Post by account_disabled on Mar 5, 2024 9:42:44 GMT
Did you know that combating deforestation is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations? Both deforestation and desertification, caused by human activities and climate change, pose serious challenges to sustainable development and have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. For this reason, SDG number 15 highlights the need to address the threats that wildlife species and ecosystems face as a result of deforestation. This is a new challenge for present and future generations. Without going any further, the activist Greta Thunberg stated in one of her speeches that the global climate crisis “ is the most important crisis that humanity has ever faced” and added that humans have a great capacity to adapt, but that only “when We become aware, we act and we change . ” In this article, you can learn what this concept consists of and what the causes and consequences of deforestation are. CTA - Text What is deforestation Before starting to learn about its effects, it is important to know the meaning of the concept “deforestation” and its relationship with terms such as desertification or climate change.
The Dictionary of the Spanish Language (DLE) defines deforestation as “stripping land of forest plants.” In this way, it is a phenomenon, caused by the impact of human activities or natural causes, which results in the loss of forests and jungles. According to the 2021 Deforestation Fronts Report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in the last 13 years, more than 43 million hectares of forest have been devastated, an area equivalent to the size of the state of California Europe Mobile Number List in the United States. Without a doubt, these data reflect the pressing need to focus on the protection of the areas most at risk of suffering these devastating effects. In this sense, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia were three of the countries that suffered the most from the consequences of deforestation in 2020, which recorded the greatest loss of primary forests in their territories, according to the latest report . from Global Forest Watch. Causes of deforestation in the world Understanding what this phenomenon is is essential if we want to find effective solutions to stop its advance.
Although its causes are due to multiple factors, both natural and human, the consequences of deforestation are irreversible in the environment. Below we present some of the causes. Natural factors Among natural factors, there are diseases that trees contract, parasites and forest fires that, in addition to destroying ecosystems and biodiversity, release enormous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. In fact, according to data from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), forest fires in 2019 emitted 7.8 billion tons of CO2 , the equivalent of 25 times the annual emissions of Spain. Human factors However, human actions, such as the uncontrolled expansion of agriculture due to population growth and the need to obtain resources, the construction of infrastructure, mining activities or urbanization , are mainly responsible for deforestation around the world with uncontrolled felling of trees. Consequences of deforestation Deforestation is one of the major environmental problems facing the planet today and, therefore, it is urgent to take measures to help reduce the damage it causes . Among the main consequences of deforestation are: Economic and environmental instability : natural spaces, such as forests and jungles, are direct sources of raw materials, fuel and components of medicines, so, in the long term, the lack of these resources can also lead to economic and environmental instability.