Deforestation
Case Study: Malaysia
When you look at the amazing rain forests what do you think? Does it make you feel happy looking at all the greenery out there? Did you know that Malaysia hosts the tropical rain forest that is almost around 130 million years old?(McIntyre,2014) Wouldn't it be sad to see this amazing beauty goes to loss due to deforestation? Deforestation would represent the act of cutting down or clearing an area of trees for the usage of commercial purposes.
Forest covers around 31% of land area on our planet (NatGeo,2014). They produce oxygen which is necessary for living organisms. Roughly 1.6 billion people depend on the benefits that forest offer like food, water, clothes, traditional medicine and shelter(Facing the Future). It is noticed that as the human population increases, deforestation rates increases too. In the last five years, around 353,000 hectares (872,263 acres) of rain forests and peat lands in Malaysia was cleared. This could be easily imagined by thinking that around one third of the forests being cleared within the five year period (Max, 2011)
My main goal for this blog is to expose to the readers on what are some of the major causes for deforestation to take place, what are the effects that we are expected to face and what active measure can be taken to reduce of prevent deforestation from continuing.
Here are some not so fun facts on deforestation:
1) Every hour at least 4,500 acres of forests fall to chainsaw, bulldozers, machetes or flames. (Forestry Department of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
2) Trees act as an important carbon sink causing climate change to take pace if there is a change in the system. Currently, the worlds forest stores 283 billion tons of carbon in their biomass. This is the same as 40.1 billion elephants(Forestry Department Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
3) The net loss of world's forests is estimated to be around 7.3 million hectares (18 Million acres) per year. (Forestry Department of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
Forest covers around 31% of land area on our planet (NatGeo,2014). They produce oxygen which is necessary for living organisms. Roughly 1.6 billion people depend on the benefits that forest offer like food, water, clothes, traditional medicine and shelter(Facing the Future). It is noticed that as the human population increases, deforestation rates increases too. In the last five years, around 353,000 hectares (872,263 acres) of rain forests and peat lands in Malaysia was cleared. This could be easily imagined by thinking that around one third of the forests being cleared within the five year period (Max, 2011)
My main goal for this blog is to expose to the readers on what are some of the major causes for deforestation to take place, what are the effects that we are expected to face and what active measure can be taken to reduce of prevent deforestation from continuing.
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| Source:landwallpapers.com |
Here are some not so fun facts on deforestation:
1) Every hour at least 4,500 acres of forests fall to chainsaw, bulldozers, machetes or flames. (Forestry Department of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
2) Trees act as an important carbon sink causing climate change to take pace if there is a change in the system. Currently, the worlds forest stores 283 billion tons of carbon in their biomass. This is the same as 40.1 billion elephants(Forestry Department Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
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| Source:http://twelfthbough.blogspot.com/ |
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| Source: siputkuning.blogspot.com |
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| Source:www.scientificamerican.com |
