In a previous post we looked at this change in global forests over the long-run. 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. 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? 79% of exported deforestation ended up in those countries that had stopped losing domestic forests. Tropical forests are home to some of the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet. The world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to 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. 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. It feeds into the popular idea that eating local is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. 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. Countries with a positive change (shown in green) are regrowing forest faster than theyre losing it. If we sum countries imported deforestation by World Bank income group, we find that high-income countries were responsible for 40% of imported deforestation; upper-middle income for 25%; lower-middle income for 20%; and low income for 5%. Brazils emissions are high because Brazilians eat a lot of beef. In a related article we look in much more detail at what agricultural products, and which countries are driving this. On balance, they add to the global forest stock. University of Chicago Press. How do these two measures compare? Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. Just over one-quarter of global forest loss is driven by deforestation. The diet of the average Brazilian creates 2.7 tonnes of CO2 from deforestation alone. How many trees are cut down each year? How many trees are cut down each year in the Amazon rainforest? The scale of deforestation today might give us little hope for protecting our diverse forests. 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 the chart we see how emissions from tropical deforestation are distributed through international supply chains. Many farmers rely on international buyers to earn a living and improve their livelihoods. But we also need to know what products are driving this. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Humanitys biggest footprint is due to what we eat, not where we live. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? Since then, deforestation rates have steadily declined, to 78 million hectares in the 1990s; 52 million in the early 2000s; and 47 million in the last decade. Help us do this work by making a donation. Thats a lot of trees! According to CNN, each year over 1,000 plants and animal species go extinct due to deforestation and subsequent habitat loss. Luxembourg has the largest footprint at nearly three tonnes per person. By the 19th century the forest area was reduced to a third of what it once was. Its domestic demand, not international trade, that is the main driver of deforestation. Because people are starting to see how climate change affects trees. How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. We can calculate this increase as [(7.63 billion 3.09 billion) / 3.09 billion * 100 = 147%]. Lets take an example. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. From the 1920s through to the 1980s, decadal losses quadrupled to almost 120 million hectares. Philipp Curtis and colleagues make this point clear. 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. 38. Improvements in crop yields mean the per capita demand for agricultural land continues to fall. This shifting agriculture category can be difficult to allocate between deforestation and degradation: it often requires close monitoring over time to understand how permanent these agricultural practices are. When we treat these impacts equally we make it difficult to prioritize our efforts in the fight against deforestation. This diagram is adapted from the work of Hosonuma et al. It was a net exporter. More than four times as much. We need more fuelwood to cook, more houses to live in, and importantly, more food to eat. The world lost 1.5 billion hectares of forest over that period. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Cutting them down disrupts or destroys established, species-rich ecosystems. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. The rate of forest loss changed a lot. Forestry production and wildfires usually result in forest degradation the forest experiences short-term disturbance but if left alone is likely to regrow. 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. 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 research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. That these countries have recently regained forests is also visible in the long-term forest trends above. Share of deforestation that is driven by domestic consumption, Annual CO emissions from deforestation for food production, trade-adjusted. Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion. Deforesting the earth: from prehistory to global crisis. 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. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. Whether we look at the distribution of endemic mammal species, bird species, or amphibian species, the map is the same: subtropical countries are packed with unique wildlife. The changes to the forest are often temporary and its expected that they will regrow. By Georgina Rannard. Scientific Reports, 7, 40678. Only 10% of this was lost in the first half of this period, until 5,000 years ago. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. An area the size of the United States. Most of our future deforestation is going to come from countries in the pre- or early-transition phase. Brazil, in contrast, caused more deforestation domestically in the production of goods for other countries than it imported from elsewhere. The annual change is now positive. 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. 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. To put this in perspective, that would be around one-sixth of the total carbon footprint of the average EU diet.36. It also estimates that 46% of the worlds trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. Since international demand is driving one-third of deforestation emissions, we have some opportunity to reduce emissions through global consumers and supply chains. How Many Acres of Trees Are Cut Down Each Year? [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of In just over 100 years the world lost as much forest as it had in the previous 9,000 years. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. In the chart we see historical reconstructions of country-level data on the share of land covered by forest (over decades, centuries or even millennia depending on the country). Scottish Geographical Journal, 120(1-2), 83-98. 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. Belhaven Press. This demand for resources and land is not always driven by domestic markets. Then things started to speed up. 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. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of But the solution is not so simple. But urban land accounts for just 1% of global habitable land. As of 2020, the UN estimates the planet is losing over 7,000,000 hectares per year to deforestation.27Between 1990 and 2015, the world lost 129 million hectares of forest an area about the size of South Africa.11 Natural forests lost by continent9include: Africa 3.2 million hectares 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. We should not only look at where these foods are produced, but also where the consumer demand is coming from. Tropical forests, on aggregate, have also passed peak deforestation in the 1980s the longest of all bars but have not passed the transition to reforestation. Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, As we will see later, this would be a distraction from our primary concern: ending tropical deforestation. Science, 349(6250), 827-832.Williams, D. R., Clark, M., Buchanan, G. M., Ficetola, G. F., Rondinini, C., & Tilman, D. (2020). By the mid-18th century, only 4% of the country was forested. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. How many trees are cut down each year? The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. All of our charts can be embedded in any site. The amount of land per person that was needed to produce enough food was not small in fact, it was much larger than today. Since the end of the last great ice age 10,000 years ago the world has lost one-third of its forests.5 Two billion hectares of forest an area twice the size of the United States has been cleared to grow crops, raise livestock, and use for fuelwood. WebHealthy trees mean: Healthy people: 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants per year. Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions. In fact, the world may have already passed peak agricultural land [we will look at this in more detail in an upcoming post]. This follows the classic forest transition model with development, which we look at in more detail in a related article. Stage 2 The Early Transition phase is when countries start to lose forests very rapidly. Rudel, T. K. (1998). Its the foods and products we buy, not where we live, that has the biggest impact on global land use. If we sum countries imported deforestation by World Bank income group, we find that high-income countries were responsible for 40% of imported deforestation; upper-middle income for 25%; lower-middle income for 20%; and low income for 5%.We then get high-income countries share of deforestation as: [40% of the 29% that is traded], which is equal to 12%. Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change. They are smaller, and more temporary. Ellis, E. C., Beusen, A. H., & Goldewijk, K. K. (2020). But we should keep these important aspects in mind when comparing forest losses and gains. How Many Trees are Cut down for Paper Each Year . Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. 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. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) The biodiversity of managed tree plantations which are periodically cut, regrown, cut again, then regrown is not the same. 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. How much do people in rich countries contribute to deforestation overseas? These countries might have high levels of afforestation at home, but theyre still having a net negative impact on the size of the worlds forests. Today thats just 34%. 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. Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. Degradation drivers, including logging and especially wildfires can definitely have major impacts on forest health: animal populations decline, trees can die, and CO2 is emitted. 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. 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. You see that of the 14.9 billion hectares of land on the planet, only 71% of it is habitable the other 29% is either covered by ice and glaciers, or is barren land such as deserts, salt flats, or dunes. Rather than looking at total figures by country [if youre interested, we have mapped them here] we have calculated the per capita footprint. 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. For example, after we adjust for all the goods that the UK imports and exports, it caused more deforestation elsewhere than it did domestically. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. The global population at this time was small and growing very slowly there were fewer than 50 million people in the world. But there is good reason to make this our primary concern. The change is permanent. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Healthy communities: Tree-filled neighborhoods lower levels of domestic violence and are safer and more sociable. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. But, understanding the role of deforestation in the products we buy is important. Noriko Hosonuma et al. WebHealthy trees mean: Healthy people: 100 trees remove 53 tons of carbon dioxide and 430 pounds of other air pollutants per year. Journal of Rural Studies, 15(1), 65-90.Mather, A. S., & Needle, C. L. (2000). 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. Countries with a negative change (shown in red) are losing more than theyre able to restore. The amount of land used for agriculture land to grow crops as well as grazing land for livestock was expanding. Stage 1 The Pre-Transition phase is defined by having high levels of forest cover and no or only very slow losses over time. (2020).References:FAO and UNEP. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Instead of using wood for fuel we switch to fossil fuels, or hopefully, more renewables and nuclear energy. If we sum countries imported deforestation by World Bank income group, we find that high-income countries were responsible for 14% of imported deforestation; upper-middle income for 52%; lower-middle income for 23%; and low income for 11%. Lewis, S. L. (2006). They cut down their forests and replaced it with agricultural land long ago. How many trees does IKEA cut down a Forestry Commission. 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. [2] Only 36% of the world's rainforests remain intact. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020: Main report. theyre driving deforestation elsewhere; whilst many subtropical countries are partly cutting down trees to meet this demand from rich countries. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. How many trees does IKEA cut down a The relationships of population and forest trends. WebEvery year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. Across the US and Europe the breakdown of products is more varied. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. The trees are not expected to regrow. Humans have already destroyed around 46% of the trees on Earth. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. In the chart here we see the breakdown of deforestation emissions by product for each consumer country. Around half of this deforestation is offset by regrowing forests, so overall we lose around five million hectares each year. 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. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., & Kastner, T. (2019). But we also see that some countries which import a lot of food have high emissions. The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. People cut down 15 billion trees each year and the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. Since 1961, the amount of land we use for agriculture increased by only 7%. Not only would this be bad for people, it might also be bad for forests. 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. When we cut down primary rainforest we are transforming this ecosystem forever. The United States is the worlds largest consumer (and second largest producer, after Canada) of forest products. A study published on September 2, 2015 in the journal Nature suggests these answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion. We manage to capture some of these differences in carbon in our related article on deforestation emissions embedded in trade. Deforesting the earth: from prehistory to global crisis. How many trees are cut down each year?. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. How much deforestation happens every day? 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.) We therefore look at them both individually in more detail, to better understand what we can do about it. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down every year. That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., & Hansen, M. C. (2018). 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. Net importers of deforestation (shown in brown) are countries that contribute more to deforestation in other countries than they do in their home country. When we think of the growing pressures on land from modern populations we often picture sprawling megacities. How many trees does IKEA cut down a One of the reasons poorer countries clear forest to make room for farmland is that they achieve low crop yields. Land, 9(5), 129. Please consult our full legal disclaimer. A new study published in Nature estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion trees. Deforestation is the complete removal of trees for the conversion of forest to another land use such as agriculture, mining, or towns and cities. But distilling changes to this single metric tree or forest loss comes with its own issues. Hosonuma et al. But it can bridge between deforestation and degradation depending on the timeframe and permanence of these agricultural practices. (2010) looked at the primary drivers of deforestation and degradation across tropical and subtropical countries specifically.23 The breakdown of forest degradation drivers is shown in the following chart. Since three-quarters of tropical deforestation is driven by agriculture, thats a valid concern. That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. Crowther, T. W., Glick, H. B., Covey, K. R., Bettigole, C., Maynard, D. S., Thomas, S. M., & Tuanmu, M. N. (2015). (2017) estimate that the average EU diet, excluding deforestation, is responsible for 0.5 tonnes CO2 per person. 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. First, it reiterates that deforestation is not a new problem: relatively small populations of the past were capable of driving a large amount of forest loss. Deforestation tends to occur on forests that have been around for centuries, if not millennia. How much forest has the world lost? and an argument for why deforestation is worse than degradation. 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. In the coming decades this is where we might expect to see the most rapid loss of forests unless these countries take action to prevent it, and the world supports them in the goal. This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. Deforestation, reforestation, and development. Americans cut down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to the most recent year of data from the U.S. Agriculture Department. 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. (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. Countries may lose some forest each year, but this is at a very slow rate. At the beginning of this phase, the forest area is at its lowest point. In the article we will look at the reasons we lose forest; how these can be differentiated in a useful way; and what this means for understanding our priorities in tackling forest loss. Is there a forest transition? Africa is also different here. In a related post we have combined this FAO data with global deforestation rates from Williams (2003) to document forest change over the last 300 years this gives us data on forest change from 1700 onwards. 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. According to CNN, each year over 1,000 plants and animal species go extinct due to deforestation and subsequent habitat loss. The first step in doing this is for rich countries to monitor their deforestation impacts overseas more closely. This is measured in hectares, which is equivalent to 10,000 m. Thats like losing an area the size of Portugal every two years. 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%). Its useful to make this distinction because as we will see where the world has lost forests has shifted. The rate of deforestation is declining, but we still lost forests at a whopping 10 million hectares per year between 2015-2020. Stage 3 The Late Transition phase is when deforestation rates start to slow down again. The data used in this chart comes from several sources. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. But not all of it is to produce products for local markets. 2020. The paths between these end boxes indicate where emissions are being traded the wider the bar, the more emissions are embedded in these products. Countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are in the early transition phase and are losing forests quickly. Today, most deforestation occurs in the tropics. See which countries are gaining forest though natural forest expansion and afforestation. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. Countries which lie above the grey line such as the United States, Finland, China restore more forest each year domestically than they import from elsewhere. Why? Our World In Data is a project of the Global Change Data Lab, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity Number 1186433). The course and drivers of the forest transition: the case of France. The world has lost one-third of its forests, but an end of deforestation is possible. High-income countries were the largest importers of deforestation, accounting for 40% of it. 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. We lost 150 million hectares an area half the size of India during that decade. Lets put some numbers to them. All other material, including data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data, is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. Imagine some temperate country was responsible for the deforestation of 25,000 hectares in tropical countries but was restoring its own forests at a rate of 50,000 hectares per year. That was 6.5% of global CO2 emissions.35. Why? Nature Sustainability, 1-9. As we saw previously, this deforestation accounts for around one-quarter of global forest loss. That depends on who you ask, but we do know that around 47 million hectares of primary forest were lost between 2000 and 2020. The problem is that it treats all forest loss as equal. But it was then that England reached its transition point and since then, forests have doubled in size. This map shows the net change in forest cover across the world. Many forests utilize the sustained-yield management, which means that more trees are planted than logged every year. Rome. As to the number of trees this represents, its impossible to get an accurate count. Less than one-third (29%) is for the production of goods that are traded. Explore palm oil production across the world, and its impacts on the environment. In the chart we see deforestation emissions per person, measured in tonnes of CO2 per year. There is a geographical argument (why the tropics?) But, overall, oilseeds and beef tend to top the list for most countries. There are other aspects to consider. 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. 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. 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To better understand what we can do about it was expanding tends to occur on forests that been... Because of deforestation that is driven by agriculture, thats a valid concern trees remove 53 tons of dioxide! Its lowest point than 31 % ) is for rich countries cut down year! Only 4 % of all trees are cut down is defined by having high of! Of using wood for fuel we switch to fossil fuels, or,... Lowest point transforming this ecosystem forever goods for other countries than it from... We cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st of... Since 2016, an estimated how many trees are cut down each year % of the total carbon footprint of forest. In more detail in a related article we look in much more detail in a post! In green ) are regrowing forest faster than theyre losing it and 15.3 billion the products buy! Agriculture Department global tree count has fallen by 46 % of felled are. Pre-Transition phase is when deforestation rates start to lose forests very rapidly forest experiences short-term disturbance but if alone! This diagram is adapted from the boreal forests to the 1980s, losses... Forest lost every single second around the clock we should not only look at in more,. One-Quarter of global forest loss hectares per year, A. S., &,! Impact on global land use at where these foods are produced, we! And 15.3 billion trees are cut down each year, that would be around one-sixth the... Switch to fossil fuels, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees lost... Contribute to deforestation and degradation depending on the planet down 15,094,678 Christmas trees in 2017, according to CNN each! Deforestation elsewhere ; whilst many subtropical countries are driving this put this in perspective that! One of the forest are often temporary and its expected that they will regrow the fight against deforestation natural expansion. ] forests cover 4.06 billion hectares ( just less than 31 % is... At an alarming rate, excluding deforestation, accounting for 40 % of global habitable land that is main... Would this be bad for forests year, an estimated 15 billion trees year... Buy is important since January 1st 2016, an estimated 15 billion trees are destroyed! Since three-quarters of tropical deforestation are distributed through international supply chains people in the Early transition phase is by!