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Ancient Chinese texts make clear that some areas of the Yellow River valley had already destroyed many of their forests over 2000 years ago and had to plant trees as crops or import them from long distances. [300] In South China much of the land came to be privately owned and used for the commercial growing of timber. [301]
When a habitat is destroyed, the carrying capacity for indigenous plants, animals, and other organisms is reduced so that populations decline, sometimes up to the level of extinction. [39] Habitat loss is perhaps the greatest threat to organisms and biodiversity. [40]
Degraded forest in Lahnberge, Germany: the soil is being washed out due to lack of vegetal cover, some trees are losing ground and they appear to be sick (photo by Andreas Trepte). Forest degradation is a process in which the biological wealth of a forest area is permanently diminished by some factor or by a combination of factors. "This does ...
Many countries carry out reforestation programs. For example, in China, the Three Northern Protected Forest Development Program – informally known as the "Great Green Wall" – was launched in 1978 and scheduled to last until 2050. It aims to eventually plant nearly 90 million acres of new forest in a 2,800-mile stretch of northern China. [8]
Berkeley Bayisa, an Ethiopian farmer, offers one example of why deforestation occurs. He reported that his district was once forested and full of wildlife, but that overpopulation caused people to come and clear it to plant crops, cutting all trees to sell as firewood. [26] Ethiopia has lost 98% of its forested regions in the last 50 years. [25]
An important consideration in such efforts is that forests can turn from sinks to carbon sources. [42] [43] [44] In 2019 forests took up a third less carbon than they did in the 1990s, due to higher temperatures, droughts [45] and deforestation. The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s. [46]
The forest resources of the United States remained relatively constant through the 20th century. [3] The Forest Service reported total forestation as 766,000,000 acres (3,100,000 km 2) in 2012. [4] [5] [3] A 2017 study estimated 3 percent loss of forest between 1992 and 2001. [6]
Red list categories of the IUCN Demonstrator against biodiversity loss, at Extinction Rebellion (2018).. The current rate of global biodiversity loss is estimated to be 100 to 1000 times higher than the (naturally occurring) background extinction rate, faster than at any other time in human history, [25] [26] and is expected to grow in the upcoming years.