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Date
2024Type
- Book Chapter
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
At the end of the twentieth century, there were an estimated 1700 million ha of tropical forest and 1600 million ha of temperate forests worldwide. These figures represent about 60% of the original forest cover that is estimated to have existed approximately 8000 years ago. Much of this loss can be directly attributed to human impacts during the past three millennia but with rapidly increased clearance in recent centuries, and even more recently in tropical regions. Forest clearance has been driven mainly by the expansion of agriculture to meet the needs of a growing global population. Logging for timber and mining and other industrial activities have also caused substantial deforestation. Underlying drivers include poor governance and lack of secure tenure. Forests provide important resources and a multitude of natural services, and their recent rapid destruction is causing increasing concern due to environmental, social, and economic problems throughout the world. Developing solutions is, however, proving to be a highly complex task due to the variety of causes of deforestation and conflicting stakeholder interests. Show more
Publication status
publishedEditor
Book title
Encyclopedia of BiodiversityPages / Article No.
Publisher
ElsevierEdition / version
3rd EditionSubject
Agricultural expansion; Deforestation; Development policies; Ecosystem services; Fire; Forest; Illegal logging; Logging; Plantations; REDD and TimberOrganisational unit
02350 - Dep. Umweltsystemwissenschaften / Dep. of Environmental Systems Science
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