-Written_Silver-'s Report

Introduction 

I'm no expert who traveled to some forest and studied scientific results about deforestation as a scientist, but what I can tell you is what anyone should know. Wood has many uses for us and many animals if you think of it. We're the ones, however, who use wood and make it disappear from the forests. But it's not just us, humanity, living in the world. It's trillions of vertebrates and invertebrates, and we need to make space for them too. "What do you mean?" you ask. Deforestation, destroying too many trees of our nature, burning up homes.

The Uses Of Wood 

Wood is so useful. 

Paper, something we use about every second of the day. I'm not exaggerating; look around you. I'm certain you'll find something, a piece of paper somewhere. 

Then there are houses, I'm sure there are billions of them in the world. Wood, wood, wood.

After that is flooring. Wood flooring (my flooring is wooden, FYI) is somewhat cheaper than all the other engineered timber. 

Furniture and utensils are also often made of wood (if it isn't, then I'd say it's stainless steel). Chairs, spoons, pencils,beds,chopsticks,toothpicks etc. I can guarantee there is a piece of furniture in your house that was made from wood, yes?

Art, something I value. We use wood for DIYs, many musical instruments are made from wood, and it's also a great canvas to paint on. Oh, next is sculpting and carving wood.

Sports and recreation used lumber or wood or timber, (whatever you'd like to call it) back in the old years too. Baseball bats today are still using wood.

There comes the last but important use: energy! We use trees for energy. Cut it, burn it.

Timber or logs are very useful as you have seen in my list above. But we must limit or see the consequences... 

Establisher's Comment: Wood, wood, wood, wood, wooood, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

The Consequences 

Globally we deforest around ten million hectares of forest every year. That's an area the size of Portugal every decade. Around half of this deforestation is offset by regrowing forests, so overall we lose around five million hectares each year. Nearly all – 95% – of this deforestation occurs in the tropics. In this record, we're probably losing about 27 football fields of forest every minute due to deforestation. Again I'm not exaggerating!

So what are the consequences as this section has been titled?

1. Flooding  

Deforestation can result in watersheds that are no longer able to sustain and regulate water flows from rivers to steams. Trees are highly effective in absorbing water quantities, keeping the amount of water in watersheds to a manageable level. The forest also serves as cover against erosion. Once they are gone, too much water can result in downstream flooding, many of which have caused disasters in many parts of the world.

2. Climate Change / Too much Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere

Deforestation can cause the climate to become extreme in nature. It increases CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming.

3. Cost of biodiversity

This is probably the most serious consequence of Deforestation. Put simply, it means the destruction and extinction of many plants and animal species, many of un-home remain unknown and whose benefits will be left undiscovered.

This is only a small amount of the consequences, but I tried to include all the most serious consequences or effects of deforestation.

Working to end deforestation and forest degradation while helping to restore lost forests is our best chance to solve the climate emergency, protect wildlife, and defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples and traditional local communities.

How can we Reduce Deforestation? 

The threats to nature vary from region to region. For example, in the tropics, agribusiness clears forests to make space for things like cattle ranching, palm oil, and soy plantations for animal feed. Demand for wood products can threaten forests around the world, whether it is for throw-away paper products or hardwood flooring.

In too many parts of the world, ineffective or corrupt governments make things worse by opening the door to illegal logging and other crimes.

We need to slow down this, no, stop this destruction

1. Reduce your consumption of single-use products

2. Demand that the forest-derived products you purchase are made from 100% post-consumer recycled content materials and when products are made from virgin forest demand that the sourcing is done in an environmentally and socially responsible manner

3. Make informed food choices. There is a myriad of reasons to adopt a plant-based diet or including the protection of forests and nature. 

4. Demand that companies commit to reduce deforestation through forest-friendly policies and follow through on those commitments

5. Educate your friends, family, and community about how our everyday actions can impact forests around the world

6. Demand that your governments only source forest commodities in a way that ensures the protection of nature and respects human rights. 

7. Avoid false solutions like biofuels, biomass, or carbon offsets that rely on wishful thinking, yet in practice release more greenhouse gas emissions.

Any other ideas? Contact us now! Comment and we'll consider it.

Conclusion 

Deforestation is very harmful to our community and other communities around the world. We shall reject and avoid causing deforestation by recycling our paper and not throwing it away because then in the future more trees would need to be cut down. 

FantasyCreature123's Report

Establisher's Comment: Shoutout to @FantasyCreature123! You are the first one other than @-Written_Silver- to submit your report! *Confetti! * 

Deforestation. 

A very, very important issue in today's world.

As we all know, it is the process of cutting down trees in a forest to make space for urban life or agricultural fields, or to get wood and other products from the trees. It literally means "negative (=de) forestation" or, simply, "removing forests".

Now, why is it such an important issue?

Well, it is because trees provide us with so many things — oxygen, for example. Without oxygen to breathe, most living creatures cannot survive.

But that's not the only good thing we get from trees.

First of all, they give us food, be it directly or indirectly. All the fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc we eat, everything is produced by plants. Even if we eat animal products (like eggs, meat, milk), the animals we eat depend on trees — be it directly or indirectly — for their food. In this way, all the ecosystems of the world depend on trees and plants.

Also, trees give shelter too many wild animals. Many birds make their nests on the high branches of a tree so that it is hard for predators to get to their eggs or chicks. Similarly, animals like monkeys, sloths, koalas, etc spend a lot of their time high up in the canopy to stay safe from carnivores that eat them.

 And let's not forget that once upon a time, we humans lived in forests too — as hunter-gatherers. The forests provided us with everything we needed for survival. Even in today's world, many people depend on forests for their livelihood.

Then, trees also help in bringing rain. They have a role in the water cycle: producing water vapour (by transpiration). In this way, they help in the formation of clouds, and thus, in bringing rain. And we all know how important water is to us — or maybe we don't, since we waste it.

And then many herbs and small plants have medicinal properties, which is used by many people even nowadays for all their health benefits. Many "health products" are also made using extracts from such plants. 

Many "health products" are also made using extracts from such plants. A few examples would be tulsi, aloe vera, and neem. Several plants also help in making medicines — like aspirin.

Also, just so you know, we get coffee and chocolate from plants too.

Now, I've highlighted the importance of trees — or, in other words, the reasons to stop deforestation.

I know, I know, wood is very important for many industries, so we can't just stop cutting trees suddenly. Making furniture, producing paper, constructing houses... there are many uses of wood. It is important in our life, I will admit.

But, instead of cutting down thousands of trees every day and destroying forests for our own needs, we can try and be more considerate. For every tree cut, we can plant at least two more saplings.

Why more than what we cut? It is because trees need time to grow too.

If we cut down a huge, 50-year-old tree, and plant a tiny sapling in its place, can we expect the ecological balance to be maintained in the world? Of course not! Establisher's Comment: XD that's what the most dumbest person would do!

Moving on, have you ever heard of the "Chipko Movement"? Let me tell you the story behind it.

The Chipko Movement was a forest conservation movement in India. It began in 1973 in Uttarakhand — a state in India — and spread to Uttar Pradesh. It went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world, creating a precedent for starting non-violent protest in India. 

The feature which made this movement popular was that it was completely non-violent. The area in which trees were decided to cut down was near a village. When the lumbermen arrived, they found that women from the village had hugged the trees (thus the name "chipko", which literally means "to stick" in Hindi) to prevent them from being felled.

If everyone had the same love and concern for forests, then many environmental problems could be solved. For instance, deforestation causes global warming.

How? Well, trees soak a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make their own food. This reduces the amount of carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — in the atmosphere and prevents global warming.

But due to deforestation, forests in the world are disappearing, resulting in an increase in carbon dioxide, which leads to an increase in overall temperature on Earth. This, in turn, can cause natural disasters — glaciers and ice sheets can melt, causing a rise in the sea level, which will increase the impact and frequency of floods and tsunamis.

(Yes, everything in this world is interconnected. That is why it is important not to disturb even one component of any ecosystem.)

Deforestation also negatively affects wildlife. Many species of wildlife are losing their homes. This can cause a massive decrease in population, or even cause a species to go extinct.

Thus, we need to adapt our lifestyle and reduce deforestation. We need to aim to completely stop cutting down trees soon: but let's take one step at a time.

Let us now talk about what we, as normal people, can do for the environment.

First of all, try to use fewer tree-related products. Of course, I am not talking about food here: I am referring to products such as paper, cardboard, wood furniture, etc. We can also recycle these products so that they can be re-used.

Facinating Fact: Did you know that one ton (2,000 pounds) of paper put to recycle prevents the cutting of 17 trees? These 17 trees then absorb around 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air every single year. 

Or we could just buy recycled products. That way, we are (i) making an effort to reduce the need for deforestation (ii) supporting recycle facilities, enabling them to recycle more things.

If you are going to buy new wood products, please buy sustainable wood products, that is, products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This helps to prevent illegal deforestation.

Also, do not but products containing palm oil. A large percentage of the world's palm oil production comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, where the rainforest is being cleared at an alarming rate of 2.4 million acres a year to make way for new plantations.

You can also contribute by simply eating less meat. Around 70 per cent of the Amazon rainforest clearing is done to make way for cattle ranches, which provide us with animal-based protein.

Changing diet patterns are not very easy, but we can start small: replace one animal product in your weekly diet with some vegetarian food.

Reducing wood consumption also goes a long way in preventing the cutting down of trees. Wood is used as fuel almost everywhere: but this leads to both deforestation and air pollution. Thus, try to use other alternatives — not coal, it produces pollution too, and it is a non-renewable resource.

And, of course, the most obvious way: plant a tree. If all of us plant even one tree and care for it, then the number of trees in the world will rise by more than 7 billion!

But of course, not all people are going to do this. Many people can't care for a tree. So, instead of waiting for others to help the environment, let us take responsibility on our shoulders. Let us plant a tree today.

If you plant one sapling per month and it grows, then by the end of a year you will have twelve beautiful trees, contributing towards maintaining an ecological balance on Earth!

So, together, let us follow the above suggestions and help to save the Earth.