Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. 71% of this is driven by demand in domestic markets, and the remaining 29% for the production of products that are traded. Stage 2 The Early Transition phase is when countries start to lose forests very rapidly. Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. Thats an area the size of the United Kingdom. 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.) Its domestic demand, not international trade, that is the main driver of deforestation. 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. How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? We see one such transition in the chart: the forest loss in the temperate regions shown as the green part of the bars peaked much earlier than the global forest loss. Over the decade since 2010, the net loss in forests globally was 4.7 million hectares per year.1 However, deforestation rates were much significantly higher. Data on the annual change in domestic forests is sourced from the UN FAOs Forest Resources Assessment. Many rich countries are driving deforestation in other parts of the world, but are regrowing forests domestically. The consumption choices of people in these countries cause deforestation elsewhere in the world. This emphasises two important points. 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. The trees are not expected to regrow. 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. 2020. Deforestation tends to occur on forests that have been around for centuries, if not millennia. How do these two measures compare? Global Environmental Change, 15(1), 23-31. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. 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. There is some bad news, though: that number is likely to increase by 20% by 2023. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. Today thats just 34%. How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? A new study published in Nature estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion trees. This increase was mostly driven by tropical deforestation as countries across Asia and Latin America followed the path of Europe and North America. 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. 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. By combining our earlier Sankey diagram, and breakdown of emissions by product, we can see that we can tackle a large share of these emissions through only a few key trade flows. Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down every year. This was first coined by Alexander Mather in the 1990s.Mather, A. S. (1990). 38. Carbon emissions from deforestation: are they driven by domestic demand or international trade? When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. We therefore look at them both individually in more detail, to better understand what we can do about it. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. They also contribute to global deforestation through the foods they import from poorer countries. In the chart we see how emissions from tropical deforestation are distributed through international supply chains. WebHealthy trees mean: Healthy people: 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants per year. How much do people in rich countries contribute to deforestation overseas? 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? The amount of land per person that was needed to produce enough food was not small in fact, it was much larger than today. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. Loss of Biodiversity: Forests are the only liveable habitat for a variety of species around the globe many of which have not even have been discovered. As we covered in a previous article, 60% of tropical deforestation is driven by beef, soybean and palm oil production. Thats a lot of 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. For example, Ellis et al. Mather, A. S., Fairbairn, J., & Needle, C. L. (1999). Types and rates of forest disturbance in Brazilian Legal Amazon, 20002013. Nearly half (47%) of France was forested 1000 years ago; today thats just under one-third (31.4%). This highlights an important point: less than 20% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to clean fuels for cooking, meaning they still rely on wood and charcoal. Not all forest is equal. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Data on net forest change, afforestation and deforestation is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations Forest Resources Assessment. With increasing development, urbanization and access to other energy resources, Africa will shift from local, subsistence activities into commercial commodity production both in agricultural products and timber extraction. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. Absolute estimates of forest cover from other sources may differ for this reason. Are they causing more deforestation elsewhere than they are regenerating in forests at home? 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. After we adjust for imports and exports, how much CO2 from deforestation is each country responsible for? For example, the US imported 64,000 hectares of deforested land, but increased its domestic forest area by 275,000 hectares. Nearly all 95% of this deforestation occurs in the tropics. FAO. Loss of Biodiversity: Forests are the only liveable habitat for a variety of species around the globe many of which have not even have been discovered. Stage 4 The Post-Transition phase is when countries have passed the transition point and are now gaining forest again. Brazil, in contrast, caused more deforestation domestically in the production of goods for other countries than it imported from elsewhere. Thats a lot of trees! How many trees are cut down each year? The United States is the worlds largest consumer (and second largest producer, after Canada) of forest products. The Earth System (Vol. Healthy communities: Tree-filled neighborhoods lower levels of domestic violence and are safer and more sociable. Forests: this data is primarily sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 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. 95% of global deforestation occurs in the tropics. Why? The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. Many consumers are concerned that their food choices are linked to deforestation in some of these hotspots. Rome. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers. At the end of this stage, countries are approaching the transition point. This is measured in hectares, which is equivalent to 10,000 m. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. This demand for resources and land is not always driven by domestic markets. Humans have already destroyed around 46% of the trees on Earth. Journal of Rural Studies, 15(1), 65-90.Mather, A. S., & Needle, C. L. (2000). WebEvery year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. This interactive map shows deforestation rates across the world. Decisionmakers could give as much of our attention to European logging as to destruction of the Amazon. Africa is also different here. But a small global population overall meant there was little pressure on forests to make space for land to grow food, and as wood for energy. Globally we deforest around ten million hectares of forest every year.11 Thats an area the size of Portugal every year. The story of both soy and palm oil are complex and its not obvious that eliminating these products will fix the problem. 71% of deforestation is for domestic production. When we treat these impacts equally we make it difficult to prioritize our efforts in the fight against deforestation. And with the growth of technological innovations such as lab-grown meat and substitute products, there is the real possibility that we can continue to enjoy meat or meat-like foods while freeing up the massive amounts of land we use to raise livestock. Why? International trade was responsible for around one-third (29%) of these emissions. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? How many trees does IKEA cut down a There are two reasons that we cut down forests: Our demand for both of these initially increases as populations grow and poor people get richer. The bar chart just below shows the earths surface cover just after the end of the last ice age.3 10,000 years ago 57% of the worlds habitable land was covered by forest. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. Countries that lie along this line would have a net-neutral impact on global forests: the area they are causing to deforestation overseas is exactly as large as the area they are regrowing at home. It will be possible for our generation to achieve the same on the global scale and bring the 10,000 year history of forest loss to an end. Some countries within this group are still far behind peak deforestation: without concerted effort to protect these forests it could be many decades before forests in those countries approach the transition point [as we show in a related post].10. How many trees does IKEA cut down a The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. Still, more than half of the worlds habitable land was forested. Then, using a physical trade model across 191 countries and around 400 food and forestry products, they could trace them through to where they are physically consumed, either as food or in industrial processes.Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., Kastner, T., Moran, D., Schmidt, S., & Wood, R. (2019). 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. I have reconstructed long-term data using various studies which Ive documented here. The world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to deforestation. Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, Lewis, S. L. (2006). The amount of land used for agriculture land to grow crops as well as grazing land for livestock was expanding. By 1900, there were 1.65 billion people in the world (five times fewer than we have today) but for most of the previous period, humans were deforesting the world with only tens or hundreds of millions. The UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Year-to-year data on forest change comes with several issues: either data at this resolution is not available, or year-to-year changes can be highly variable. All the software and code that we write is open source and made available via GitHub under the permissive MIT license. As we explore in more detail in our related article, countries tend to follow a predictable development in forest cover, a U-shaped curve.9 They lose forests as populations grow and demand for agricultural land and fuel increases, but eventually they reach the so-called forest transition point where they begin to regrow more forests than they lose. The rate of population growth tends to slow down. Lewis, S. L., Edwards, D. P., & Galbraith, D. (2015). On the horizontal axis we have time, spanning from 1700 to 2020; on the vertical axis we have the decadal change in forest cover. Whats surprising is how consistent the pattern of change is across so many countries; as weve seen they all seem to follow a U-shaped curve. But there are real reasons to believe that this century doesnt have to replicate the destruction of the last one. Which countries are gaining, and which are losing forest? University of Chicago Press. The State of the Worlds Forests 2020. (2017) estimate that the average EU diet, excluding deforestation, is responsible for 0.5 tonnes CO2 per person. As to the number of trees this represents, its impossible to get an accurate count. The annual change is now positive. What this showed was that although humans have been deforesting the planet for millennia, the rate of forest loss accelerated rapidly in the last few centuries. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. Scottish Geographical Journal, 120(1-2), 83-98. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. See which countries are gaining forest though natural forest expansion and afforestation. Latin America exports around 23% of its emissions; that means more than three-quarters are generated for products that are consumed within domestic markets. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. But they wanted to contribute to a more informed discussion about where to focus forest conservation efforts by understanding why forests were being lost. England is similar: in the late 11th century, 15% of the country was forested, and over the following centuries two-thirds were cut down. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? Across the US and Europe the breakdown of products is more varied. At the top of the list we see some of the major producer countries Brazil and Indonesia. (2012) gathered this data from a range of sources including country submissions as part of their REDD+ readiness activities, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) country profiles, UNFCCC national communications and scientific studies. Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. There is little forest left. We see massive differences in how important each driver is across the world. But we should keep these important aspects in mind when comparing forest losses and gains. The relationships of population and forest trends. An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. Weve seen the five key drivers of forest loss. Science, 361(6407), 1108-1111. And, we might place more value on preserving primary, native forests that havent yet been deforested over regrowing forests that have lost their previous ecosystems. All of our charts can be embedded in any site. Some of the worlds poorest countries are still in the pre-transition phase. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. How much deforestation happens every day? Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 Key findings. That these countries have recently regained forests is also visible in the long-term forest trends above. Do rich countries import deforestation from overseas? In contrast, most forest degradation two-thirds of it occurs in temperate countries. Lets take a look at which countries are causing deforestation overseas and the size of this impact. We should not only look at where these foods are produced, but also where the consumer demand is coming from. WebHealthy trees mean: Healthy people: 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants per year. Lets start at the top. People cut down 15 billion trees each year and the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. Global deforestation peaked in the 1980s. Explore long-term changes in deforestation, and deforestation rates across the world today. Rural Sociology, 63(4), 533-552. Cutting them down disrupts or destroys established, species-rich ecosystems. When it comes to the worlds forests, two of the commonly asked questions are How many trees are on Earth? and How many trees are cut down each year? But its not the case for deforestation. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. 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. The turn of the 20th century is when global forest loss reached the halfway point: half of total forest loss occurred from 8,000BC to 1900; the other half occurred in the last century alone. But then the trend turned, and it moved from deforestation to reforestation. The first step in doing this is for rich countries to monitor their deforestation impacts overseas more closely. Since there is often year-to-year variability in deforestation or reforestation rates, this is shown as the five-year average. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. How much deforestation happens every day? are added every year. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. Forest degradation measures a thinning of the canopy a reduction in the density of trees in the area but without a change in land use. 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. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Land, 9(5), 129. Lets put some numbers to them. 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. Forests, biodiversity and people. But this is no longer the case: forest loss across North America and Europe is now the result of harvesting forestry products from tree plantations, or tree loss in wildfires. (2020). [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of In a study published in Global Environmental Change, Florence Pendrill and colleagues investigated where tropical deforestation was occurring; what products were driving this; and, using global trade models, they traced where these products were going in international supply chains.34, They found that tropical deforestation given as the annual average between 2010 and 2014 was responsible for 2.6 billion tonnes of CO2 per year. 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. Choices are linked to deforestation each year land area, but they wanted to contribute to a more discussion. ( 4 ), 23-31 1000 years ago ; today thats just under one-third ( 31.4 % ) forest. Their deforestation impacts overseas more closely countries start to lose forests very rapidly americans cut down year... 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