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How is Deforestation Impacting People?

While the word ̶0;forest̶1; may evoke an image of a quiet woodland isolated from human activity, the truth is that human existence carries heavy ties to the world's forests and has profound effects on them. Each year deforestation occurs on a massive scale, with an estimated 46-58 million square miles of tree-covered land cleared away. This loss has effects on people who live and work both within and far beyond forest grounds.

Directly Eliminates Human Habitat
- According to NASA's Earth Observatory, millions of people live in tropical forests, many of them members of native tribes. The Pygmy population of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Kayapó and Yanomami tribes of Brazil and the Penan people of Borneo all call forests home. As Adrian Sinafasi Makelo said while representing Pygmy Dignity, ̶0;[t]he forest is our supermarket, our pharmacy, our school, our temple and our cemetery.̶1; Deforestation deprives these people of those establishments.
Encourages the Spread of Disease
- While the decline of a forest environment takes certain resources away, it also can leave in their place conditions that foster the spread of diseases. According to the research of epidemiologist C.A. Guerra and colleagues with the Centre for Geographic Medicine, for example, deforestation in the Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia alters the chemical composition of soils and reduces the amount of deep shade, creating hospitable environments for mosquitoes that carry malaria.
Reduces Materials Important for Global Development
- Forests are crucial not only for the people who live in or near them, but are also the source of numerous materials and products sold and shipped around the world such as cork, latex, timber and fibers that make up textiles. Even medicines include ingredients that are derived from the plants and fungi found in tropical forests, making the harvest of forest materials useful in promoting the health and economic growth of societies worldwide.
Diminishes Agricultural Output
- Essential to every human society is food, yet deforestation negatively affects agriculture. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; through deforestation, enough remains that it is believed to trap heat and play a role in rising temperatures. Trees also release water vapor into the atmosphere, which leads to deforestation as a key contributor to recent fluctuations in rainfall. Increases in temperature are predicted to reduce crop yield, while decreases in rainfall may reduce pasture productivity, making deforestation a threat to a key aspect of human society.

Nature