Slash and burn farming6/19/2023 Tropical forests are also cleared to make way for logging, cattle ranching, and oil palm and rubber tree plantations.ĭeforestation can result in more carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. The land is only fertile for a few years, however, after which the farmers move on to repeat the process elsewhere. With this agricultural method, farmers burn large swaths of forest, allowing the ash to fertilize the land for crops. Slash-and-burn agriculture is a big contributor to deforestation in the tropics. Building or upgrading roads into forests makes them more accessible for exploitation. ![]() Today, the greatest amount of deforestation is occurring in tropical rainforests, aided by extensive road construction into regions that were once almost inaccessible. Much of Earth’s farmland was once forests. China has lost great expanses of its forests over the past 4,000 years and now just over 20 percent of it is forested. In North America, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down from the 1600s to the 1870s for timber and agriculture. About 2,000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forested today the figure is 34 percent. Throughout history and into modern times, forests have been razed to make space for agriculture and animal grazing, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction.ĭeforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world. ![]() Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land.
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