Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a

forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter

converted to a non-forest use.[1] Examples of deforestation
include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or
urban use. Tropical rainforests is where the most
concentrated deforestation occurs.[2] Almost 30% of the
world is covered by forests, excluding water mass.[3]
In temperate mesic climates, natural regeneration of forest
stands often will not occur in the absence of disturbance,
whether natural or anthropogenic.[4] Furthermore,
biodiversity after regeneration harvest often mimics that
found after natural disturbance, including biodiversity loss
after naturally occurring rainforest destruction.[5][6]
Deforestation occurs for many reasons: trees are cut down
to be used or sold as fuel (sometimes in the form
of charcoal) or timber, while cleared land is used
as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities and
settlements. The removal of trees without
sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage
to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It has adverse
impacts onbiosequestration of atmospheric carbon
dioxide. Deforestation has also been used in war to
deprive the enemy of cover for its forces and also vital
resources. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent
Orange by the British military in Malaya during
the Malayan Emergency and the United States military in
Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As of 2005, net
deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries

with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600.[7][8] Deforested

regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and
frequently degrade into wasteland.
Disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and
deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that
allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many
countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and
human induced, is an ongoing issue. Deforestation
causes extinction, changes to climatic
conditions, desertification, and displacement of
populations as observed by current conditions and in the
past through the fossil record.[5] More than half of all plant
and land animal species in the world live in tropical
forests.[9]

Causes
There are many causes of deforestation. The WWF reports that
half of the trees illegally removed from forests are used as fuel.
Some other common reasons are:
To make more land available for housing and urbanization
To harvest timber to create commercial items such as paper,
furniture and homes
To create ingredients that are highly prized consumer items,
such as the oil from palm trees
To create room for cattle ranching
Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear
cutting. These tactics leave the land completely barren and are
controversial practices.
Clear cutting is when large swaths of land are cut down all at
once. A forestry expert quoted by the Natural Resources Defense
Councildescribes clear cutting as "an ecological trauma that has
no precedent in nature except for a major volcanic eruption."
Burning can be done quickly, in vast swaths of land, or more
slowly with the slash-and-burn technique. Slash and burn
agriculture entails cutting down a patch of trees, burning them and
growing crops on the land. The ash from the burned trees
provides some nourishment for the plants and the land is weedfree from the burning. When the soil becomes less nourishing and
weeds begin to reappear over years of use, the farmers move on
to a new patch of land and begin the process again.