Deforestation Causes & Scale
Understand the causes and scale of rainforest deforestation: cattle ranching (largest driver in the Amazon), soy and palm oil plantations, logging for timber, and mining, and know that approximately 10 million hectares of forest are lost globally each year, with devastating consequences for biodiversity, climate, and indigenous communities
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name at least three major causes of deforestation: cattle ranching, palm oil, soy, logging, and mining
- State that approximately 10 million hectares of forest are lost globally each year
- Explain the impact of deforestation on at least two of: biodiversity, climate, and indigenous peoples
1 · Read
You know rainforests hold more than half of all the kinds of plants and animals scientists have found. But every year, people cut down millions of trees in rainforests around the world. It is not just one reason. Four big things drive most of it: raising cattle, growing soy and palm oil, logging for wood, and mining for metals and minerals. Farmers grow soy and palm oil to sell for food and goods around the world.
Around 10 million hectares of forest disappear across the globe every year. A hectare is about the size of a soccer field, so picture millions of soccer fields vanishing every year. All together, that is roughly the size of a whole country like South Korea, gone in just twelve months.
In the Amazon, a rancher clears a patch of forest by cutting the trees and often burning what is left. Grass grows in its place, and cattle graze there instead of a living forest. Multiply that one patch by thousands of ranches, and you get a huge chunk of the missing 10 million hectares.
When a rainforest disappears, more than trees are lost. Animals lose their homes, the climate loses a place that stores carbon, and indigenous communities lose land they have lived on for generations. Scientists call this rich variety of living things biodiversity.
Rainforests are cut down mostly for cattle, crops like soy and palm oil, logging, and mining, and the world loses about 10 million hectares every year, hurting wildlife, climate, and the people who call the forest home.
More to read
Interdisciplinary Lesson: Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest helps the whole planet. It makes oxygen, holds carbon, and is home to millions of plants and animals. But parts of it are being cut down by logging and farming. Indigenous peoples, like the Surui of Brazil, have lived in the forest for a very long time and know how to care for it. The Surui use phones, computers, and GPS to watch for people cutting down trees illegally, and they report it so the forest can be protected. This lesson shows that the Amazon matters to everyone, even kids far away, and that people can use technology and teamwork to fight deforestation.
Introduction
Right now, many kinds of living things are disappearing from Earth faster than ever before. One of the biggest reasons is habitat destruction, which means the places where plants and animals live are being destroyed. Cutting down forests, called deforestation, is a major cause. This is especially true in tropical rainforests like the Amazon in Brazil. Satellite pictures taken from space show huge patches of rainforest gone, cleared by people. When the forest disappears, the animals and plants that lived there lose their homes and food, and many species die out. Protecting forests protects biodiversity, which is the amazing variety of life on Earth.
26.4 The Role of Seed Plants
Plants do so much for life on Earth. Their roots hold soil in place, their leaves make the oxygen we breathe, and they give food and shelter to countless animals. When people cut down forests, all of this is at risk. Deforestation threatens plant biodiversity, meaning many kinds of plants can be lost forever. Losing plants hurts the whole ecosystem, because animals depend on plants to survive, and people do too. Every forest cleared for farms, ranches, timber, or mines removes plants that took many years to grow. Keeping forests standing keeps soil healthy, air clean, and countless species alive.
10 Ways to Save Trees
Trees clean our air and give homes to wildlife, so saving them matters. One way to help is to avoid products made with palm oil when you can. Palm oil is used in many snacks, soaps, and other products. To grow oil palm trees, farmers clear huge areas of rainforest, about 27 million hectares in total. That land was once forest full of animals like orangutans and tigers. When the forest is cut down for palm oil plantations, those animals lose their homes. Checking labels and choosing products without palm oil, or with palm oil grown without clearing forests, is one small way kids and families can help protect rainforests.
Putting It All Together (Water Cycle, Deforestation, and Climate Change #4)
Forests are part of Earth's water cycle. Trees pull water from the ground and release it into the air, which helps make rain. When people cut down forests, less water moves into the air, so rainfall patterns can change and places can become drier. Deforestation also affects climate change. Trees store carbon, and when they are cut or burned, that carbon goes into the atmosphere and warms the planet. In this lesson, students connect these ideas and make an infographic to teach others about how weather, climate, forests, and human actions are all linked. It shows that cutting down forests does not just hurt trees, it changes weather and climate for everyone.
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2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.