Deforestation: The Reasons Forests Should Be Protected

The causes of deforestation which is development of agriculture and economic pressure has lead to several effects which is not only affects the people, but plants, animals and environment. These effects has negative impacts especially on land and biodiversity. Deforestation has many effects toward every species on the earth and environment, and one of the impact is on land. The biggest problem will be faced by earth after deforestation is soil erosion (Lindsey, 2007). The soil was attached by the tree roots, so without it the soil was easily eroded as the nutrients content is lost. The erosion are getting higher and the lost of nutrient provided by living plants will happened after the slash and burn method. Soil erosion was caused by planting commercial crops like palm oil because the soil cannot hold onto the roots. Besides soil erosion, landslides and flooding occurred with same reasons. The soil become compacted when the area has turned into cattle grazing, and it will be hard to recover the forests. For example, soil erosion has reduced the crop harvests during the Maya civilization because the soil had been washed away from the hills. The wars for food between the Mayas began because of the loss of food production, and death rates were very high (Pakenham, 2005). Infertile soil will cause eco-system become worst that can affects animals and plants who live in the forests and their habitats. 

Another effect of deforestation is it harms the biodiversity (Lindsey, 2007). Tropical rainforests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. Based on National Geographic (2009), around seventy and eighty percent of world’s plants and animals live in the forests. Deforestation which is massive destruction of forests has caused the loss of their habitats, and it is hard for them to survive (Bradford, 2015). Because of their habitats have been destroyed, it will lead to the extinction of the species (Pakenham, 2005). The extinction rate were expected to rise between 7000 and 27000 species a year (WRI, 1993).

To illustrate, tigers have lost 93% of their historical range because their habitat has been destroyed to clear the trees for agriculture (WWF, 2018). The negative impact of extinction is considerably loss of beneficial medical plants as deforestation kill off plants that promise cures for countless disease (Golden and Miller 1994). For example, a small plant native to Madagascar called Catharanthus roseus has medical properties as it was very effective in the treatment of cancer (Wilson, 1989). One of the five other species of Catharanthus was very close to extinction because its habitat was threatened by deforestation. The last couple of decades, our world has lost so many species of plants and animals because of deforestation (Conserve Energy Future, 2013).

To conclude, deforestation is an important issue that need to be prevented. It was a huge concern nowadays since the number of trees were cut down rises. It happened due to the growth in population, and the need of people to provide agricultural land and faces the economic pressure. Deforestation has caused fewer trees to grow, so it leads to soil erosion as there are no nutrients provided and the loss of habitats that caused species to become extinct. President Ramiro de Leon Carpio of neighbouring Guatemala has said, “If we fail to preserve the rain forests, more people will die than have perished in world wars..”. Deforestation is a part of people’s action, so people are responsible to prevent what have they done, and find solutions to save the world.