planet on a plate
Deforestation and Loss of Biodiversity
Forests contain 60 per cent of the world’s flora The overwhelming reason for deforestation is
and fauna, play a vital role in climate regulation cattle ranching and the growing of fodder crops.
and are an important sink for carbon. Livestock
are the major cause of deforestation and It has been estimated that just one
therefore of biodiversity loss, also. hamburger made from Costa Rican beef
results in the eradication of one large tree,
During the 1980s, 15 million hectares of 50 saplings, seedlings from some 20-30
tropical forest were destroyed every year. In different species, hundreds of species of
the 1990s the devastation accelerated and insects mosses, fungi and microorganisms.
between 2003 and 2004, 700,000 hectares
were destroyed in Brazil alone – an area the Europe’s livestock increasingly depends upon
size of Belgium. soya, with some 18 million tonnes being
imported annually from the Amazon. It finds
Forests have continued to be lost at a rate of its way into just about every piece of chicken,
8.9 million hectares annually in the decade to burger, cheese, sausage or bacon sold across
2000 and 7.3 million hectares annually the European Union (EU). Between 2004 and
between 2000 and 2005. 2005, 1.2 million hectares were planted with
soya in the Amazon.
The process of slash and burn – cutting down
and burning – unlocks centuries’ worth of Currently, 70 per cent of cleared Amazon
stored CO2 in only minutes and is responsible rainforest is used for the grazing of cattle
for 20 per cent of human-caused while most of the remaining 30 per cent is
(anthropogenic) CO2 emissions. used for growing soya animal feed.
Clearing forests for grazing Sadly, deforestation is a game without end as
the soils of rainforest land are thin and after
using slash and burn may emit a few years of being saturated with
agrochemicals they become unproductive
an astonishing 2.4 billion and the process of clearing and burning is
repeated. It is a problem that is happening
tonnes of CO2 per year. across the world.
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