FSC / Iván Castro

What is deforestation—and how do we prevent it?

Deforestation occurs when people convert forested lands for non-forest purposes, such as agriculture and urbanization. This loss has negative impacts on our planet.

August 1, 2024

Forests serve as a home to diverse wildlife and act as crucial carbon sinks, while also providing essential resources to millions of humans across the globe.

Unfortunately, forests are diminishing at an alarming rate. The United Nations estimates that approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed each year. This deforestation occurs when companies, farming communities, and other entities convert forested lands for non-forest purposes, such as agriculture, mining and urbanization. The increasing occurrence of natural disasters also contributes to the relentless loss of forests, creating devastating effects on the environment, local communities, biodiversity, and the climate.

Learn more about what deforestation is, how it impacts our world, and how to get involved in the ongoing fight to solve it (such as with efforts like the FSC aligning with the EUDR) so we can preserve our forests for future generations.

Table of contents:

Main causes of deforestation
Effects of deforestation
Solutions to deforestation

A photo of a cleared forest accompanies the definition of deforestation. — FSC / Alberto Pauletto

Main causes of deforestation

Deforestation has multiple causes, but there are three leading factors.

Three photos accompany a list of three leading causes of deforestation: agriculture, urbanization and natural disaster. — FSC / Jonathan Perugia, © FSC / Jesús Antonio Moo Yam, © FSC Canada / Wolf Eye Productions

Agricultural expansion

Agricultural expansion accounts for nearly 90 per cent of all global deforestation.

Farmers cut down forests to expand their croplands or create pastures for grazing livestock. They may also clear-cut forests to convert natural forests to tree plantations. While the production of nearly every crop contributes to deforestation due to agricultural expansion, our growing demand for products like beef, palm oil, and paper bears the most responsibility.

As well, forests are often converted to tree plantation as seen in Asia. While forests that are cleared for timber without subsequent land-use expansion isn’t technically a form of deforestation, it heavily impacts harmful carbon outputs and biodiversity.

The land used for cattle for beef consumption is directly responsible for the deforestation of 2.1 million hectares annually, which is 41 per cent of all tropical deforestation. This occurs mainly in Latin America – nearly a quarter of Brazil’s deforestation resulted from expanded beef consumption.

Oilseeds contribute to nearly 18 per cent of all deforestation, making them the second largest agricultural contributor. Oilseeds include palm oil, soy, sunflower, rapeseed, and sesame. Only 6 per cent of these products are for human consumption; most are used for livestock feed or the creation of biofuels.

Products like timber and paper also contribute to deforestation, particularly if these products come from non-certified forests. In Europe and North America, many paper and timber products originate from natural forests, non-certified managed forest-plantations, or previously unforested areas. Companies in regions like Asia and Indonesia often clear vast expanses of rainforests for timber or paper production, overlooking sustainability considerations.

By promoting responsible and legal forest management practices, FSC helps mitigate the risk of deforestation when it comes to harvesting forest-based fibres.

An illustrated chart breaks down the top agricultural drivers of deforestation.

Infrastructure and urbanization

Urbanization and its accompanying infrastructure expansion also contribute to deforestation. As people flock to urban areas, suburban areas expand into the surrounding area, resulting in forest loss.

Forests often contain rich mineral deposits highly valuable to newly developing areas, such as coal, minerals, natural gas, and oil. Infrastructure, like canals, dams, power lines, railways, and roads, facilitates access to these minerals, further damaging the forest. Likewise, when rare minerals are found in remote areas, the employment opportunities can result in concentrated or scattered urbanization.

While the initial construction of these infrastructures may cause a small amount of deforestation initially, they often lead to broader deforestation after completion. For example, researchers found that 95 per cent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon occurs within 50 km of a roadway. In Peru, that level of deforestation occurs within 6 km of a road. This is especially true in areas without proper planning and oversight, which happens when an area urbanizes quickly.

People settle along roadways, facilitating the need for smaller connecting roads. Roadways also make an area more accessible for commercial ventures such as cattle ranching or logging. The same is true for hydropower plants, which require an influx of workers to construct and run them, leading to continued deforestation for housing materials and land.

Natural disaster

While naturally occurring, low-intensity wildfires are beneficial for clearing underbrush and nourishing the soil, increased fire activity has damaged 110,000 more hectares of forest annually since 2001. In 2023 alone, record-breaking wildfires occurred in Canada, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Hawaii.

Hurricanes and droughts are also destroying forests. Hurricane winds can topple trees, while saltwater flooding can damage the soil’s nutrient balance and ultimately kill the trees that were still standing after a hurricane. A lack of rainfall during a drought may cause farmers to expand their fields, contributing to increased deforestation.

Interestingly, while natural disasters cause deforestation, deforestation can also make them worse in what is known as feedback loops. For example, deforestation in the Amazon contributes to increased forest fires, further increasing deforestation and raising the risk of more forest fires. Forest fires also increase CO2 emissions, which raise the Earth’s temperature, contributing to drought and other factors that cause additional forest fires. Researchers have identified 41 of these feedback loops tied to climate change.

Effects of deforestation

Deforestation has a far-reaching impact on everything from biodiversity loss to climate change.

Biodiversity loss

Biodiversity refers to the interconnected web of life found in ecosystems. Forests are rich ecosystems home to over 60,000 tree species, three-quarters of the world’s bird species, nearly 70 per cent of mammal species, and 80 per cent of amphibian species.

When deforestation occurs, some species may not survive the loss of habitat. The loss of one species can lead to further losses through upsetting the natural balance, with a ripple effect through the entire ecosystem. For example, if a specific plant were to go extinct, a herbivore that relies on that plant for food would either go extinct or shift to eating a different plant, which would, in turn, increase demand for that plant and potentially cause it to die out or create competition with other animals who rely on it for food.

Unfortunately, many big and tiny plant and tree species have already gone extinct due to deforestation:

Formosan Clouded Leopar
Spix’s Macaw
Cryptic Treehunter – a South American bird
Mount Glorious Torrent Frog in Australia

A wild deer is shown moving through a field of flowers outside, alluding to the topic of deforestation. — FSC / Jérémie Leblond-Fontaine

Soil erosion

Deforestation exposes soil previously protected by the forest canopy to the open sun and air. This can make the soil more fragile and less nutrient-rich. Plant cover protects the soil, holding it in place. When deforestation damages plant cover, the soil becomes fragile and susceptible to landslides and mudslides when wet and desertification when dry.

When farmers deforest an area to plant crops, the crops they plant do not protect the soil as well as the forest canopy. As a result, the soil is eroded and leached of minerals, eventually forcing farmers to deforest a new area to gain access to richer soil for their crops, thus repeating the process while leaving the original land unable to support new plant life. It also contributes to polluted waterways and increased flooding, further damaging the ecosystem.

Climate change

The United Nations identifies deforestation as one of the main drivers of climate change.

Trees naturally trap CO2 from the atmosphere. When we chop down trees or when trees naturally decay, that CO2 is released back into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. The released CO2 absorbs the heat from the Earth’s surface and radiates it back, contributing to the greenhouse effect that contributes to global warming. Deforestation is estimated to contribute 10-15 per cent of human-made CO2 emissions. For this reason, it’s important to understand which trees to cut down and when.

Climate change contributes to more incidents of severe weather, dramatic weather pattern changes, and natural disasters that threaten wildlife and humanity. High temperatures and drought can increase the risk of wildfire in the Amazon, while fire weather can be more intense and last longer in the American West.

To prevent cascading climate change, NASA set a 2 ° Celsius threshold. After this point, humanity would experience multiple results of climate change at once, which could have catastrophic results. Preventing deforestation and limiting CO2 emissions would go a long way to preventing climate change.

Solutions to deforestation

Fortunately, there are pathways to minimizing deforestation and limiting its effects. This includes ongoing actions as well as new steps individuals, companies, and other parties can take to help limit the impact of deforestation.

For governments: Give Indigenous Peoples control of forests

Many Indigenous cultures have a strong connection to the land, and studies show that this translates to better stewardship of forests.

One study found that deforestation was 20 per cent lower in areas where Indigenous communities had control of the land. In some areas, giving Indigenous Peoples control of forests decreased deforestation more than turning the land into a national park. One tribe in particular, the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon, was so effective it won a 2023 FSC Leadership Award for its sustainable forest management.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Indigenous Peoples are better stewards of the forest for several reasons:

Traditional knowledge helps them better understand the forest and its benefits, an added incentive to protect the forests.
Recognized collective property rights protect the land from ranchers, miners, oil palm producers, and other outside threats with access to capital to effectively clear the forest.
Indigenous Peoples use sustainable forestry practices to take advantage of forest incentive policies as a reliable form of income. For example, Indigenous communities in Mexico receive regular income for monitoring the local forests, encouraging them to treat them sustainably to keep generating revenue.
Many tribal lands are protected areas, restricting development and privatization from outside forces.
Limited access to and profitability from agriculture makes commercial agriculture unappealing.
Indigenous communities lack the financial and labour resources to clear the forest effectively and farm it commercially.

Not only can giving Indigenous Peoples control of forests minimize carbon emissions caused by deforestation, but it can also do it at a lower cost. Guaranteeing tenure security to Indigenous Peoples costs about $45 US dollars (USD) per hectare of land in Bolivia, $68 USD per hectare in Brazil, and $6 USD per hectare in Columbia. This cost is 4-42 times lower than other carbon capture methods.

FSC has a long history of collaboration with Indigenous communities while also protecting the rights of those who depend on forests in or near FSC operations. This is apparent in Principle 3 of the FSC Principles and Criteria, which requires that all FSC-certified forest managers and owners actively identify and uphold the legal and customary rights of Indigenous Peoples regarding land ownership, land use, and access to resources within the forest.

For governments and businesses: Improve the traceability of supply chains for sustainability

According to the FAO, nearly 40 per cent of tropical deforestation is related to the international trade of high-income market commodities. Governments and corporations can ensure sustainable forest management by improving the traceability of these supply chains for sustainability. Several public and private entities are dedicated to this task.

The EU Regulation for Deforestation-Free Products sets forth that any trader involved in the sale of the following products must be able to prove they were not harvested from land that contributed to deforestation:

Cattle
Cocoa
Coffee
Palm oil
Rubber
Soy
Wood

The EUDR as outlined here from the EU Commission go beyond legality, extending the standard to deforestation. Certification organizations such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) help companies adhere to a sustainable standard at all levels of the supply chain and is creating solutions to support companies to comply with EUDR.

Companies who are FSC-certified agree to the FSC Principles and Criteria and can be expelled if they fail to meet the following activities:

Deforestation
Destruction of High Conservation Values
Illegal logging and illegal trade of timber
Human and traditional rights violations
Workers’ rights violations
Use of genetically modified organisms

FSC certification standards also have strict requirements around biodiversity and culture. This includes the High Conservation Values (HCV) approach, which helps ensure forestry activities don’t harm the variety of life within a forest, including any cultural sites.

For consumers: Eat less meat and take individual actions

Conversion to grazing land or to soy and other crops for fodder for livestock is one of the largest causes of deforestation, so reducing customer demand can positively impact deforestation rates. By minimizing beef consumption, we could limit deforestation related to creating pastures for livestock and deforestation related to growing cattle feed. One study found that reducing beef consumption by 20 per cent could halve deforestation in the next 30 years.

In addition to limiting meat consumption, individuals can minimize deforestation by taking other actions. For example,

Look for the FCS tree logo (or other sustainability certification) to ensure a product is sustainable.
Avoid single-use packaging (even if FSC-certified)
Choose recycled products and recycle when possible.
Reduce paper product usage.
Buy long-lasting fashion.
Do not smoke tobacco, do not barbeque.
Avoid products containing palm oil.

No single person or company can tackle deforestation alone. Speak out with FSC today to encourage businesses to implement sustainable forest management globally, protecting our forests and helping save the Earth from climate change. You can also find local FSC teams to get connected in your area.

Additional resources

Learn more about deforestation by region with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Global Forest Resources Assessment tool. Discover additional information about deforestation’s role in climate change with MIT’s Climate Portal. Read more about sustainable supply chains from the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab. Read more in FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment. Finally, learn more about the latest FSC updates globally in Australia, Africa, the UK, and the Asia Pacific regions.