how many trees are cut down each yearhow many trees are cut down each year
Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. This is true for some problems, such as climate change. Deforestation displaced: trade in forest-risk commodities and the prospects for a global forest transition. Licenses: All visualizations, data, and articles produced by Our World in Data are open access under the Creative Commons BY license. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. 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. In just over 100 years the world lost as much forest as it had in the previous 9,000 years. Thats an area 1.5-times the size of the United States. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. Without reliable metrics that capture all of these differences, we will have to stick with total changes in forest area for now. Across temperate forests the world gained 6 million hectares in the last decade. What activities are driving this? Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. Stage 3 The Late Transition phase is when deforestation rates start to slow down again. As we covered in a previous article, 60% of tropical deforestation is driven by beef, soybean and palm oil production. 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. Agricultural and urban land: The UN FAO Statistical database provides data on global agricultural and urban land from 1961 onwards. Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? It breaks the change in forests into four stages, explained by two variables: the amount of forest cover a region has, and the annual change in cover (how quickly it is losing or gaining forest).15. The fact that the per capita emissions after trade are very high means that a lot of their food products are consumed by people in Brazil and Indonesia. 14% of deforestation is driven by consumers in the worlds richest countries we import beef, vegetable oils, cocoa, coffee and paper that has been produced on deforested land.12. The history of deforestation is a tragic one, in which we not only lost these wild and beautiful landscapes but also the wildlife within them. The United Nations, as well as experts at the World Wildlife Fund and Global Forest Watch, found that one million animals are in danger of extinction as a result of how much deforestation has occurred. Forests: this data is primarily sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Humans have already destroyed around 46% of the trees on Earth. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. The 11-month balance shows that 1,539,970 trees were cut down each day, which means 1,059 trees per minute or almost 18 trees per second. Not all forest loss is equal: what is the difference between deforestation and forest degradation? The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. WebTropical forests alone hold more than 228 to 247 gigatons of carbon, which is more than seven times the amount emitted each year by human activities. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forest Resources Assessment estimates global deforestation, averaged over the five-year period from 2015 to 2020 was 10 million hectares per year. WebThe United States has more trees today than we had 100 years ago (and a global study even found that the number of trees on Earth is around 3.04 trillion, a much higher number than previously believed.) Rural Sociology, 63(4), 533-552. Humans have been cutting down trees for millennia. Healthy environment: One hundred mature trees catch about 139,000 gallons of rainwater per year. The consumption choices of people in these countries cause deforestation elsewhere in the world. But we also see that some countries which import a lot of food have high emissions. 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. People cut down 15 billion trees each year and the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. Improvements in agricultural productivity tends to both drive and follow economic growth. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Habitat loss is the leading driver of global biodiversity loss.25 When we cut down rainforests we are destroying the habitats of many unique species, and reshaping these ecosystems permanently. From 1850 to 1920, losses were around 50% higher at 30 million hectares per decade thats like losing a forested area the size of Italy every 10 years. Lets now focus on the consumers of products driving deforestation. The change is temporary. 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. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. Stage 2 The Early Transition phase is when countries start to lose forests very rapidly. Environmental Research Letters, 14(5), 055003. Nearly half (47%) of France was forested 1000 years ago; today thats just under one-third (31.4%). After seeing this data, people might argue that we should cut back on trade. The rate of forest loss changed a lot. Data on net forest change, afforestation and deforestation is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations Forest Resources Assessment. (2019) quantified the deforestation embedded in traded goods between countries.30 They did this by calculating the amount of deforestation associated with specific food and forestry products, and combining it with a trade model. are added every year. 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. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, reducing meat and dairy intake particularly beef and lamb has the largest impact. Urbanization, the other driver of deforestation accounts for just 0.6%. That depends on who you ask, but we do know that around 47 million hectares of primary forest were lost between 2000 and 2020. This might paint a bleak picture for the future of the worlds forests: the United Nations projects that the global population will continue to grow, reaching 10.8 billion by 2100. How many trees have been cut down? WebEvery year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. If we can take advantage of these innovations, we can bring deforestation to an end. We see very clearly that the large Brazilian footprint is driven by its domestic demand for beef. 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. These are big numbers, and important ones to track: forest loss creates a number of negative impacts, ranging from carbon emissions to species extinctions and biodiversity loss. At the beginning of this phase, the forest area is at its lowest point. In 2012 the mid-year of this period global emissions from fossil fuels, industry and land use change was 40.2 billion tonnes. Net forest loss is not the same as deforestation it measures deforestation plus any gains in forest over a given period. Since three-quarters of tropical deforestation is driven by agriculture, thats a valid concern. We manage to capture some of these differences in carbon in our related article on deforestation emissions embedded in trade. A new study published in Nature estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion trees. The world passed peaked deforestation in the 1980s and it has been on the decline since then we take a look at rates of forest loss since 1700 in our follow-up post. Global deforestation reached its peak in the 1980s. The biodiversity of managed tree plantations which are periodically cut, regrown, cut again, then regrown is not the same. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. We see massive differences in how important each driver is across the world. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. Since agriculture is responsible for 60 to 80% of it, what we eat, where its sourced from, and how it is produced is our strongest lever to bring deforestation to an end. Brazil, in contrast, caused more deforestation domestically in the production of goods for other countries than it imported from elsewhere. Since 1961, the amount of land we use for agriculture increased by only 7%. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. Are they causing more deforestation elsewhere than they are regenerating in forests at home? Shifting agriculture is usually classified as degradation because the land is often abandoned and the forests regrow naturally. For the past 30 years, temperate regions have seen a continued increase in forest cover through afforestation: you see this as the bars are now positive (pointing upwards). The 11-month balance shows that 1,539,970 trees were cut down each day, which means 1,059 trees per minute or almost 18 trees per second. From 1700 to 1850, 19 million hectares were being cleared every decade. The remaining 73% came from the three drivers of forest degradation: logging of forestry products from plantations (26%); shifting, local agriculture (24%); and wildfires (23%). That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. Rudel, T. K., Coomes, O. T., Moran, E., Achard, F., Angelsen, A., Xu, J., & Lambin, E. (2005). It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, It was predominantly temperate forests that were being lost at this time. The United Nations, as well as experts at the World Wildlife Fund and Global Forest Watch, found that one million animals are in danger of extinction as a result of how much deforestation has occurred. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. Notarnicola et al. 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. In most rich countries, across Europe, North America and East Asia, forest cover is increasing, whilst in many low-to-middle income countries its decreasing. On the left-hand side we have the countries (grouped by region) where deforestation occurs, and on the right we have the countries and regions where these products are consumed. Explore more of our work on Forests and Deforestation, Anthropogenic Biomes: 10,000 BCE to 2015 CE, The course and drivers of the forest transition: the case of France, The relationships of population and forest trends, An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries, Increasing human dominance of tropical forests, Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion, Forest transition theory and the reforesting of Scotland, Is there a forest transition? Belhaven Press. The definition of forest can vary depending on aspects such as tree density and height. 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. As mentioned above, about 15 billion trees are cut down each year. It would be good if there was data available that would capture these additional aspects. Thats an area the size of the United Kingdom. This diagram is adapted from the work of Hosonuma et al. 95% of the worlds deforestation occurs in the tropics [we look at this breakdown again later]. Please consult our full legal disclaimer. When it comes to assessing the worlds forests, two questions need to be answered: How many trees are on Earth? and. Mather, A. S., Fairbairn, J., & Needle, C. L. (1999). Centuries ago it was mainly temperate regions that were driving global deforestation [we take a look at this longer history of deforestation in a related article]. This is measured in hectares, which is equivalent to 10,000 m. In a previous post we looked at this change in global forests over the long-run. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings. Africas emissions are high because people are clearing forests to produce more food. But we should keep these important aspects in mind when comparing forest losses and gains. Deforestation, reforestation, and development, Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change, Economic development and forest cover: evidence from satellite data, Deforestation displaced: trade in forest-risk commodities and the prospects for a global forest transition, Classifying drivers of global forest loss, What we know and dont know about Earths missing biodiversity, Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers, Tropical forests and the changing earth system, Types and rates of forest disturbance in Brazilian Legal Amazon, 20002013, Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions, Environmental impacts of food consumption in Europe. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. How many trees are cut down each year? Forestry production and wildfires usually result in forest degradation the forest experiences short-term disturbance but if left alone is likely to regrow. Countries may lose some forest each year, but this is at a very slow rate. Do rich countries import deforestation from overseas? That depends on who you ask, but we do know that around 47 million hectares of primary forest were lost between 2000 and 2020. In the chart we see the comparison between the change in domestic forest area, and deforestation driven by imported goods.33 On the vertical axis we have the domestic change in forest area: this is shown only for countries where the forest area is increasing. All of our charts can be embedded in any site. By Georgina Rannard. 1000 years ago, 20% of Scotlands land was covered by forest. Meanwhile, the global population increased by 147% from 3.1 to 7.6 billion.4 This means that agricultural land per person more than halved, from 1.45 to 0.63 hectares. For example, the average German generated half a tonne (510 kilograms) of CO2 per person from domestic and imported foods. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. The breakdown of forest loss globally, and by region, is shown in the chart.22. How much deforestation happens every day? Population growth meant that todays rich countries across Europe and North America needed more and more resources such as land for agriculture, wood for energy, and for construction.8. To do this, they quantified where deforestation was occurring due to the expansion of croplands, pasture and tree plantations (for logging), and what commodities were produced on this converted land. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. How much forest has the world lost? Its the foods and products we buy, not where we live, that has the biggest impact on global land use. In the chart we see the decadal losses and gains in global forest cover. 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. Thats both an economic and environmental win. Countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are in the early transition phase and are losing forests quickly. Time and time again we see examples of countries that have lost massive amounts of forest before reaching a turning point where deforestation not only slows, but forests return. The trees are not expected to regrow. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. [1] That's 15.3 billion every year. Historical data pre-1990 is sourced from Michael Williams book, Deforesting the Earth: from prehistory to global crisis. There is some bad news, though: that number is likely to increase by 20% by 2023. Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., & Kastner, T. (2019). Forests, biodiversity and people. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. are added every year. 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. Luxembourg has the largest footprint at nearly three tonnes per person. It might seem odd to argue that we should focus our efforts on tackling this quarter of forest loss (rather than the other 73%). That these countries have recently regained forests is also visible in the long-term forest trends above. Deforestation, reforestation, and development. Another way that richer countries can contribute is by investing in technologies such as improved seed varieties, fertilizers and agricultural practices that allow farmers to increase yields. FAO. 38. 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