solution to deforestation essay

We're a long way from ending deforestation, but we can still stop it

Time to change direction on deforestation. Image:  REUTERS/Mick Tsikas

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Stay up to date:, climate change.

• In 2014, governments, companies, NGOs and Indigenous groups committed to 10 goals to protect trees, under the New York Declaration on Forests.
• The goals intended to halve deforestation by 2020, and stop it by 2030.
• But assessments have concluded we're actually further from stopping deforestation now than we were six years ago.
• Despite the challenges, the goals can still be achieved with the right measures.

In 2014, the future of forests looked bright. Governments, companies, non-governmental organizations and Indigenous groups committed to ten ambitious goals under the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF). This major international declaration aims to protect forests, driven by the understanding that halting deforestation is essential to mitigating climate change and maintaining other benefits of forests. These goals include halving deforestation by 2020 and stopping it by 2030, while restoring an area of degraded land larger than the size of India.

Have you read?

The african country that inspired more and more countries to plant billions of trees.

This year’s assessment of progress on the NYDF firmly concludes that deforestation is not slowing enough to achieve this goal. In fact, by some measures, we are further from stopping deforestation now than we were six years ago. On top of that, limited data is making it difficult to fully assess progress on forest restoration. Although this reality presents a steep uphill battle, rapidly accelerating actions to end deforestation and restore forests offer hope that the 2030 goals can still be achieved.

We’re Headed in the Wrong Direction to End Deforestation

Two independent datasets show that the world is not on track to halt deforestation. Global Forest Watch data — created using a globally standardized remote sensing methodology — indicates that annual tropical primary forest loss has actually increased by 41% since the NYDF was signed, and annual global deforestation has increased between 55% and 64%. The United Nations Forest Resources Assessment 2020 also indicates insufficient progress toward the NYDF goals. This aggregation of country-reported statistics on forest change shows a slight drop in deforestation since 2000, but nowhere near the amount required to achieve the 2020 or 2030 targets.

Despite the differences between the two datasets, they share a key message: the world failed to halve deforestation by 2020 and, as a result, is not on a trajectory to stop it by 2030.

Each year, the world loses about 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) of forest area — equivalent to 27 soccer fields per minute. Every year that deforestation is not reduced as quickly as possible will require even larger reductions in the following years to achieve our goal. In the meantime, deforestation will continue to cause emissions, the loss of forest benefits and the curtailment of Indigenous rights. If the past 19 years are any indication, the necessary decrease in forest loss seems unlikely in the next decade. Although unlikely, the world can’t afford to not attempt reaching this goal.

Why is progress so slow?

The issue largely arises from the disparity between the commitments made and the actions taken to meet them. Goals two through four of the NYDF track specific contributing factors to global deforestation, while goal five outlines restoration targets. In each of these categories, actions fell short of what is needed.

Goal 2 : Ending Deforestation from Agricultural Commodities

Forest clearing for new agricultural land is the largest cause of deforestation. However, removing deforestation from supply chains is happening unevenly. Even where commitments exist, implementation and consequences are hard to trace through complex supply chains. Last year, nearly one-third of 350 major companies with supply chains at risk of causing deforestation did not report anything about their activities to stop deforestation. Some sectors are progressing faster than others — 81% of Indonesian palm oil exports in 2018 came from companies with no-deforestation pledges, while just 32% of Brazilian beef exports in 2017 were produced under a commitment.

Goal 3 : Reducing Deforestation from Other Sectors

Although mining and infrastructure like roads and dams are not globally major causes of deforestation, they can heavily impact forests at local scales. Companies in these sectors generally provide even less information than the agricultural sector on what they are doing to prevent deforestation. For example, a recent World Bank report could not identify any mining operations that comprehensively addressed and mitigated their environmental risks, and financial institutions are generally not providing data on the extent to which their mining and infrastructure investments align with their sustainability principles. The forest impacts of these sectors are expected to intensify as the demand for mined materials increases, and as infrastructure projects bring farmers, loggers and poachers to forest frontiers.

Goal 4 : Support Alternatives for Basic Needs

Efforts are increasing to find ways to meet the basic needs of communities, such as fuelwood and food, without further deforestation. However, these efforts aren’t happening at the necessary scale and are generally not addressing the root causes of poverty, limiting their effectiveness. For example, programs that seek to take pressure off forests by improving the agricultural productivity of smallholders’ existing farms often fail to invest in underlying conditions to secure farmer livelihoods such as land tenure, public services and market access, alongside improvements in governance to ensure forest protection measures are respected. But some governments, like Malawi ’s, have begun doing that hard work and helping communities manage their forests sustainably while planting fast-growing trees to meet immediate demand for firewood.

Goal 5 : Restore Forests

For restoration, the shortcomings can be linked to a lack of investment at scale and a dearth of globally consistent data. Restoring 350 million hectares will require billions of dollars . Funders have committed $4 billion through the AFR100 Initiative in Africa and Initiative 20x20 in Latin America. Even that is not enough to reach the NYDF’s goal, though there are dozens of successful projects in each region. The Great Green Wall in Africa’s Sahel, for example, faces a $4.3 billion yearly funding gap through 2030. There is also no systematic and independent way to track where or how much of that funding has reached projects, though reports indicate that governments, private investors and entrepreneurs are starting to incentivize, finance and scale up their work.

This underscores the importance of developing a global method that consistently tracks where those trees are growing and that complements existing tree cover loss data. That approach will need to work inside the forest and outside it on farms and pasture, where restoration has the most benefits for people . Regional pilots of this method in Central America and Southeast Asia , conducted as part of the 2019 and 2020 NYDF Progress Assessments, are promising. But understanding tree cover gain and loss together — and assessing the overall health of forests — will require improved data and techniques .

Transforming commitments into real action

While the latest NYDF report is stark in its message, new initiatives that can turn the tide are gaining momentum. The growth of zero-deforestation commitments shows that motivation to halt deforestation still exists across governments, companies, financial institutions and civil society. And innovative restoration programs like the more than 50 private-sector projects aligned with Initiative 20x20 and the growing Land Accelerator network , whose entrepreneurs are helping 120,000 farmers produce more sustainably, are boosting funding for forest protection and restoration.

Moving forward will require coordinated effort, improving transparency, employing environmental safeguards, reducing consumption of high-deforestation goods and increasing ambition and financing from companies and governments alike. Growing investments and commitments to protecting and restoring forests must pair with equivalent action. Failing to do so will seal the fate of forests for years to come.

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• ENVIRONMENT

Why deforestation matters—and what we can do to stop it

Large scale destruction of trees—deforestation—affects ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading to humans.

As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change , preserve wildlife, and support more than eight billion people , trees inevitably hold a major part of the answer. Yet the mass destruction of trees—deforestation—continues, sacrificing the long-term benefits of standing trees for short-term gain of fuel, and materials for manufacturing and construction.

We need trees for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit. As those gases enter the atmosphere, global warming increases, a trend scientists now prefer to call climate change.

There is also the imminent danger of disease caused by deforestation. An estimated 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases come from animals, and a major cause of viruses’ jump from wildlife to humans is habitat loss, often through deforestation.

But we can still save our forests. Aggressive efforts to rewild and reforest are already showing success. Tropical tree cover alone can provide 23 percent of the climate mitigation needed to meet goals set in the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to one estimate .

Causes of deforestation

Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Since 1990, the world has lost more than 420 million hectares or about a billion acres of forest, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations —mainly in Africa and South America. About 17 percent of the Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed over the past 50 years, and losses recently have been on the rise . The organization Amazon Conservation reports that destruction rose by 21 percent in 2020 , a loss the size of Israel.

Farming, grazing of livestock, mining, and drilling combined account for more than half of all deforestation . Forestry practices, wildfires and, in small part, urbanization account for the rest. In Malaysia and Indonesia, forests are cut down to make way for producing palm oil , which can be found in everything from shampoo to saltine crackers. In the Amazon, cattle ranching and farms—particularly soy plantations—are key culprits .

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Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also fell countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally , also build roads to access more and more remote forests—which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl as land is developed for homes.

Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.

Why it matters

There are some 250 million people who live in forest and savannah areas and depend on them for subsistence and income—many of them among the world’s rural poor.

Eighty percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests , and deforestation threatens species including the orangutan , Sumatran tiger , and many species of birds. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and retains heat at night. That disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.

With wild habitats destroyed and human life ever expanding, the line between animal and human areas blurs, opening the door to zoonotic diseases . In 2014, for example, the Ebola virus killed over 11,000 people in West Africa after fruit bats transmitted the disease to a toddler who was playing near trees where bats were roosting.

( How deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans .)

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Some scientists believe there could be as many as 1.7 million currently “undiscovered” viruses in mammals and birds, of which up to 827,000 could have the ability to infect people, according to a 2018 study .

Deforestation’s effects reach far beyond the people and animals where trees are cut. The South American rainforest, for example, influences regional and perhaps even global water cycles, and it's key to the water supply in Brazilian cities and neighboring countries. The Amazon actually helps furnish water to some of the soy farmers and beef ranchers who are clearing the forest. The loss of clean water and biodiversity from all forests could have many other effects we can’t foresee, touching even your morning cup of coffee .

In terms of climate change, cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. If tropical deforestation were a country, according to the World Resources Institute , it would rank third in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, behind China and the U.S.

What can be done

The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope . A movement is under way to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover by first reforesting (replanting trees) and ultimately rewilding (a more comprehensive mission to restore entire ecosystems).

( Which nation could be the first to be rewilded ?)

Organizations and activists are working to fight illegal mining and logging—National Geographic Explorer Topher White, for example, has come up with a way to use recycled cell phones to monitor for chainsaws . In Tanzania, the residents of Kokota have planted more than 2 million trees on their small island over a decade, aiming to repair previous damage. And in Brazil, conservationists are rallying in the face of ominous signals that the government may roll back forest protections.

( Which tree planting projects should you support ?)

Stopping deforestation before it reaches a critical point will play a key role in avoiding the next zoonotic pandemic. A November 2022 study showed that when bats struggle to find suitable habitat, they travel closer to human communities where diseases are more likely to spillover. Inversely, when bats’ native habitats were left intact, they stayed away from humans. This research is the first to show how we can predict and avoid spillovers through monitoring and maintaining wildlife habitats.

For consumers, it makes sense to examine the products and meats you buy, looking for sustainably produced sources when you can. Nonprofit groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance certify products they consider sustainable, while the World Wildlife Fund has a palm oil scorecard for consumer brands.

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How to tackle the global deforestation crisis

Imagine if France, Germany, and Spain were completely blanketed in forests — and then all those trees were quickly chopped down. That’s nearly the amount of deforestation that occurred globally between 2001 and 2020, with profound consequences.

Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change, producing between 6 and 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2009 study. Meanwhile, because trees also absorb carbon dioxide, removing it from the atmosphere, they help keep the Earth cooler. And climate change aside, forests protect biodiversity.

“Climate change and biodiversity make this a global problem, not a local problem,” says MIT economist Ben Olken. “Deciding to cut down trees or not has huge implications for the world.”

But deforestation is often financially profitable, so it continues at a rapid rate. Researchers can now measure this trend closely: In the last quarter-century, satellite-based technology has led to a paradigm change in charting deforestation. New deforestation datasets, based on the Landsat satellites, for instance, track forest change since 2000 with resolution at 30 meters, while many other products now offer frequent imaging at close resolution.

“Part of this revolution in measurement is accuracy, and the other part is coverage,” says Clare Balboni, an assistant professor of economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). “On-site observation is very expensive and logistically challenging, and you’re talking about case studies. These satellite-based data sets just open up opportunities to see deforestation at scale, systematically, across the globe.”

Balboni and Olken have now helped write a new paper providing a road map for thinking about this crisis. The open-access article, “ The Economics of Tropical Deforestation ,” appears this month in the Annual Review of Economics . The co-authors are Balboni, a former MIT faculty member; Aaron Berman, a PhD candidate in MIT’s Department of Economics; Robin Burgess, an LSE professor; and Olken, MIT’s Jane Berkowitz Carlton and Dennis William Carlton Professor of Microeconomics. Balboni and Olken have also conducted primary research in this area, along with Burgess.

So, how can the world tackle deforestation? It starts with understanding the problem.

Replacing forests with farms

Several decades ago, some thinkers, including the famous MIT economist Paul Samuelson in the 1970s, built models to study forests as a renewable resource; Samuelson calculated the “maximum sustained yield” at which a forest could be cleared while being regrown. These frameworks were designed to think about tree farms or the U.S. national forest system, where a fraction of trees would be cut each year, and then new trees would be grown over time to take their place.

But deforestation today, particularly in tropical areas, often looks very different, and forest regeneration is not common.

Indeed, as Balboni and Olken emphasize, deforestation is now rampant partly because the profits from chopping down trees come not just from timber, but from replacing forests with agriculture. In Brazil, deforestation has increased along with agricultural prices; in Indonesia, clearing trees accelerated as the global price of palm oil went up, leading companies to replace forests with palm tree orchards.

All this tree-clearing creates a familiar situation: The globally shared costs of climate change from deforestation are “externalities,” as economists say, imposed on everyone else by the people removing forest land. It is akin to a company that pollutes into a river, affecting the water quality of residents.

“Economics has changed the way it thinks about this over the last 50 years, and two things are central,” Olken says. “The relevance of global externalities is very important, and the conceptualization of alternate land uses is very important.” This also means traditional forest-management guidance about regrowth is not enough. With the economic dynamics in mind, which policies might work, and why?

The search for solutions

As Balboni and Olken note, economists often recommend “Pigouvian” taxes (named after the British economist Arthur Pigou) in these cases, levied against people imposing externalities on others. And yet, it can be hard to identify who is doing the deforesting.

Instead of taxing people for clearing forests, governments can pay people to keep forests intact. The UN uses Payments for Environmental Services (PES) as part of its REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) program. However, it is similarly tough to identify the optimal landowners to subsidize, and these payments may not match the quick cash-in of deforestation. A 2017 study in Uganda showed PES reduced deforestation somewhat; a 2022 study in Indonesia found no reduction; another 2022 study, in Brazil, showed again that some forest protection resulted.

“There’s mixed evidence from many of these [studies],” Balboni says. These policies, she notes, must reach people who would otherwise clear forests, and a key question is, “How can we assess their success compared to what would have happened anyway?”

Some places have tried cash transfer programs for larger populations. In Indonesia, a 2020 study found such subsidies reduced deforestation near villages by 30 percent. But in Mexico, a similar program meant more people could afford milk and meat, again creating demand for more agriculture and thus leading to more forest-clearing.

At this point, it might seem that laws simply banning deforestation in key areas would work best — indeed, about 16 percent of the world’s land overall is protected in some way. Yet the dynamics of protection are tricky. Even with protected areas in place, there is still “leakage” of deforestation into other regions. 

Still more approaches exist, including “nonstate agreements,” such as the Amazon Soy Moratorium in Brazil, in which grain traders pledged not to buy soy from deforested lands, and reduced deforestation without “leakage.”

Also, intriguingly, a 2008 policy change in the Brazilian Amazon made agricultural credit harder to obtain by requiring recipients to comply with environmental and land registration rules. The result? Deforestation dropped by up to 60 percent over nearly a decade. 

Politics and pulp

Overall, Balboni and Olken observe, beyond “externalities,” two major challenges exist. One, it is often unclear who holds property rights in forests. In these circumstances, deforestation seems to increase. Two, deforestation is subject to political battles.

For instance, as economist Bard Harstad of Stanford University has observed, environmental lobbying is asymmetric. Balboni and Olken write: “The conservationist lobby must pay the government in perpetuity … while the deforestation-oriented lobby need pay only once to deforest in the present.” And political instability leads to more deforestation because “the current administration places lower value on future conservation payments.”

Even so, national political measures can work. In the Amazon from 2001 to 2005, Brazilian deforestation rates were three to four times higher than on similar land across the border, but that imbalance vanished once the country passed conservation measures in 2006. However, deforestation ramped up again after a 2014 change in government. Looking at particular monitoring approaches, a study of Brazil’s satellite-based Real-Time System for Detection of Deforestation (DETER), launched in 2004, suggests that a 50 percent annual increase in its use in municipalities created a 25 percent reduction in deforestation from 2006 to 2016.

How precisely politics matters may depend on the context. In a 2021 paper, Balboni and Olken (with three colleagues) found that deforestation actually decreased around elections in Indonesia. Conversely, in Brazil, one study found that deforestation rates were 8 to 10 percent higher where mayors were running for re-election between 2002 and 2012, suggesting incumbents had deforestation industry support.

“The research there is aiming to understand what the political economy drivers are,” Olken says, “with the idea that if you understand those things, reform in those countries is more likely.”

Looking ahead, Balboni and Olken also suggest that new research estimating the value of intact forest land intact could influence public debates. And while many scholars have studied deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia, fewer have examined the Democratic Republic of Congo, another deforestation leader, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Deforestation is an ongoing crisis. But thanks to satellites and many recent studies, experts know vastly more about the problem than they did a decade or two ago, and with an economics toolkit, can evaluate the incentives and dynamics at play.

“To the extent that there’s ambuiguity across different contexts with different findings, part of the point of our review piece is to draw out common themes — the important considerations in determining which policy levers can [work] in different circumstances,” Balboni says. “That’s a fast-evolving area. We don’t have all the answers, but part of the process is bringing together growing evidence about [everything] that affects how successful those choices can be.”

How Can We Stop Deforestation?

Discover how to stop deforestation and protect our planet. learn impactful actions for individuals, communities, and governments..

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3,809,382.24

Hectares of forests cut down or burned

Globally, this year

One football field of forest gone every second 

Since 2016, 28 million hectares of forest have been cut down every year on average. That’s one football field of forest lost every SECOND of every day, year in and year out. 

From 2001 to 2018, a forest area larger than India was lost worldwide (3,610,000 square kilometers). The loss is equivalent to a 9 % reduction in global tree cover since 2000.

Why deforestation? Our everyday products

The main drivers for the loss of forests are production of timber and the clearing of land for cattle, soy, and palm oil production. 

“The main reason tropical forests are disappearing is not a mystery – vast areas continue to be cleared for soy, beef, palm oil, timber, and other globally traded commodities.''

- Frances Seymour, the World Resources Institute.

The Trees have no Tongues…

We’ve heard about how we’re losing vast tracts of forests each year – for many reasons. We’ve also learned about the negative effects. Trees are a very important part of our biodiversity. It is vital to life on Earth. So how come we’re killing them? How can we stop deforestation?

Tropical rainforests have more than 210 gigatons of carbon stored within its trees. When we cut them now, not only are we reducing our supplier of oxygen, we are releasing all that carbon in our atmosphere.

To date, more than 4.6 million hectares of forests have been cut down or burned – to supply our ever increasing demand for wood and land.

What is the Solution to Deforestation?

Deforestation is one of the most pressing environmental issues we face today, with vast tracts of forests disappearing at an alarming rate. It not only leads to the loss of habitat for countless species but also accelerates climate change due to the significant amounts of carbon dioxide stored in these ecosystems. 

However, it's not an unsolvable problem. Each one of us can contribute to the solution. Below we have collected 15 practical ways that you can help stop deforestation and promote a more sustainable relationship with our planet's precious forests.

15 Practical Ways to Stop Deforestation

You can contribute to the efforts against deforestation by doing these easy steps:

1. Plant More Trees Engage in tree-planting initiatives in your community or through global organizations.

2. Go Paperless Reduce paper consumption by going digital at home and in the office. When you do need to print, use both sides of the paper.

3. Support Responsible Companies Choose to support companies that are committed to reducing deforestation and use sustainable practices.

4. Buy Certified Wood Products Opt for wood or paper products that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or similar organizations.

5. Buy and Use Responsibly Consider your purchases carefully. Buy only what you need, and prioritize items with less packaging or reusable containers.

6. Avoid Palm Oil Palm oil production contributes significantly to deforestation. Check labels and avoid products containing palm oil where possible.

7. Recycle and Buy Recycled Products Support the recycling economy by buying recycled products and recycling them again after use.

8. Educate Others Raise awareness about deforestation in your social circle and community. The more people know, the more they can help.

9. Support Sustainable Agriculture Buy from local farmers who practice sustainable agriculture, helping to reduce the demand for deforested land.

10. Advocate for Forest Protection Policies Support policies and politicians that prioritize forest conservation and responsible land use.

11. Support Indigenous Rights Support Indigenous communities who often are excellent stewards of the forests they inhabit.

12. Offset Your Carbon Footprint Consider supporting carbon offset programs that protect existing forests or plant new trees.

13. Reduce Meat Consumption Livestock farming is a major cause of deforestation. Consider reducing your meat intake or choose products from sustainable farms.

14. Use Renewable Energy Using renewable energy reduces the need for deforestation caused by mining and drilling.

15. Volunteer or Donate Consider donating your time or money to organizations that work to prevent deforestation.

Remember, every action counts. By making informed choices, we can contribute to preserving our forests and securing the future of our planet. And remember… every product that is made out of trees is Recyclable. So practice recycling diligently.

Your power as a consumer is vital to stopping deforestation. Just like any business, if there’s no demand the supply will be lessened. Fortunately, there are environmentally and forest friendly businesses that are helping to stop deforestation. They need your support. Let’s encourage their efforts by patronizing their products.

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Time left till the end of rainforests

If current trends continue

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Essay on Deforestation for Students and Children

500+ words essay on deforestation.

Deforestation is the cutting down of trees in the forest in a large number. Deforestation has always been a threat to our environment. But still many humans are continuing this ill practice. Moreover, Deforestation is causing ecological imbalance. Yet, some selfish people have to fill their pockets. Therefore they do not even think about it once. So, the government is trying countermeasures to avert the harm to the environment .

The main purpose of deforestation is to increase the land area. Also, this land area is to set up new industries. And, this all is because of the increase in population. As the population increases the demand for products also increase. So rich businessmen set up these industries to increase profit.

Harmful Effects of Deforestation

There are many harmful effects of deforestation. Some of them are below: Soil erosion: Soil erosion is the elimination of the upper layer of the soil. It takes place when there is removing of trees that bind the soil. As a result wind and water carries away the top layer of the soil.

Moreover, disasters like landslides take place because of this. Furthermore, soil erosion is responsible for various floods. As trees are not present to stop the waters from heavy rainfall’s gush directly to the plains. This results in damaging of colonies where people are living.

Global Warming: Global warming is the main cause of the change in our environment. These seasons are now getting delayed. Moreover, there is an imbalance in their ratios. The temperatures are reaching its extreme points. This year it was 50 degrees in the plains, which is most of all. Furthermore, the glaciers in the Himalayan ranges are melting.

As a result, floods are affecting the hilly regions of our country and the people living there. Moreover, the ratio of water suitable for drinking is also decreasing.

Impact on the water cycle: Since through transpiration, trees release soil water into the environment. Thus cutting of them is decreasing the rate of water in the atmosphere. So clouds are not getting formed. As a result, the agricultural grounds are not receiving proper rainfall. Therefore it is indirectly affecting humans only.

A great threat to wildlife: Deforestation is affecting wildlife as well. Many animals like Dodo, Sabre-toothed Cat, Tasmanian Tiger are already extinct. Furthermore, some animals are on the verge of extinction. That’s because they have lost habitat or their place of living. This is one of the major issues for wildlife protectors.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Avert Deforestation?

Deforestation can be averted by various countermeasures. First of all, we should afforestation which is growing of trees in the forest. This would help to resolve the loss of the trees cut down. Moreover, the use of plant-based products should increase.

This would force different industries to grow more trees. As a result, the environment will also get benefit from it. Furthermore, people should grow small plants in their houses. That will help the environment to regain its ability. At last, the government should take strict actions against people. Especially those who are illegally cutting down trees.

FAQs on Essay on Deforestation

Q1. Why is deforestation harmful to our environment?

A1. Deforestation is harmful to our environment because it is creating different problems. These problems are soil erosion, global warming. Moreover, it is also causing different disasters like floods and landslides.

Q2. How are animals affected by deforestation?

A2. Deforestation affects animals as they have lost their habitat. Moreover, herbivores animals get their food from plants and trees. As a result, they are not getting proper food to eat, which in turn is resulting in their extinction

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Ecological Economics: A Solution to Deforestation?

Related content.

This essay is part of the Pluralist Economics Fellowship, jointly put together by the Minerva Schools at KGI & The Network for Pluralist Economics. For more information on this and a collection of the other student essays check out this page .

Author: Maike Pfeiffer

Review: prof. dollie davis.

• Introduction

Deforestation is estimated to be responsible for about 12-29% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Fearnside 2000, 155-158). Though solutions are negotiated on a transnational basis, such as through the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, logging a forest is often more financially profitable than conserving it (Environmental Defense Fund 2018). Commonly, the economics behind forest conservation relies on a mainstream economic framework while conservation efforts are lagging behind. This essay will explore ecological economics as an alternative lens through which to approach forest conservation and the acceleration of climate change.

Ecological economics differs from mainstream economics in the role that the environment plays in the system. In mainstream economics, the environment is one part of the economy (Figure 1) to be considered. Thus, the environment becomes a factor, or a sub-sector, of the economy. Ecological economics, on the contrary, considers the environment to be an all-encompassing framework (SOAS 2018). The environment does not exist within the economy, it is the economy that exists within the natural environment (Figure 2). While this might appear as a purely theoretical difference, it has numerous implications. For instance, an economy that exists within the natural environment is inevitably constrained by the laws that govern nature, such as the laws of physics (Perrings 1995, 60-64). These external constraints imposed on the economy question many economic models, such as models of growth which, traditionally, focus on measuring the gross domestic product (GDP). Economic growth is finite when it depends on the laws of physics, and has to take into consideration, finite natural resources such as crude oil, minerals, or precious metals. In a traditional model, GDP could grow indefinitely if consumption increases. In an ecological model, there is a physical end to consumption as long as it relies on finite resources.

Figure 1: The Mainstream Economic Approach                                  Figure 2 : Ecological Economic Approach (Boulding, 1966)

• Environmental vs Ecological Economics

Ecological economics is easily confused with environmental economics. Environmental and ecological economics are approaching the environments from the two different frameworks illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. Environmental economics uses a version of the mainstream economic framework. It focuses on the use and allocation of resources between the economy and the environment, thereby acknowledging the value of the environment to humanity (Managi et al. 2017). However, one should note that this approach, while granting nature an inherent value, still treats the economy and the environment as two distinct nodes of the network, connected through various interactions. This does not necessarily acknowledge the limitations that the natural environment imposes on the economy as a constructed system of rules and transactions within the natural world.

The inherent value provided by nature is referred to as natural capital (Helm 2013, 16-19). Mainstream economics sees the price to be reflective of a product’s value. This logic, however, also suggests that zero price is equal to zero value. In other words, something that doesn’t have a price, such as forests or landscapes that are freely available to be accessed by anyone, also doesn’t have a value that needs to be considered in an economic calculation. One could argue that nature can be considered a public good. The shortcoming, however, is that a destruction of nature can’t be attributed to a single institutional body that fails to provide this public good as in the case of safety or healthcare. Ecological economics is countering this notion by considering natural capital as opposed to nature as a public good.

Another key distinction between mainstream and ecological economics is the allocation of resources as an end to all economic activity (Daly et al. 2004). In most economic considerations, the efficient allocation of resources is an end in itself. Markets are seen as the mechanism to achieve efficient resource allocation. Ecological economics, on the contrary, rejects efficiency as the single end to economic activity and sees markets as one of many mechanisms for allocating resources. While allocation is also important, other factors are considered, such as welfare to human communities and the environment.

However, even within ecological economics, different streams exist. While all of them challenge the mainstream economic approach, some of them do so more radically than others. One such stream is degrowth theory (Demaria et al. 2016, 390-400). Degrowth theory “implies perceiving ecosystems as having value in themselves, and not only as providers of useful environmental resources or services (Ibid.).” Using resources to produce consumer goods to sell on the market is seen as opposing the protection of nature’s inherent value. To reduce human impact and preserve ecosystems, degrowth suggests cutting back on production and sales, essentially inducing the economic recession mainstream economics seeks to avoid. An economic recession is typically measured in terms of a country’s GDP. By definition of a GDP being the total value produced within a country’s border in a given time period (Segal 2003), this measurement also suggests that value is considered in monetary terms. Ecological economics advocates for a shift in the mindset surrounding the monetary understanding of value. Thus, the preservation of natural capital should be included in any value calculation. This justifies the choice to decrease production and value brought to the market, leaving natural resources untouched instead. The incompatibility of degrowth with today’s international market economy will be examined below.

• Internalizing Externalities: Carbon Licenses and Carbon Taxes

Within mainstream economics, a common response to environmental concerns is the internalization of externalities. For example, carbon licenses are introduced to internalize the cost of and limit CO2 emissions. Under an ecological framework, there are several shortcomings to this approach. Firstly, ecological economics would not see environmental damage as an externality, to begin with. The environment does not take the role of an ‘unrelated third party’ (“Externality” 2013) that experiences damage but is seen as a key stakeholder to be considered. Secondly, the determination of the ‘price’ of carbon is not reflective of the damage done by CO2 emissions. Even if all revenue from carbon licenses was re-invested into environmental conservation efforts, they would still fail to fully internalize the damage done by CO2 emissions, mostly due to the market price of carbon being too low (Dove 2018).

Another approach is carbon taxes. While carbon taxes might be effective in incentivizing individuals and firms to reduce their CO2 emissions, they also fail to compensate for the damage done by CO2 emissions. However, they are worth considering as a policy on a local or national level. As a simple example, if a carbon tax was added to every litre of fuel, using one’s car becomes more costly, and people would be incentivized to find alternatives. Carbon taxes are therefore a cost-effective way to reduce future carbon emissions, however, they are not aimed at leveraging the damage done by carbon emissions.

• The Challenges: Can Ecological Economics become a new status quo?

Many assumptions behind ecological economics contradict those of mainstream economics. The logic behind ecological economics sounds ideologically compelling: It factors in human and non-human well being alike, so why shouldn’t ecological thought be a more dominant force in economics?

To address this question, it is important to recognize the incompatibility of streams like degrowth theory with the international market economy today. From an ecological perspective, loosely- or unregulated markets are not creating the most efficient outcome as they don’t always address who owns certain assets or who pays for pollution in the production process. They also fail to account for the factor of finite resources. For example, if the market price of crude oil is US$ 70/ barrel, then this price is reflective of the supply and demand for crude oil at this time. Supply and demand, in turn, encapsulate factors such as the cost of extraction, transportation, or tariffs. However, the price fails to reflect the fact of oil being a finite resource. While the price accounts for current supply and demand, it doesn’t account for the fact that consuming oil is bringing global oil reserves one step closer to depletion. Ecological economics would require such a measure and hence a fundamental change in the way markets operate.

Another issue that illustrates that ecological economics contradicts many ideas in mainstream economics is that environmental protection faces the challenge of temporal discounting. Temporal discounting, simply put, refers to the phenomenon of ascribing less value to outcomes in the far future than to outcomes in the present (Behavioral Economics 2018). In other words, we tend to give less weight to a reward lying 10 years into the future than we do to a reward that occurs tomorrow. Environmental processes span over long time-periods which pose challenges to policy makers and economists. Temporal discounting in ecology is in fact intergenerational. For instance, the preservation of forests may not necessarily affect current generations directly, but will certainly impact generations to come by preserving earth’s CO2 absorption capacity and keeping vital ecosystems intact.

Finally, it is important to identify that the exploitation of resources currently stands in a non-linear relationship to internalization of environmental costs. An example can be global discrepancies between deforestation and reforestation. In a sustainably managed forest, an initial loss of tree coverage should result in a gain in coverage a few years later, once young trees grow large enough to appear as a gain in forest cover (Global Forest Watch, 2018). According to Global Forest Watch (2018), the opposite is the case when it comes to reforestation. In fact, reforestation efforts lack behind deforestation, leading to the permanent loss of tree cover (Ibid.). This indicates that reforestation efforts are not currently able to compensate for deforestation as total tree coverage decreases. This non-linear relationship makes it hard to internalize the real environmental cost resulting from economic activity.

• What Does a Forest Cost? Carbon Licenses as a Means to Stop Indonesia’s Deforestation

Ecological economics, as seen in Figure 2, is based on the environment being the all-encompassing framework of economic and other activity. Thus, to sustain any human activity on earth, the environment has to be kept intact first. In the case of deforestation, this poses several challenges, most prominently the question “what does a forest cost?”. To determine the real value of choosing to keep a forest rather than logging it, ecological economics takes into account multiple factors (Warren-Thomas et al. 2018):

• The opportunity cost (forgone economic return) of deforestation. Like in mainstream economics, one needs to estimate the revenue from logging, subtracting the monetary cost of logging.
• The cost of implementation to conserve forest. This could include patrols; free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous communities living in the area, or institutional and administrative costs (Luttrell 2018, 291-310). Many implementation costs are likely to be carried out by the central government of a country . In mainstream economics, a problem arises when the cost of implementation exceeds the opportunity cost. In other words, when the cost of implementation is larger than the revenue that could have been generated from logging the forest. If keeping the forest is not considered inherently valuable, this scenario makes forest conservation the least economical decision for a government. (Fisher et al., 2011)
• The benefit of keeping the forest. This cost is the hardest to estimate as this would require a cost to be put to benefits such as carbon absorption, providing a habitat for local species, or keeping a greater ecosystem intact.

An example of estimating the cost and benefits of keeping a forest can be seen by examining select details surrounding rainforests in Indonesia. The expansion of rubber plantations in Indonesia is the main driver for deforestation and the resulting loss of biodiversity. To stop deforestation, the revenue from rubber plantations will have to at least be matched. In other words, the opportunity cost would have to be alleviated by giving rubber producers at least as much as they would earn from cutting down rubber trees (Warren-Thomas et al. 2018). In their paper, Warren-Thomas et al. (2018) found that different types of opportunity costs arise in Indonesia’s rainforests and thus depend on the institutionally regulated selection criteria for logging. The two most prominent types of opportunity costs are the revenue from timber and the revenue from rubber where carbon is accounting for about 75% of the opportunity cost of conserving a dense forest (Warren-Thomas et al. 2018). Per hectare of dense forest, deforestation in Indonesia comes at the cost of an average of 194 tons of carbon that the forest could have absorbed. (Ibid.)

Using carbon financing as a common way to internalize externalities under a mainstream economic framework, deforestation could thus be stopped at the cost of high enough carbon prices + transaction costs + implementation costs . Revenues could go to the development of green technology, or conservation and reforestation projects that compensate for the carbon absorption capacity lost through deforestation. However, this calculation works only under the assumption that the market price of carbon is high enough to offset the incurring cost. This ‘real’ carbon cost can be seen as an attempt to estimate the benefit, in carbon terms, of keeping the forest (as discussed in factor “c” above). Warren-Thomas et al. (2018) yet concluded that the current market price of carbon is insufficient to offset the cost of deforestation. While the required market price for carbon should oscillate somewhere between $30 - $51 per ton of carbon, the current price oscillates between $5-$20 per ton (Carbon Brief 2017).

This price often neglects the, more policy-relevant, social cost of carbon. The social cost of carbon refers to “economic harm […] expressed as the dollar value of the total damages from emitting one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere” (Environmental Defense Fund 2017), including compromised health around the world, increasing food prices, or the destruction of property.

From an ecological economic perspective, carbon financing is an insufficient way to address commodity-driven deforestation in Indonesia. Carbon prices should be increased to at least offset the damage done with regards to carbon emissions and absorption. However, even a carbon price of $30- $51 doesn’t address all aspects of deforestation that ecological economics would consider such as the loss of biodiversity, or the long-term effects of bringing an existing ecosystem out of balance. It also fails to account for changes in soil brought about by monocultures for rubber plantations, or the social cost occurring from deforestation, for example, the destruction of property of Indonesia’s indigenous communities (IUCN 2018).

• Conclusion: Current Trends and Alternatives

Carbon Financing is one solution that is currently being implemented to offset some of the damage done by deforestation. However, carbon financing is not excluded from the phenomenon of non-linearity outlined in section 3. The market price of carbon is currently too low to make carbon financing an adequate solution (Dove 2018), yet, it can be seen as one step in decreasing opportunity cost and incentivizing communities and governments to preserve forests. Other trends and alternatives include mechanisms like corporate zero-deforestation pledges in which corporation pledge to “eliminate deforestation from their supply chain” (Riley 2017). Also, the general focus on local, community-based solutions is frequently discussed, such as protecting and supporting smallholder agriculture and restricting agriculture on a larger corporate scale. Most of these trends share the common element of tending to deviate from what is the most economically efficient way to produce commodities in a mainstream economic framework. This is because mainstream economics disregards many of the environmental values that are a focus of ecological economics. From an ecological point of view, smallholder agriculture or costly-alternatives to commodities like rubber and palm oil seem much more attractive and worthwhile. While it may decrease the global supply of a commodity and increase prices, it preserves the environment and therefore takes into account the quality of life for current as well as future generations. Approaches like replacing large corporations and their environmental impact with smaller subsistence-based solutions are especially in line with degrowth theory as a more radical stream within ecological economics. All in all, Ecological economics poses significant challenges to mainstream economics that make it difficult to be adopted as a new status-quo in economic thought. Yet, it can be utilized as a lens to re-think the role nature plays in economic consideration and identify necessary steps to avoid traps like generational discounting or the illusion that economic growth can be sustained independently from the natural world.

References:

For more recent statistics on deforsestation, see https://www.treetriage.com/tree-removal/deforestation/

Boulding, Kenneth E. “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth.” (1966).

Daly, Herman E, and Joshua C Farley. 2004. Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications . Washington: Island Press.

"Deforestation: Solved Via Carbon Markets?". 2018. Environmental Defense Fund . Accessed November 20, 2018. https://www.edf.org/climate/deforestation-solved-carbon-markets .

Demaria F, Schneider F, Sekulova F, Martinex-Alier J. "What Is Degrowth?: From an Activist Slogan to a Social Movement." In The Environment in Anthropology (Second Edition): A Reader in Ecology, Culture, and Sustainable Living , edited by Haenn Nora, Wilk Richard R., and Harnish Allison, 390-400. NYU Press, 2016.

Dove, M. (2018). 'Rubber versus forest on contested Asian land'. Nature Plants, 4(6), 321-322.

"Externality". 2018. Investopedia. Accessed December 13, 2018. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/externality.asp .

Fisher B, Lewis S, Burgess N, Malimbwi R, Munishi P, Swetnam R, Turner R, Willcock S, and Balmford A. “Implementation and opportunity costs of reducing deforestation and forest degradation in Tanzania” Nature Climate Change 1 (2011): 161–164.

“Global Forest Watch”. 2018. Global Forest Watch.Com. Accessed November 21, 2018. http://www.globalforestwatch.org/

Helm, Dieter. "NATURAL CAPITAL." RSA Journal 159, no. 5553 (2013): 16-19.

"Indonesia’s Last Frontier: Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Key to Forest Preservation". 2018. IUCN . Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.iucn.org/news/forests/201802/indonesia%E2%80%99s-last-frontier-indigenous-peoples%E2%80%99-rights-key-forest-preservation .

Luttrell C, Sills E, Evinke M.F, Aryani R, and Ekaputri A.D. 2018. “Beyond Opportunity Costs: Who Bears the Implementation Costs of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation?” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 23 (2): 291–310. doi:10.1007/s11027-016-9736-6 .

Managi, Shunsuke, and Kuriyama Kōichi. 2017. Environmental Economics . Routledge Textbooks in Environmental and Agricultural Economics, 17. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Philip Fearnside (2000). "Global warming and tropical land-use change: Greenhouse gas emissions from biomass burning, decomposition and soils in forest conversion, shifting cultivation and secondary vegetation". Climatic Change . 46 : 115–158. doi : 10.1023/a:1005569915357

Perrings, Charles. "Ecology, Economics and Ecological Economics." Ambio 24, no. 1 (1995): 60-64

"Q&A: Will the Reformed EU Emissions Trading System Raise Carbon Prices? | Carbon Brief". 2017. Carbon Brief . Accessed November 24, 2018 . https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-will-reformed-eu-emissions-trading-system-raise-carbon-prices .

Riley, T. (2017). Companies' ‘zero deforestation’ pledges: everything you need to know. the Guardian. Retrieved 16 October 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/sep/29/companies-zero-deforestation-pledges-agriculture-palm-oil-environment

Segal, Troy. 2003. "Gross Domestic Product - GDP". Investopedia . Accessed November 3, 2018. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gd

"The True Cost of Carbon Pollution". 2017. Environmental Defense Fund . Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.edf.org/true-cost-carbon-pollution .

"Time (Temporal) Discounting | Behavioraleconomics.Com | The BE Hub". 2018. Behavioraleconomics.Com | The BE Hub . Accessed November 4, 2018. https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/time-temporal-discounting/ .

Warren-thomas em, edwards dp, bebber dp, chang p, diment an, evans td, lambrick fh, et al. 2018. “protecting tropical forests from the rapid expansion of rubber using carbon payments.” nature communications 9 (1): 911–11. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03287-9..

“ 2.1 Interdependence ” . 2018. Soas.Ac.Uk . Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-demos/000_P505_NRE_K3736-Demo/unit1/page_13.htm .

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15 Strategies How to Reduce and Prevent Deforestation

Forests are one of the most important ecosystems on Earth. 80 percent of all terrestrial plants, insects, and animals call forests home. Nearly one third of people in the world depend directly on forests for their livelihoods [1] .

Trees help regulate the climate, filter water through their root system, capture dust particles and pollutants from the air and stabilize soils against erosion. They perform these vital services equally for everyone without taking into account country boundaries or the size of your income.

Every day, we use resources that forests provide to us, such as timber, firewood, medicinal and edible plants. Yet if we continue to lose our forests at the current rate, in 80 years from now there will be no forest left on our “green” planet [2] .

Deforestation is happening everywhere on the planet for many different reasons that vary from region to region. Vast areas of rainforests in a number of tropical countries, including Indonesia, Brazil, and Malaysia, have been destroyed to make way for palm oil, soy plantations and cattle ranches. The increasing global demand for wood products threatens many ancient forests around the world, whether it is for paper products, furniture or fuel.

Ending deforestation is the best chance we have to stabilize our climate, save wildlife species and protect our well-being. Protecting the forest is our mutual responsibility, no matter how far away we live from the nearest one. Adopt some of these strategies to help prevent the loss of more trees.

The death of the forest is the end of our life. — Dorothy Stang

What can we do about deforestation?

#1 plant a tree.

The most straightforward personal strategy to fight against deforestation is to plant a tree. Planting a tree could be considered a lifelong investment into the environment and your good mental health.

The cutting down of trees causes billions of tons of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) to be released into the air. By planting trees, you are helping to combat global warming because trees absorb carbon dioxide. You are also helping to reduce run off water from the hills. Tree roots prevent landslides and rock slides that sometimes can harm animals, people or damage buildings. Planting and caring for trees is essential for the overall health and quality of life of the community.

Trees are known for their mind soothing and healing properties. Just walking through a forest and looking at the trees calms our mind, alleviates worries and helps tired eyes recover from strain.

You can start by planting one tree, or two, or you can even plant a whole forest .

Have you heard the story of Jadav Payeng from Majuli Island, India?

The ‘Forest Man of India,’ as Jadav was titled by the country’s former president, has planted a whole forest with his own hands – one tree a day for over 40 years. The resulting 1,400 acres of forest inhabited by rhinos, tigers and elephants are astonishing. Trees also protect the island community from seasonal flooding and land erosion. So, this man has created a whole ecosystem from scratch, sustaining many lives through his consistent effort.

Watch his full story in this video.

Jadav’s story is inspiring, but it’s good to know that he is not the only one . For example, Antonio Vincente has replanted 50,000 trees on his 77 acres of land in the Amazon rainforest. Similarly, Nkomo Sikenala is striving to encourage families in Malawi to plant trees around their houses by providing them tree seedlings at reduced cost.

Join these inspiring people and start writing your own story of a life-giver. Plant a tree today.

#2 Use less paper

Two million trees are cut every day just to supply the paper demand of the United States.

Globally, 40 percent of all timber is used to make paper products, and the demand for paper increases by two to three percent every year [3] . This means that the paper industry is still consuming more and more trees.

Since the industry has such a high need for wood, it should come as no surprise that some part of the timber originates from illegal logging .

By printing out every email and wasting paper, you are unwittingly spinning the wheel of illegal forest destruction. Reduce your paper use when you can. This way, you will decrease your contribution to the loss of forests.

#3 Recycle paper and cardboard

Did you know that one ton (2,000 pounds) of paper put to recycle prevents the cutting of 17 trees? These 17 trees then sequester around 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air every single year [10] .

If just 10 percent of all the paper used by the average American in one year were recycled, 25 million trees would be saved [11] . That makes 367 million pounds of carbon dioxide absorbed by these trees in one year.

Imagine how many trees you can save and how much good they perform for the quality of our lives by recycling all your paper.

#4 Use recycled products

You may have noticed a little label “made from recycled paper” on your new notebook. The same label can be found on many other daily use items like books, paper bags, egg packaging and even toilet paper.

By choosing items made from recycled paper, you make a conscious effort to lower the demand for more timber .

Besides decreasing the need to cut more trees, your purchase is also supporting paper recycling facilities and reducing the amount of waste entering landfills. Therefore, try to purchase your next notebook made from recycled paper and the environment will be very thankful.

The same rule goes for furniture shopping. When buying a new piece of furniture, try to look first for already used pieces. You can often find real treasures for almost no cost. All they need is just a little bit of refurbishing. But this way you can obtain truly unique and personalized pieces for your interior.

For example, the wooden table on which my computer rests when writing this article is bought from a lady who had used it in her office for over 30 years. Few months ago, it has become a centrepiece of our Greentumble office and will remain so for many more years to come 😊.

#5 Buy only sustainable wood products

As a consumer, you can help reduce the demand for more logging (especially illegal logging) by ensuring that you only purchase products which are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) . The FSC is currently the best global standard in forest management, and provides a system for interested parties to work towards responsible forest management.

By purchasing FSC certified products, you are doing two important things:

• You are ensuring that you aren’t supporting unsustainable or illegal logging,
• You are also supporting companies who strive to produce wood sustainably and respect the rights of their workers and indigenous peoples.

#6 Don’t buy products containing palm oil

While a small amount of palm oil may be sustainably produced, the majority comes from recently cleared land. Palm oil production has become one of the main causes of tropical rainforest destruction around the world today.

Did you know that palm oil is found in many of the products you buy from the supermarket?

A large percentage of the world’s palm oil production comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, where the virgin rainforest is being cleared at an alarming rate of 2.4 million acres a year to make way for new plantations.

Avoiding products containing palm oil might not be easy, because it can be disguised in many different forms in numerous beauty products and food. If you cannot drop some of your favorite products with palm oil entirely, look at least for an alternative that carries a sustainable palm oil certification.

To date, the most rigorous certification process comes from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) , where at least 95% of the palm oil is certified in sustainable practices throughout the supply chain [5] .

#7 Reduce meat consumption

To produce the same amount of protein from animal agriculture requires much larger areas of land compared to plant-based farming. For example, nearly one third of the ice-free surface of the planet is converted into pasture for our domestic animals and 30 percent of available arable land is used to grow livestock feed rather than food for our direct consumption [6] .

The global demand for meat keeps constantly rising, but our space to rear livestock does not. That is why animal farming has become one of the leading causes of deforestation in Amazon. Around 70 percent of the Amazon rainforest clearing is done to make way for cattle ranches [7] .

If you choose to reduce the amount of meat you eat, you will lower the global demand for meat and help prevent further destruction of forests to make way for more livestock. Start slowly by replacing one portion of animal protein a week with a plant-based protein like beans.

After all, periods of not eating meat have been practiced by our ancestors for thousands of years – be it because of the meat shortage or religious fasting. In a traditional perception, periods of no meat eating have always been connected with the complete purification of the organism.

#8 Do not burn firewood excessively

More than two billion people around the world rely only on firewood to cook and heat their homes [9] . Unfortunately, this often happens in poor areas where already vulnerable forests near villages and towns are cut for fuel well before they can regenerate. Such mismanagement slowly leads to their total disappearance.

For example: The Batán Grande forest in Lambayeque on the north coast of Peru has been declared a nature reserve. One of the key species of the reserve is a tree called mesquite. But despite being protected, more than 2,000 ha of mesquite woodlands are lost every year due to poverty of local people, who fell the trees and burn them at home anyway [8] .

Global forests suffer already a great deal of damage from our excessive consumption, when you want to make a fire in your fireplace, make sure you burn wood from sustainably managed forests that have enough time to naturally regenerate.

#9 Practice eco-forestry

Eco-forestry is a restorative method of forest management, which is not based on economic productivity. In this practice, certain trees are selectively harvested while causing minimal damage to the rest of the forest.

The long-term aim of this method is to systematically fell mature trees, while leaving the forest ecosystem relatively unaffected.

If you own a piece of forest, follow these principles for they will pay you back in the long run more than the profit focused short-term forestry.

# 10 Raise awareness

Major environmental problems such as deforestation often continue to occur because of a lack of awareness and knowledge about the problem.

By educating people about the effects of their actions, such as palm oil consumption, the amount of deforestation can be reduced. Tell your friends and family about steps they can take to reduce global deforestation or show them this article 😊.

Better awareness and education is important even in the case of farmers. Education of local farmers about optimizing their land management will ensure that less forested areas need to be cleared for farming. After all, farmers are the stewards of our lands.

#11 Respect the rights of indigenous people

Although this isn’t an issue which is well publicized or widely realized, deforestation destroys the lives of millions of indigenous people. In many remote areas, large international corporations under the cover of corrupt governments intentionally violate the rights of local communities.

The best example of such a mistreatment and disrespect are happening in the Amazon with cattle ranching, or in southeast Asia with the spread of palm oil plantations, resulting often in conflicts and even physical attacks against native people.

But when indigenous people are given equal rights and their traditional lands are respected, the incidence of (illegal) deforestation decreases, as they are able to legally fight for protection of their forests.

For example, Greenpeace published an article about the Cree Nation of Waswanipi land fighting against the large-scale exploitation of the boreal forest in Quebec, Canada. Despite facing enormous pressure from logging companies, the Cree have so far stood their ground and made sure that their pristine forests and cultural heritage remains untouched for future generations.

Respect the rights of indigenous people, help them gain the equal rights and support them when you can.

#12 Support organizations that fight deforestation

Numerous international and locally-focused organizations strive to protect forests from deforestation and apply sustainable forestry practices. Examples of some you may have heard of are:

• World Wildlife Fund
• Rainforest Action Network
• Rainforest Alliance
• Conservation International
• Amazon Watch
• Arbor Day Foundation and many more.

 You can support their efforts by visiting their websites, making donations, or perhaps even participating in their volunteering programs.

#13 Join a community forestry project

In 2016, tens of thousands of people in Bhutan have planted 108,000 trees in honor of the birth of the country’s new prince. What a wonderful gift to the future ruler, right?

But the message the country has sent to the world had a deeper meaning. Through this act, Bhutan has demonstrated the indispensable power of community in managing natural resources. And community forestry is based exactly on that!

Community forestry is carried out by local residents, volunteers, and schools with the support of the government. This forestry technique involves tree planting, timber harvesting, cleaning, and forest conservation. Through the active involvement in the management of forests, local people become much more aware of all the benefits intact forests provide for them on a daily basis.

Let’s look back at Bhutan’s example. According to FAO report , 1,664 rural households take care of nearly 3,000 hectares of community forests. Since the program was adopted in 2000, it has improved livelihoods of participating rural communities by:

• strengthening their social bonds,
• regenerating degraded lands,
• purifying and securing water supply,
• providing communities with cheap and local source of fuel.

 If you have a chance and time, join a local community forestry project. You may get far more benefits from simply being outdoors with trees and soil than you could ever get from online messaging with your friends.

#14 Help restore degraded forests

Restoration of degraded forests is a challenging task that takes decades, and requires careful planning and monitoring. It is not easy, but it is necessary if we do not want to lose all our forests. What is wonderful about forest restoration is the ecosystem’s capacity to perfectly recover and give us a new chance to start once again.

For example: In just 50 years a part of a long lost tropical rainforest in Costa Rica was successfully revived [12] . Similarly successful was South Korea’s reforestation program that has managed to nearly double the country’s forest cover from 35 to 64 percent since 1950s [13] .

Non-profit organizations such as The Sierra Club are working throughout the world to restore degraded forests and return them to their former glory. While this doesn’t reduce deforestation directly, it can offset many negative impacts of deforestation on a global scale. Look for such organizations in your area or in the area of your interest and support their activities if you can.

Their work of reversing deforestation is precious for future generations.

#15 Fight governmental corruption

Corrupt governments are often payed off by illegal logging companies to ignore their activities. Do not support corrupt politicians and systems. Reduction of corruption will go a long way towards reducing deforestation overall.

In many poorer countries, the lack of police presence and law enforcement means that illegal deforestation often goes unpunished and unnoticed for many years, even though it is destroying the country’s economy and resource wealth.

For example: 70 percent of Indonesia’s timber exports come from illegal logging. Besides leaving behind extensive damage to the rainforest, the country is also losing around US$3.7 billion every year in lost revenue [15] . Thus, the illegal logging does more harm than good to the country.

Report illegal logging

Did you know that in some countries are available mobile applications for people like you and me to verify and report illegal logging?

For example, Romania has launched an app called “Inspectorul Padurii.” The app enables users to enter a registration number of a logging truck to check if the vehicle has official permission to carry wood. If the number is not in the database, the load is illegal and the user should notify the police.

Global Forest Watch has developed an app called the Forest Watcher , which monitors areas with intact and protected forests. The app notifies you about the closest forest clearing and allows you to even directly upload pictures of deforested areas you encounter. In Uganda, the app is used by rangers and private forest owners to detect illegal logging and serves as an evidence during offenders’ prosecution.

If you want to help protect forests in your country, give a try to the Forest Watcher or check on internet if you cannot find a similar app developed directly for your area. The use of the modern technology and gadgets could be a possible solution of illegal logging which is one way to limit deforestation.

Where is deforestation happening?

To certain extent, deforestation happens everywhere in the world and has been happening even throughout our history. Within the limits of sustainability, forests have incredible capacity to recover and can be logged for centuries without getting damaged.

The problem comes when our consumption exceeds the natural ability of forests to regenerate, and when we start to overexploit this resource on a large-scale. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is currently happening in many tropical countries that are homes to unique rainforests .

According to a 2017 study of the world’s deforestation hot spots, Brazil, Indonesia and Democratic Republic of Congo are countries with the highest absolute forest loss in the world.

In Brazil, forests are cleared to make space for agriculture. In Indonesia it is for the palm oil and paper industry. And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the main reason is extensive tree felling for fuel and farm land around rapidly growing cities.

But we do not have to go deep into the lush rainforest to witness sad effects of deforestation. Greentumble has written even about the spread of illegal deforestation in Romania due to the corrupt government, or total destruction of forests in Ukraine for the amber mining , and reported on the scale of deforestation in the United States as well.

What is being done about deforestation?

Through the amendment of the Lacey Act in May 2008, the United States became the first country to ban the import and sale of illegally-sourced wood.

According to the Illegal Logging Portal, the implementation of this legislation has delivered some positive results. Firstly, in assuring consumers that products they buy are legally sourced (although this does not necessarily mean, they come from sustainably managed forests). Secondly, by closing down a large market for illegal loggers, and therefore restricting their chances of making profit [16] .

The European Union has implemented a similar law called Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade. Besides banning the import of illegal timber to the EU, this program also strives to help the Government of Indonesia to tackle the illegal logging on their territory [17] .

Australia has jumped on the bandwagon when the country introduced the Illegal Logging Prohibition Bill in 2011, shrinking even more the market for illegally sourced wood, and thus lowering the damaging deforestation throughout the world [18] .

But despite these efforts, tackling the deforestation globally will require much more initiative and international cooperation of governments, corporations and even consumers like you and me.

So, this brings up a question: how can we control deforestation then?

According to the Nature Conservancy , a promotion of sustainable forest management takes place on four important levels:

• Governments: Governments must enforce incentives to support legal and sustainable forest management and trade system.
• Land owners and managers: Forest owners must follow the legal principles of the sustainable forest management.
• Corporations and investors: Corporations must verify and buy only legally and sustainably sourced timber. Their investments have the ability to revert forest destruction and encourage sustainable forestry in developing countries through the establishment of long-term cooperation with forest owners.
• Consumers: Consumers must make responsible choices when buying products. By picking only sustainably produced items, you are pushing corporations to put emphasis on the sustainable sourcing of their products.

As you can see, the way to tackle deforestation is complex and intertwined through the daily actions of all of us. No matter what your profession is or how far you live from the forest, every decision you make affects how many trees will be lost next year in the world’s tropical rainforests or vast boreal forests of the north.

Be aware of the footprint you are leaving behind your lifestyle, for animals on the edge of extinction like Orangutans or Sumatran tigers are losing their forest home every minute now.

Was this article helpful?

About greentumble.

Greentumble was founded in the summer of 2015 by us, Sara and Ovi . We are a couple of environmentalists who seek inspiration for life in simple values based on our love for nature. Our goal is to inspire people to change their attitudes and behaviors toward a more sustainable life. Read more about us .

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Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Deforestation — The Issue of Deforestration: Consequences and Prevention

The Issue of Deforestration: Consequences and Prevention

• Categories: Deforestation Environmental Issues

About this sample

Words: 668 |

Published: Aug 10, 2018

Words: 668 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Consequences of deforestation, preventing deforestation, deforestation essay: hook examples.

• The Vanishing Forests: Our planet’s lush green forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. Join us on a journey to uncover the reasons behind deforestation, its devastating impact on ecosystems, and the urgent need for conservation.
• The Amazon Rainforest: Lungs of the Earth: The Amazon rainforest is often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth.” In this essay, we’ll delve into the vital role rainforests play in maintaining the global climate and why their destruction is a global concern.
• The Cost of Progress: Deforestation is often driven by economic interests. Explore the trade-offs between economic development and environmental preservation, and the potential consequences for future generations.
• Endangered Species: The Silent Victims: Deforestation poses a grave threat to biodiversity. This essay examines the impact on endangered species, their habitats, and the delicate balance of life disrupted by forest loss.
• From Trees to Timber: Sustainable Solutions: While deforestation is a pressing issue, there are sustainable alternatives. Join us in exploring responsible forestry practices, reforestation efforts, and ways we can protect our forests for future generations.

Works Cited

• BBC News. (n.d.). Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2015). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015: How are the world’s forests changing?
• Greenpeace. (n.d.). Deforestation and climate change.
• Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V., De Fries, R. S., Brockhaus, M., Verchot, L., … & Romijn, E. (2012). An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009.
• Malhi, Y., Roberts, J. T., Betts, R. A., Killeen, T. J., Li, W., & Nobre, C. A. (2008). Climate change, deforestation, and the fate of the Amazon. Science, 319(5860), 169-172.
• Nepstad, D., McGrath, D., Stickler, C., Alencar, A., Azevedo, A., Swette, B., … & Brooks, V. (2014). Slowing Amazon deforestation through public policy and interventions in beef and soy supply chains. Science, 344(6188), 1118-1123.
• Perz, S. G., Walker, R. T., & Caldas, M. M. (2006). Beyond population and environment: Household demographic life cycles and land use allocation among small farms in the Amazon. Human Ecology, 34(6), 829-849.
• Rudel, T. K., Defries, R., Asner, G. P., & Laurance, W. F. (2009). Changing drivers of deforestation and new opportunities for conservation. Conservation Biology, 23(6), 1396-1405.
• United Nations. (2021). The State of the World’s Forests 2020.
• World Wildlife Fund. (n.d.). Deforestation and forest degradation.

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223 Deforestation Topics for Essays, Research Papers, & Speeches

Nowadays, deforestation has affected landscapes all around the world. In the last 300 years, 35 percent of the world’s forests have been gone forever. Deforestation is a major problem contributing to the climate crisis and finding solutions is imperative to saving the Earth.

In this article, our expert team provides catchy essay topics and research titles about deforestation that you may use for your school or college assignment!

⭐ Top 12 Deforestation Essay Titles

✏️ deforestation essay prompts, 🔎 deforestation research topics, 💡 deforestation essay topics, 🗣️ deforestation topics for speech, 🪵 deforestation debate topics, 🍂 how to write a deforestation essay, 🔗 references.

• Deforestation as the central issue of the 21st century.
• How does deforestation affect wildlife?
• The socioeconomic drivers of deforestation.
• Who is responsible for deforestation?
• Indigenous people’s solutions to deforestation.
• How does deforestation alter bird migration patterns?
• What must we do to protect forests?
• Brazilian and Indonesian deforestation.
• Viable solutions to deforestation.
• Hidden medicinal treasures lost in deforestation.
• The impact of policy on deforestation.
• Are there any benefits of deforestation?

Have you ever found writing an essay on deforestation challenging? Then we have something for you! We’ve prepared deforestation essay prompts that may help you cope with this task.

The Cause and Effect of Deforestation Essay Prompt

Understanding the issue of deforestation requires paying attention to its leading causes and effects. In your essay, you can analyze the main factors contributing to this problem, such as climate change and logging .

Deforestation affects all aspects of the ecosystem, including the cycles of nature that regulate life on Earth, human societies, and the animals whose survival depends on forests. The questions below may be helpful for you in writing about the effects of deforestation:

• What are deforestation’s harmful impacts on the environment?
• How do people get affected by deforestation?
• How does deforestation influence animals?

Danger of Deforestation: Essay Prompt

Around 420 million hectares of forest have been destroyed since 1990. While deforestation has lessened in recent decades, it remains a severe concern. An essay on the dangers of deforestation can raise people’s awareness and save forests worldwide. For instance, you can take the following facts as the basis for your work:

• Deforestation raises the possibility of new pandemics.
• Soil erosion increases as a result of deforestation.
• Deforestation has a significant negative economic impact.
• Air pollution gets worse due to deforestation.
• Forest loss damages biomass and exacerbates climate change.

Deforestation Solutions: Essay Prompt

Stopping deforestation is vital for our planet. It is also one of the quickest and least expensive ways to mitigate global warming. In your essay on how to stop deforestation, you can focus on the following solutions:

• Recycling .
• Implementing “zero deforestation” policies.
• Promoting sustainable choices.
• Reducing the consumption of single-use products .
• Educating people on how our regular acts can affect forests worldwide.
• Reducing meat consumption.

In your essay, you can describe each solution in detail or suggest your own ideas for stopping deforestation.

Problem of Deforestation: Essay Prompt

Forests are an essential component of life on Earth. Deforestation disrupts weather patterns, destroys habitats, and severely affects rural communities, resulting in food insecurity and irreversible damage to entire ecosystems.

To answer the question of how deforestation impacts the environment in your essay, use the tips below:

• Find reasons why people need forests. These include obtaining raw materials (palm oil, fuel), manufacturing, and developing infrastructure.
• Research statistics on deforestation.
• Create a list of things deforestation may impact. For example, it can affect climate, soil pollution, weather, people, wildlife, and food security.
• The role of deforestation in fostering global warming .
• Deforestation as a damaging practice for agricultural expansion.
• The effects of deforestation on soil pollution and the water cycle.
• The biggest victims of deforestation — animals and plants.
• Forest fragmentation and its risks for the environment.
• Loss of watershed protection as one of the most significant consequences of deforestation.
• Deforestation as a leading threat to our environment.
• The rapid destruction of forests and its contribution to a decline in biodiversity.
• Forests and the carbon cycle: the risks of deforestation for the climate.
• Higher temperatures as one of the most severe adverse effects of cutting trees.
• The influence of deforestation on increased flooding .
• Deforestation and its role in intensifying climate change at a dramatic rate.
• The loss of half of the world’s topsoil as a consequence of deforestation.
• The issue of deforestation and methods of solving it.
• Loss of habitat for various animals as an adverse effect of deforestation.
• The contribution of forestation to famine .
• The influence of deforestation on oxygen levels in the atmosphere.
• Pandemics as a harmful result of deforestation.
• Deforestation: consequences for the human population.
• Cutting down trees and its contribution to species extinction.
• The effects of deforestation on food security .
• Deforestation and its impact on the migration of birds and animals.
• Loss of medicinal plants as a potential consequence of deforestation.
• Deforestation: the rise of pollution due to the loss of forests.
• The issue of deforestation in countries of Europe.
• Deforestation as a cause of natural disasters around the world.
• The effects of deforestation on soil erosion and ecosystem resilience.
• Forest loss and its role in soil fertility decline.
• The problem of decreased rainfall due to deforestation and its risks.
• The impact of deforestation on animals: starvation and loss of home.

Deforestation Research Questions

• What is the economic aspect of deforestation?
• How does overpopulation affect deforestation?
• What are the consequences of deforestation for global food security ?
• Why is agribusiness one of the leading causes of deforestation?
• How does deforestation affect the structure of the labor market in local communities?
• What are the difficulties in implementing deforestation laws and regulations?
• What impact does political decentralization have on deforestation management?
• How does deforestation affect the value of land and property in impacted areas?
• Why is illegal logging a severe issue for international trade ?
• What ethical issues result from deforestation?
• What is the economic value of biodiversity loss due to deforestation?
• How can sustainable ecotourism mitigate deforestation’s social effects?
• What legal measures should be taken to limit deforestation?
• How is corruption related to the increase in deforestation?
• What are the social impacts of deforestation?
• How do political decisions and policies impact deforestation rates?
• What economic factors contribute to deforestation?
• How does deforestation affect the cultural heritage of local communities?
• What is the role of businesses and multinational firms in deforestation?
• How does deforestation affect the prices of wood and other products?
• How can public opinion influence deforestation policy?
• What role does government regulation have in reducing deforestation?
• How can social movements affect the policy of cutting down forests?
• Why is increased desertification one of the most severe social impacts of deforestation?
• How does the mining industry contribute to deforestation?
• How can economic incentives reduce deforestation?
• How does deforestation lead to social instability and land rights conflicts?
• Why is foreign investment vital in decreasing deforestation?
• How does the representation of deforestation in the media affect public perception?
• How can communities mitigate the effects of deforestation?

Controversial Research Topics on Deforestation

• What is the positive impact of deforestation on agriculture ?
• Deforestation as a necessity for the economies and people.
• Palm oil boycott and its value in protecting forests.
• The efficiency of planting more trees in decreasing deforestation.
• Why does deforestation mainly occur in underdeveloped tropical countries?
• Developing alternatives to deforestation to decrease the need for tree clearing.
• The role of national parks and reserves in the protection of forest resources.
• How can using less paper protect forests from being cut down?
• Deforestation as a way to build new roads and residential complexes.
• The importance of international agreements in decreasing deforestation rates.
• How effective is recycling in solving deforestation issues?
• Deforestation: the global threat to the creation of medicines.
• Buying certified wood products as a way to stop deforestation.
• Deforestation and its role in economic growth .
• How can agricultural technology and innovation help to stop deforestation?

Topics on Brazil Deforestation for Research Papers

• The financial losses and social setbacks due to deforestation in Brazil.
• Why does Brazil have the highest deforestation rate in the world?
• Brazilian government reducing Amazon’s deforestation .
• The key causes of deforestation of Amazon rainforests.
• How does the production of soybeans contribute to deforestation in Brazil?
• The environmental impacts of deforestation in the Amazon.
• The removal of Brazil’s forests as a serious global issue.
• The impact of deforestation on climatic patterns in the Amazon.
• Mining as the leading cause of cutting down forests in Brazil.
• How much longer will the Amazon rainforest deforestation last?
• Land use and climate change risks in the Amazon due to deforestation.
• Increasing production and slowing Amazon deforestation: methods and strategies.
• How does deforestation in the Amazon affect the rights of indigenous peoples?
• The international pressure on Brazil due to deforestation.
• How does deforestation in the Amazon rainforest affect global CO2 emissions ?
• The role of tropical forests in the global environmental system.
• Burning season in Brazil and its role in the destruction of tropical forests.
• How can Brazil forge its path for developing the Amazon?
• The scientific approach to the deforestation issue in Brazil.
• The impact of deforestation on local climate and biodiversity in the Amazon.
• Why is deforestation of rainforests a global concern in the 21st century?
• The impact of poverty on increasing Amazon deforestation rates.
• The measures that people around the world can take to save tropical forests.
• How effective are judicial measures in curbing illegal logging in the Amazon?
• The long-term effects of deforestation in Brazil on wildlife .
• What sustainable forest management measures can mitigate deforestation in Brazil?
• Amazonian deforestation: causes and possible risks.
• The efficiency of using satellite technology and monitoring systems to track deforestation in Brazil.
• The advantages and disadvantages of UN Environment’s Interfaith Rainforest Initiative.
• The harmful effect of urbanization on Amazon rainforests.
• How do environmental organizations influence deforestation policy in Brazil?

Writing about forest clearance can help you better understand this environmental problem and formulate your attitude toward it. Below, you’ll find topics for your analytical and argumentative essay on deforestation.

Deforestation Argumentative Essay: Topic Ideas

• The responsibility of protecting forests lies only on the government.
• Are trees a limited resource in the modern world?
• Deforestation is vital since it provides people with essential products.
• Educational programs should raise public awareness of deforestation risks.
• National parks and protected areas are crucial for maintaining trees and wildlife.
• Should people be mindful of their consumption habits to stop forest clearance?
• Deforestation makes room for more crops to be grown.
• Sustainable forest management should find a balance between wood extraction and preservation initiatives.
• Logging for valuable timber resources is a significant deforestation driver.
• Should we refuse to buy products made from illegally sourced timber?
• Climate change is partly caused by forest loss.
• Is commercial agriculture a major driver of large-scale deforestation?
• Deforestation is a chance for people to have more job opportunities .
• Indigenous communities play a crucial role in forest preservation.
• Reforestation initiatives should be implemented in the school curriculum.
• Does illegal tree-cutting lead to significant environmental devastation?
• Supporting sustainable products is a vital part of forest protection.
• Indigenous people lose their homes due to deforestation.
• Does deforestation without the consent of local forest communities exacerbate social conflict and violence?
• Deforestation causes sedimentation in rivers and bodies of water.
• Illegal logging involves corruption and may be linked to organized crime networks .
• Voters should support political candidates who prioritize forest conservation.
• Deforestation in the Amazon leads to disruption of ecosystems.
• Minimizing food waste will reduce the need for expanding agricultural land into forests.
• People should minimize paper usage to protect forests around the world.

Deforestation Essay Titles for Analytical Papers

• The rates of Amazon rainforest deforestation due to fire-related causes.
• The analysis of primary forest loss in Ghana.
• How does deforestation affect the economy and social development?
• The trends in agricultural practices and their impact on deforestation.
• The annual tree cover loss in the 2000s in Australia.
• The influence of climate change on deforestation.
• How do deforestation trends differ among continents and regions?
• The factors that contribute to the deforestation of tropical forests.
• The influence of armed conflicts on deforestation.
• The role of corruption in the deforestation process.
• How does urban development affect the need to cut down forests?
• The possible consequences of forest loss for locals in the affected areas.
• The comparison of ecological consequences of various logging methods.
• What modern technologies are used to monitor and prevent deforestation?
• Analysis of the measures and programs for sustainable forest use.
• The leading reasons for forest loss in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The impact of consumer awareness on demand for deforestation-free products.
• How can scientific research contribute to the preservation of forests?
• The health threats that appear as a result of deforestation.
• The prevalence and shifting patterns of illicit logging that lead to deforestation.
• How do natural disasters influence deforestation rates?
• The advantages and disadvantages of reforestation and afforestation trends.
• The peculiarities of deforestation within protected areas and national parks.
• How can deforestation affect climate phenomena such as droughts and floods?
• The methods and strategies for solving the deforestation issue.

Delivering a speech on deforestation is your chance to raise public awareness of this issue and contribute to a societal shift to more sustainable practices . Below are some ideas for your persuasive and informative speech on deforestation.

Deforestation Persuasive Speech: Topic Ideas

• The forest is the world’s largest organism that needs protection.
• What can help to save the rainforest? Your used cell phone!
• We are losing the lungs of the Earth!
• Do you want to live a long, healthy life? Plant a tree!
• The secret power of reforestation.
• Every person must build a house, raise a child, and plant a forest!
• Amazon rainforests are dying! Take responsibility now, not to regret it later!
• Trees are the key climate regulators in the 21st century!
• Humans, animals, and plants rely on the forests for survival.
• Recycle! Reuse! Restore forests!
• If you have been waiting for a sign to act, now is the best time to stop deforestation!
• Why not protect forests to improve the lives of future generations?
• Rainforests are great medicine sources.
• The solution for addressing deforestation is to put a stop to it.
• You are the one who is responsible for forest loss!
• Stop deforestation, and it, in turn, will stop social conflict and violence.
• Keep calm and save our forests!
• We should grow trees, not pollution.
• Let’s do our best to save the rainforest in Brazil!
• How can one tree be a lifesaver for all human civilization?

Topics about Deforestation for Informative Speeches

• The leading causes and consequences of deforestation in the modern world.
• Agriculture and its contribution to deforestation in Singapore.
• What would the world without trees look like?
• The role of recycling in solving the deforestation problem.
• How does deforestation contribute to climate change?
• The role of forests in maintaining freshwater sources.
• What are the modern methods of combating deforestation in Europe?
• The importance of planting trees and restoring forests to combat deforestation.
• The global scale of the deforestation issue.
• The effects of wildfires in deforested areas.
• What are some forest conservation organizations?
• Top 10 actions you can take to save Amazon rainforests.
• The importance of raising awareness about deforestation.
• Where is deforestation happening around the world?
• Chocolate and biscuits are major contributors to deforestation.
• How does forest loss affect air quality and pollution levels?
• The reasons why we should care about the loss of forests.
• Top 12 things you should know about deforestation.
• The influence of consumer choices on deforestation trends.
• What are the economic and social consequences of deforestation?
• Logging: a benefit to society or a threat to forests?
• Are developed countries obligated to give financial aid to combat deforestation?
• Deforestation: the driver of climate change or profitable job opportunity?
• Is deforestation necessary for economic growth?
• Combating deforestation: stricter regulations or recycling policies?
• Are forest fires inevitable consequences of deforestation?
• Deforestation: banned or legal around the world?
• Is the issue of deforestation sensationalized in the media?
• The greatest threat to forests: agriculture or urbanization?
• The practical strategies of dealing with deforestation: reforestation vs. conservation .
• Is deforestation a displacement of Indigenous rights?
• Should governments implement forest taxation policies?
• Does deforestation in one country impact the global environment?
• Should big corporations implement a zero-deforestation policy in their supply chains?
• Ecotourism: does it promote forest conservation or encourage deforestation?

We have prepared helpful tips on how to write a well-structured essay on deforestation. Some practical examples are also waiting for you below!

Deforestation Essay Introduction

First impressions matter in all aspects of life, including writing. Your introductions serve as a transition point for your readers, taking them from their daily lives into the world of your ideas and insights.

A compelling introduction includes the following components.

Deforestation Thesis Statement

A thesis statement makes an argumentative claim about a topic. It is one of the most challenging essay parts, so let’s look at how to write it in detail. Here are the steps you should take to create a solid thesis statement:

• Choose your essay topic.
• Identify your controlling idea — what aspect of the topic you’ll argue about.
• Determine the purpose of the paper — what stance you’ll defend.
• Write a rough thesis statement.
• Polish your thesis statement if needed.

Deforestation Essay: Body Paragraphs

It is crucial to divide your text into logical paragraphs to help the reader understand the flow of your ideas. An effective body paragraph has 3 main elements.

Conclusion on Deforestation

Writing a conclusion can occasionally be challenging. Nonetheless, it is essential since it can significantly impact how the reader perceives your essay.

Follow the steps below to compose a perfect conclusion.

We hope our catchy essay topics and research titles about deforestation will aid you in achieving academic success! You can also try our online topic generator to get more ideas!

• Deforestation: Facts, Causes & Effects | Live Science
• Deforestation | National Geographic
• Deforestation | European Commission
• Then and Now: Why Deforestation Is Such a Hot Topic | BBC
• How Does Deforestation Affect Biodiversity? | The Royal Society
• Deforestation | Earth Data
• Why Do Forests Matter? | UN Environment Programme
• Forest Pulse: The Latest on the World’s Forests | World Resources Institute
• Deforestation | My NASA Data

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