One of the biggest threats facing wild animal populations as well as human populations is deforestation. Since 1990 the world has lost 420 million hectares (a billion acres) of forest predominantly in countries in Africa and South America. About 17 percent of the Amazonian has been destroyed over the last fifty years. The organization, Amazon Conservation, also reported that forest destruction rose by twenty one percent in 2021, a loss the size of Israel.
Farming, grazing of livestock, mining, and drilling make up more than half of all deforestation. Forestry practices, wildfires, and urbanization account for the rest. Logging operations, some of which are illegal, also play an important role in deforestation. Many loggers build roads to access more remote forests which leads to further deforestation. In countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, forests are cut down to make room for farms that produce palm oil, an ingredient that is found in many household items including food products as well as products like shampoos and conditioners.
Of course, deforestation effects the many animal populations that live in these forests. For example, Orangutan populations (one of the great apes) are heavily impacted by the creation of palm oil farms in Malaysia and Indonesia. This species has been living in these rainforests for hundreds of years and rely heavily on their habitat for food and shelter. These animals reproduce slowly, therefore it is incredibly hard to rebuild their populations so, they are currently on the endangered species list. However, deforestation also heavily impacts humans. Around 250 million people rely on forests for subsistence as well as income, many of them among the world’s rural poor. Trees are also necessary for human life for a variety of reasons including the fact that they absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and they trap greenhouse gases that human activities emit. It is extremely important for the sake of animal populations as well as human populations that countries begin heavily regulating deforestation.
What’s happening in the Amazon is heart breaking. They are cutting down a ton of forest land to raise cattle and grow soy. It really comes down to a now vs future mentality. In a country like Brazil where there’s a lot of poverty, it makes sense that people prioritize income over environmental well-being. They can’t afford to think about the impact their actions have on tomorrow. It’s the sad reality that I don’t have a solution to.