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Remains of a forest in Madagascar
An area of forest 3 times the size of Wales is cut down every year.

Deforestation

Explore deforestation and why forests matter. Learn what causes trees to be cut down, how habitats change, and what people can do to protect forests.

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Fascinating Fact:

Trees store carbon in their wood and in forest soils. When forests are cut down or burned, much of that carbon can be released into the atmosphere.

Deforestation is when large areas of forest are cleared, often to create farmland, provide timber, or build roads and towns. It can remove homes for wildlife, reduce biodiversity, and change how water moves through the environment. Protecting forests also means using resources wisely, replanting trees, and supporting ways of farming and building that do not destroy habitats.

Key Terms

  • Deforestation: The clearing of forests so the land can be used for something else.
  • Habitat: The natural home of a plant or animal, including food, shelter, and space.
  • Biodiversity: The variety of living things in an area, such as different plants, animals, and insects.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What is deforestation in simple terms?

Deforestation is when many trees are cut down and the forest is removed, usually to make space for farming, buildings, or to use the wood.

Why is deforestation bad for wildlife?

Deforestation destroys habitats, so animals can lose food and shelter. It can also force wildlife into smaller areas, increasing competition and making survival harder.

What can people do to help stop deforestation?

People can reduce waste, recycle paper and wood, buy products from responsible sources, and support tree planting and forest protection projects.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .
We all know that trees produce oxygen. How many mature sycamore trees are needed to provide enough oxygen for one person?
One or two
Seven or eight
Twenty or thirty
Fifty or sixty
Trees release oxygen through photosynthesis. A sycamore produces around 100 kg of oxygen per year, and a human breathes in 740 kg of oxygen. We need lots of trees in order to breathe!
2 .
As well as producing oxygen, trees also remove carbon dioxide from the air. Each year they remove what fraction of the CO2 humans put into the atmosphere?
One half
One quarter
One eighth
One sixteenth
The world's forests remove 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere a year - humans put nearly 40 billion tonnes into it. Of course, if there were more trees they would remove more CO2, but we keep chopping them down!
3 .
Deforestation causes lots of problems. Which of the following is NOT caused by deforestation?
Increased greenhouse gasses
Flooding
Plastic pollution
Habitat loss
70% of our land species live in forests, so chopping them down causes habitat loss. Deforestation also causes soil erosion, which leads to flooding, and it increases the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere. There are many reasons we need to stop damaging our forests
4 .
Forests are vital to life on Earth. How much of the Earth’s land is covered by forests?
One third
One half
Two thirds
Three quarters
Today there are approximately 3 trillion trees on the planet. Before humans arrived there were more like 7 trillion. We have cut down more than half of the world’s forests already
5 .
In 2021, 11 million hectares of tropical forest were lost. That’s roughly the size of which country?
Ireland
Bulgaria
Turkey
Australia
11 million hectares is 110,000 km2. The UK is not much bigger, at 130,000 km2. This is at a time when we should be planting more trees, not cutting them down!
6 .
We know that deforestation is a problem, yet we still chop forests down. What is the main reason for this?
To make way for farms
Logging for timber and fuel
Mining
All of the above
Forests are cut down to make grazing land for livestock or land for growing crops, such as palm oil. Logging, mining and climate change also cause deforestation, as do natural forest fires, but not to the same extent as farming
7 .
To create farmland, forests are cut down and their stumps and seedlings burned. What is the name of this agricultural method?
Hack and flame
Chop and char
Slash and burn
Axe and ash
The felled trees ("slash") are left to dry, after which it is burned, leaving behind a fertile layer of ash – great for farming (at least in the short term), not so great for the forest!
8 .
How many species are we losing a day because of deforestation?
1 to 2
10 to 20
50 to 70
100 to 200
Before humans came along, an average of between 1 and 5 species became extinct per year (that's right - per year, not per day!) - that's a ten-thousand-fold increase!
9 .
Tropical rainforests have given us medicines we take for granted. What percentage of our medicines come from them?
5%
10%
15%
25%
And we have only tested 1% of the plants found there – by destroying the forests we may be depriving ourselves of future cures for disease
10 .
What can you do to fight deforestation?
Become vegan
Go paperless
Recycle card and paper
All of the above
70-80% of Amazon deforestation was to make grazing land for livestock. Animals take much more land to rear than crops do. If we all became vegan then the threat to our forests would decrease considerably
Author:  Graeme Haw
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