Forests: this data is primarily sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). They are also richer sites of biodiversity. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings. When we treat these impacts equally we make it difficult to prioritize our efforts in the fight against deforestation. (2010) looked at the primary drivers of deforestation and degradation across tropical and subtropical countries specifically.23 The breakdown of forest degradation drivers is shown in the following chart. Countries below the line such as the UK and Germany are not growing forests fast enough to offset the deforestation theyre creating elsewhere. Belhaven Press. But its not the case for deforestation. Noriko Hosonuma et al. Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. But it can bridge between deforestation and degradation depending on the timeframe and permanence of these agricultural practices. But the solution is not so simple. Not only would this be bad for people, it might also be bad for forests. This rapid swapping of green for gray is harmful to the people living in these spaces, and it sets cities up for long-term environmental decline, according to the scientists. The default is shown for Brazil, but you can explore the data for a range of countries using the Change country button. Loss of Biodiversity: Forests are the only liveable habitat for a variety of species around the globe many of which have not even have been discovered. And its not just in forests eitherits also happening on farms, in cities, and on private property. How many trees have been cut down? How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? How many trees does IKEA cut down a What if this deforestation is being driven by consumers elsewhere? Rome. Approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are being cut each year according to a report referenced on the Rainforest Action Networks website (RAN) and other publications. In the coming decades this is where we might expect to see the most rapid loss of forests unless these countries take action to prevent it, and the world supports them in the goal. Forests are mainly cut and burned to make space for local, subsistence agriculture or for fuelwood for energy. Loss of Biodiversity: Forests are the only liveable habitat for a variety of species around the globe many of which have not even have been discovered. This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. On the x-axis we have imported deforestation. It would be good if there was data available that would capture these additional aspects. A note on UN FAO forestry data Data on net forest change, afforestation and deforestation is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations Forest Resources Assessment. Latin America exports around 23% of its emissions; that means more than three-quarters are generated for products that are consumed within domestic markets. Forest loss or tree loss captures two fundamental impacts on forest cover: deforestation and forest degradation. By combining our earlier Sankey diagram, and breakdown of emissions by product, we can see that we can tackle a large share of these emissions through only a few key trade flows. Forestry production and wildfires usually result in forest degradation the forest experiences short-term disturbance but if left alone is likely to regrow. As of 2020, the UN estimates the planet is losing over 7,000,000 hectares per year to deforestation.27Between 1990 and 2015, the world lost 129 million hectares of forest an area about the size of South Africa.11 Natural forests lost by continent9include: Africa 3.2 million hectares 40% of traded deforestation ends up in high-income countries, meaning they are responsible for 12% of deforestation.29. The breakdown of deforestation by region is shown in the chart. It assumes the impact of clearing primary rainforest in the Amazon to produce soybeans is the same as logging planted forests in the UK. This is very close to our estimate of a one-third loss. This is probably less than many people would expect. As mentioned above, about 15 billion trees are cut down each year. They are smaller, and more temporary. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. Thats equivalent to the area of South Africa. estimate a 35% loss of global forest cover since 10,000. Thats more than the countrys CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, which are around 2.2 tonnes per person. Approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are being cut each year according to a report referenced on the Rainforest Action Networks website (RAN) and other publications. Brazil, for example, went through a period of very rapid deforestation in the 1980s and 90s (its early transition phase) but its losses have slowed, meaning it is now in the late transition. The course and drivers of the forest transition: the case of France. Global deforestation peaked in the 1980s. Environmental Research Letters, 14(5), 055003. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. Geographical Journal, 166(1), 2-13. This emphasises two important points. 38. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. Net forest loss is not the same as deforestation it measures deforestation plus any gains in forest over a given period. Why should we care most about tropical deforestation? Firstly, international trade does play a role in deforestation its responsible for almost one-third of emissions. But international markets alone cannot fix this problem. Given the current estimate of the total tree cover on the planet, that could equate to about 0.11% of trees being cut each year. The carbon footprint of diets across the EU vary from country-to-country, and estimates vary depending on how much land use change is factored into these figures. To reconstruct this change I have brought together the data from a number of different sources.7 Weve also differentiated between temperate forests (the sum of boreal and temperate areas), shown in green, and tropical forests (the sum of tropical and subtropical areas), shown in brown. In a previous article I showed that the types of food you eat matter much more for your carbon footprint than where it comes from this is because transport usually makes up a small percentage of your foods emissions, even if it comes from the other side of the world. Are they causing more deforestation elsewhere than they are regenerating in forests at home? We can calculate this increase as [(7.63 billion 3.09 billion) / 3.09 billion * 100 = 147%]. Environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe. 95% of global deforestation occurs in the tropics. Not all forest is equal. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? (2018), published in Science.20, Commodity-driven deforestation and urbanization are deforestation: the forested land is completely cleared and converted into another land use a farm, mining site, or city. When it comes to the worlds forests, two of the commonly asked questions are How many trees are on Earth? and How many trees are cut down each year? The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. (2020). What this showed was that although humans have been deforesting the planet for millennia, the rate of forest loss accelerated rapidly in the last few centuries. The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) If you struggle to increase crop yields but want to produce more food, then expanding your agricultural land is the only option. Without reliable metrics that capture all of these differences, we will have to stick with total changes in forest area for now. Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. An area the size of the United States. Countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are in the early transition phase and are losing forests quickly. This is calculated by taking each countrys imported deforestation and subtracting its exported deforestation. The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data. Tropical forests are often more productive than temperate forests, meaning they store more carbon. Globally we deforest around ten million hectares of forest every year.11 Thats an area the size of Portugal every year. 71% of deforestation is for domestic production. As we will see later, this is dominated by palm oil exports to Europe, China, India, North America and the Middle East. Deforestation in Africa is mainly driven by local populations and markets; only 9% of its emissions are exported. This helps consumers understand what products they should be concerned about, but also allows us to target specific supply chains. One of the reasons poorer countries clear forest to make room for farmland is that they achieve low crop yields. [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. Mather, A. S. (2004). These countries might have high levels of afforestation at home, but theyre still having a net negative impact on the size of the worlds forests. Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. I have therefore excluded these categories so we can focus on how habitable land is used. Most traded emissions are embedded in soy and palm oil exports to China and India; and beef, soy and palm oil exports to Europe. Humanitys biggest footprint is due to what we eat, not where we live. And to identify where deforestation is occurring; perhaps as important, show where forest loss is not deforestation. Note that this only measures the emissions from tropical deforestation it doesnt include any other emissions from agricultural production, such as methane from livestock, or rice, or the use of fertilizers. The same is true of the United States; back in 1630 46% of the area of todays USA was covered by forest. Less than one-third (29%) is for the production of goods that are traded. Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., & Hansen, M. C. (2018). Across the US and Europe the breakdown of products is more varied. But we should keep these important aspects in mind when comparing forest losses and gains. The UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Several studies have assessed the stage of countries across the world.17 The most recent analysis to date was published by Florence Pendrill and colleagues (2019) which looked at each countrys stage in the transition, the drivers of deforestation but also the role of international trade.18 To do this, they used the standard metrics discussed in our theory of forest transitions earlier: the share of land that is forested, and the annual change in forest cover. Countries which lie above the grey line such as the United States, Finland, China restore more forest each year domestically than they import from elsewhere. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. If we fast-forward to 1700 when the global population had increased more than ten-fold, to 603 million. If we look at where countries are in their transition today we can understand where we expect to lose and gain forest in the coming decades. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. This increase was mostly driven by tropical deforestation as countries across Asia and Latin America followed the path of Europe and North America. Global deforestation reached its peak in the 1980s. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. It was a net importer. Notarnicola et al. At the top of the list we see some of the major producer countries Brazil and Indonesia. [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of Forests, biodiversity and people. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, reducing meat and dairy intake particularly beef and lamb has the largest impact. The amount of land per person that was needed to produce enough food was not small in fact, it was much larger than today. How much forest has the world lost? You have permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited. In a study published in Global Environmental Change, Florence Pendrill and colleagues investigated where tropical deforestation was occurring; what products were driving this; and, using global trade models, they traced where these products were going in international supply chains.34, They found that tropical deforestation given as the annual average between 2010 and 2014 was responsible for 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. Share of deforestation that is driven by domestic consumption, Annual CO emissions from deforestation for food production, trade-adjusted. How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? This map shows the net change in forest cover across the world. Since the end of the last great ice age 10,000 years ago the world has lost one-third of its forests.5 Two billion hectares of forest an area twice the size of the United States has been cleared to grow crops, raise livestock, and use for fuelwood.