for energy, and for construction.8. The diet of the average Brazilian creates 2.7 tonnes of CO2 from deforestation alone. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. Thats more than the countrys CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, which are around 2.2 tonnes per person. 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. Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. Half of global forest loss occurred between 8,000BC and 1900; the other half was lost in the last century alone. [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of Given the current estimate of the total tree cover on the planet, that could equate to about 0.11% of trees being cut each year. How many trees are cut down each year?. Cuaresma, J. C., Danylo, O., Fritz, S., McCallum, I., Obersteiner, M., See, L., & Walsh, B. That depends on who you ask, but we do know that around 47 million hectares of primary forest were lost between 2000 and 2020. There are two reasons that we cut down forests: Our demand for both of these initially increases as populations grow and poor people get richer. England is similar: in the late 11th century, 15% of the country was forested, and over the following centuries two-thirds were cut down. Ellis, E. C., Beusen, A. H., & Goldewijk, K. K. (2020). Improvements in crop yields mean the per capita demand for agricultural land continues to fall. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. At their Global Forest Watch platform they were already presenting maps of forest loss across the world. What activities are driving this? Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. How many trees are cut down each year?. And with the growth of technological innovations such as lab-grown meat and substitute products, there is the real possibility that we can continue to enjoy meat or meat-like foods while freeing up the massive amounts of land we use to raise livestock. In the tropics, some forestry production can be classified as deforestation when primary rainforests are cut down to make room for managed tree plantations.21. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Since 1961, the amount of land we use for agriculture increased by only 7%. Global Environmental Change, 56, 1-10. Most tropical deforestation is driven by demand for products in domestic markets. 38. 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? It was a net exporter. But there are real reasons to believe that this century doesnt have to replicate the destruction of the last one. Global deforestation reached its peak in the 1980s. They are also richer sites of biodiversity. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Then things started to speed up. Tropical forests are home to some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. 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. This explains historical trends we see for countries across the world today. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? This is also true for major economies such as China and India. Data on net forest change, afforestation and deforestation is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations Forest Resources Assessment. Bringing all of these elements together, we can focus on a few points that should help us prioritise our efforts to end deforestation. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. Countries with a positive change (shown in green) are regrowing forest faster than theyre losing it. 40% of traded deforestation ends up in high-income countries, meaning they are responsible for 12% of deforestation.29. This is nearly always true of planted forests in temperate regions there, planted forests are long-established and do not replace primary existing forests. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. The world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to deforestation. Most emissions 71% came from foods consumed in the country that they were produced. , are cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the number of are! See the breakdown of deforestation that is driven by beef, soybean and palm oil complex. Of data from the world lost as much forest as it had in tropics. Existing forests 71 % came from foods consumed in the world 95 % of felled trees lost. 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And croplands was a stepwise change in forests at home what products they should concerned... Around 2.2 tonnes per person utilize the sustained-yield management, which means that more trees are chopped down every because. C., Beusen, A. H., & Galbraith, D. ( 2015..
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