Deforestation
Forests cover around a quarter to a third of the total land surface of the Earth. The reduction in area of this valuable environmental, social and economic resource through deforestation has the potential to cause problems on a global scale. Climate models have demonstrated a clear link between deforestation and climate change. Deforestation is the process of changing land use from forestry to a non-forest use. Western Europe has already lost over 99% of its primary forest. Today, deforestation programmes focus on the major rainforests of the tropics. In the 1980s global deforestation was estimated at 17 to 20 million hectares per year, equivalent to the size of Britain. Current tropical tree planting programmes are not keeping pace with this rate of deforestation. Countries in these areas are often under-developed and striving for improved economies. Deforestation for wood and agricultural land can provide numerous economic benefits, but can have damaging environmental impacts on ...