Deforestation and Forest Degradation: The Causes, Effects, and Solutions

The official deforestation definition is quite simple: It’s when humans convert wooded land into something totally different, leaving previously dense green forests carved, cleared, and turned into a pockmarked desert-brown wasteland. Also damaging is forest degradation: the loss or reduction of a forest’s ecosystem integrity through intensive logging and the targeting of older stands of trees within a forest by loggers.

Where are deforestation and forest degradation happening?

Few places across the globe are spared. While the most intense focus on the issue of deforestation has been on tropical locales, such as the Amazon rainforest and Congo Basin, the problem is widespread. Northern forests—in particular, the peat-rich boreal forests in Canada and Russia, the lichen-rich forests of Sweden, and various forests across the western United States, among others—are being damaged as well but without the same scrutiny.

NRDC is calling for countries of the Global North to hold themselves accountable and step up their obligations to report on and rein in the rampant logging happening within their borders. Otherwise, standards for protecting forests are lowered everywhere, including in the Global South, which so often takes the heat for this issue. 

Why is deforestation a problem?

Deforestation and forest degradation are destroying some of the earth’s most precious ecosystems and the natural resources that people depend on, in addition to fragmenting wildlife habitat. Together, they are also the second-largest source of global carbon emissions, after the burning of fossil fuels. (In brief: When we remove healthy trees, some of the carbon that’s been stored in their fibers and surrounding soils gets immediately released into the atmosphere; some is released more slowly as wood products decay.) Forest degradation can also damage or diminish other ecosystem services that a healthy forest provides—everything from flood control for surrounding communities to availability of food and medicines derived from forest plants. 

Some companies claim that by replanting trees, they can cancel out the environmental damage. Unfortunately, there’s no such easy fix for logging. A homogenous, man-made forest of brand-new trees can’t compete with an older forest in terms of its ability to capture and store carbon dioxide. Nor can it provide in the same way for the needs of wildlife and communities that rely on intact landscapes. 

There are a few types of deforestation and forest degradation. Some are closely tied to the climate crisis, as when sea level rise surrounds the roots of coastal trees with salty water, parching and killing them—turning them into “ghost forests.” Similarly, some forests are being leveled by wildfires, which are intensifying with global warming. But industrial logging is by far the world’s largest driver of tree loss, whether for extraction of natural resources to make forest products—like lumber, paper, and biomass for energy—or conversion into farmland and other development. 

Wildfires

Forest fires are triggered either by lightning strikes or people. In some landscapes, such as boreal forests, natural wildfire cycles caused by lightning have played an integral role in maintaining ecosystem health for millennia. Wildfires can remove sick and dying vegetation, stimulate natural regeneration, and support biodiversity. When set through prescribed burns outside the wildfire window, fire can also sometimes be a beneficial way to clear out highly flammable shrubs and brush that make forests more prone to conflagration. 

But with climate change creating drier, warmer, more flammable conditions, wildfires are burning hotter and longer than ever before and wiping out massive numbers of trees. Unprecedented hot, dry weather led to record-breaking Canadian wildfires that burned more than 18 million hectares of land in 2023 alone. 

Extreme droughts also make forested landscapes more susceptible to wildfire and other climate impacts, such as increased insect infestations. Older, hardier trees are dying out and becoming replaced by shrubs. Scientists warn that we could eventually see the transformation of tropical forests (like the Amazon) into arid savannahs or coniferous forests (like the boreal) into shrubby grasslands, particularly if we hit a climate tipping point.

Clearcutting for agriculture

Cattle ranching and monoculture farming of crops like soybeans also drive deforestation. In the Amazon rainforest, many international meat and animal feed companies have financed the clearing and burning of trees to make way for plantations and processing facilities. These operations feed robust export trades—and in turn, fuel demand for these products. 

In the Brazilian Amazon, land used for soybean farming increased tenfold between 2000 and 2019, according to a study in Nature. And American imports of palm oil, a common vegetable oil extracted from trees and used in everything from packaged snacks to shampoo, are responsible for overwhelming rates of deforestation in Indonesia, a study by Global Witness found.

Timber and lumber production

Demand for furniture and construction materials leads to forests being clearcut for products made from processed wood. Many major companies, such as Home Depot, continue to source these products from tropical, boreal, and intact forests around the globe, with little accountability for ensuring legal and sustainable harvesting.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is working to create more transparency and accountability within the industry: While not perfect, its certification system indicates whether wood was harvested responsibly and without targeting old-growth forests. Advocates are also calling for furniture companies (among other businesses with primary forests in their supply chains) to uphold commitments to internationally recognized Indigenous rights frameworks, which ensure Indigenous Peoples consent to the harvesting of trees from their lands.

Biomass energy production

Trees are also used to produce biomass pellets, an energy source that industry parades as carbon neutral. The biggest supply of those greenwashed pellets comes from forests in North Carolina and other parts of the American Southeast.

Scientists from NRDC and other groups have proven wood power to be remarkably inefficient, producing more greenhouse gas per unit of electricity than coal. Nevertheless, the European Union approved wood pellets as a renewable energy source in 2009, and the biomass industry has seen a resurgence in the years since. 

Paper production

One of the planet’s most vital climate regulators, Canada’s boreal forest is a particular target of the paper industry, among other industries. The Canadian boreal stores nearly twice as much carbon as tropical forests, through its trees, soil, and massive peat reserves. But much of the boreal forest has already been heavily logged, with industrial operations felling a million acres of trees per year. American companies are the biggest purchasers of the pulp made from these trees, which they use to produce tissues, paper towels, and toilet paper, despite the availability of more sustainable options. 

Mining

The environmental fallout from industrial mining for gold and coal has increased alarmingly and is a particular threat to the forests of Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia, and Suriname. According to a 2023 study by scientists from the World Wildlife Fund, one-third of the mining-related deforestation seen in the last 20 years has occurred in just the last five years. The study also factored in indirect impacts of mining operations: Clearing trees for mining leads to water pollution and additional land cleared for supporting infrastructure. 

 Roadbuilding and development

Many studies looking at the world’s great forests—from the Amazon to the Congo Basin—have shown that the proximity of roads and navigable rivers increases the likelihood of logging. And once those roads are built, providing clear access to wooded areas, they open up forests to more industrial development, leading to even more deforestation. In January 2023, Alaska’s Tongass National Forest was spared this fate after the Biden administration reinstated a ban on most new roads and logging in the forest. 

Industry is not the only force driving more roads into forested landscapes. Development at the urban-wildland interface—i.e., urban or suburban sprawl—also leads to deforestation. It puts some communities more at risk of wildfire damage too.

Climate change

How do deforestation and forest degradation affect climate change? Not only does chopping down trees release huge amounts of carbon during the clearing process itself, but it can also undermine the future ability of habitats to soak up greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. In other words, a logged forest becomes a far less effective carbon sink, one of our best tools in the fight against climate change. 

Ocean acidification

As the burning of fossil fuels and loss of forests increase emissions, the oceans are soaking up more and more carbon. That absorption comes with a cost: ocean acidification, a chemical reaction between carbon dioxide and seawater that leads the ocean’s pH level to decrease and the water to become more acidic. In turn, this impacts the levels of a compound called carbonate that’s vital for shellfish to build their skeletons and for protective coral reefs to stay intact.

Soil erosion

What happens when you destroy hundreds of miles of tree root systems and understory vegetation like grass, moss, and lichen? You damage the land’s ability to absorb water and retain its soil. This can exacerbate flooding when riparian buffer zones are compromised and can also cause landslides and soil erosion. Without rich topsoil, the ground is depleted of the nutrients that worms, fungi, and bacteria need to foster healthy new growth.

The water cycle

Clearcutting in watersheds can introduce new sediment, nutrients, and surface runoff (including chemicals used during the clearcutting and replanting process) to waterways. Logging roads can contribute additional runoff. Beyond wreaking havoc on aquatic wildlife, this type of pollution can also imperil valuable sources of drinking water. 

Decrease in local rain

A 2023 study in the journal Nature confirmed anecdotal reports of hotter, drier climates near deforested areas and predicted that in the Congo by 2100, local precipitation could decrease by 8 to 10 percent. This finding matches evidence of the same phenomenon occurring in other forests throughout the globe. Scientists have traced the link between reduced rainfall and reduced forest cover to the loss of evaporation from the canopy; in turn, this lowers atmospheric moisture and cloud development, which feeds the rain cycle. The consequences touch on everything from crop productivity to hydropower availability for local areas. 

Loss of biodiversity

The complex web of life within a forest ecosystem comprises plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi, and many species can’t survive when that network of relationships breaks down. Industrial logging leaves a vast footprint, fragmenting and degrading entire swaths of forest. Logging roads slice things up even further. Native species are left to survive in smaller, isolated sections of less suitable habitat while facing increased competition for dwindling resources. The result? Some species disappear altogether. Indeed, the world is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction, and this time, the human destruction of natural habitats is largely to blame.

Increased diseases

Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases that can jump from animals to humans. They include vector-borne diseases, transmitted by agents such as mosquitos or ticks (which carry malaria and Lyme disease, respectively). These diseases flourish where there is land use change of many kinds (including deforestation), which disturbs the delicate balance between people, animals, and nature. For example, deforestation can shrink populations of predator species, which allows populations of disease-harboring mice to balloon.

Loss of community spaces and ways of life

A history of racial inequality in America has left well-documented differences in who has access to nature. A study by the Hispanic Access Foundation and the Center for American Progress found that 74 percent of the country’s communities of color live in nature-deprived areas, compared to only 23 percent of white communities. Researchers have also shown that these trends are likely to continue over the course of the century as the clearance of forests and wetlands to make room for agriculture and urban development accelerates.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, some 70 million Indigenous People are longtime dwellers and protectors of vast expanses of forests, and more than 400 million rural people reside in or near forests. For all of these communities, industrial logging can jeopardize sources of food, water, income, and the very ways of life. In the Canadian boreal forest, former Youth Chief Melanie Neeposh of the Waswanipi Cree describes Quebec’s Broadback River Valley as “basically our last intact forest. All the traditional and cultural activities that we practice out there on the land, that’s who we are. That’s us.” 

Economic costs

The short-term gains that go hand in hand with deforestation—for instance, corporate gains from lumber, palm oil, or cattle raised on deforested land—are dwarfed by the longer-term losses. While it’s likely an impossible task to pinpoint the price tag of global deforestation, a 2023 World Bank report that looked specifically at the value of the Amazon rainforest estimated it to be worth a minimum of $317 billion. And should the forest collapse completely, it would only intensify these costs.

Slowing the rate of global deforestation and degradation will take international collaboration at the highest levels. Leaders of wealthy nations, especially, must come forward with financing and accountability, and the corporate sector that sources products from climate-critical forests like the boreal must also change business as usual. 

Government involvement

At the 2023 United  Nations climate conference, governmental officials agreed to a climate road map that emphasized the need to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, a goal that’s also part of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use. The road map to meeting the world’s Paris Agreement commitments, called the Global Stocktake, makes it clear that implementing forest protections against illegal logging and enacting regulations on forestry are essential to achieving a safe and livable future. 

Some governments have already made strides toward the 2030 deadline: Nigeria is implementing ambitious biodiversity protections; the European Union is implementing trade standards that address sourcing tied to deforestation and degradation; and the United States announced measures for protecting mature and old-growth trees from logging. In addition, our nation supports the 30x30 initiative, which seeks to protect 30 percent of the world’s natural areas by 2030 while centering Indigenous Peoples; it is also endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, with only 13 percent of the U.S. land base currently protected, we need to ramp up government action to implement these commitments.

Incentives for regenerative agriculture 

A growing movement to practice sustainable agriculture, based on principles from Indigenous Peoples, protects the planet in many ways, including by increasing the soil’s ability to store carbon. Regenerative agriculture techniques involve strategies like using cover crops to replenish the soil instead of chemical inputs. They also entail less or no tilling of the soil and call for nurturing a field’s adjacent woodlands and wildlife habitats. If enacted on a large scale, these practices could significantly draw down carbon dioxide over the next several decades. States have a role to play in urging more farmers and ranchers to adopt these techniques: California and Iowa, for example, offer financial incentives to farmers who use certain sustainable practices. 

Restoration—not reforestation 

A biodiverse, carbon-rich forest develops only with the slow passage of time. Once it’s gone, it can take generations to return. As a result, when the logging industry replants with a monoculture of trees (often misleadingly termed “reforestation” by greenwashers), it does little to address the net losses to carbon storage and biodiversity. 

However, ecosystem restoration can pay off. For example, the agroforestry practice of planting riparian buffers—strips of trees and other plants between agricultural lands and waterways like rivers and streams—restores the land’s abilities to sequester carbon. These buffers also reduce the likelihood of flooding on croplands and runoff into waterways; plus, they provide shade for waterways, which cools water down and prevents harmful algal blooms, so the benefits ripple across an ecosystem. And in cities, planting trees can have expansive benefits, from offering a local source of fruit to more shade (a particular issue for urban heat islands). 

Individual actions

One action that never fails to help the planet in every way: Reduce consumption. To combat deforestation, this might mean holding off on replacing wooden furniture or eating a diet low in dairy and beef. And beyond that, demand retailers to stop selling products that have an outsize impact on at-risk forests. When shopping for paper goods, avoid those made directly from trees, and instead look for products made from recycled content (check out this chart for the most sustainable brands). Keep an eye out for foods, detergents, and personal care products made with palm oil, and look for alternatives when possible.

Consumer and environmental advocacy does lay the groundwork for corporate progress. For example, major tissue producer Kimberly-Clark recently announced its intention to stop sourcing fiber from the most ecologically important areas of the boreal and other forests and adopted a new Forests, Land, and Agriculture Policy that commits to avoiding deforestation and degradation. The change wouldn’t have been likely without the steady pressure that the company felt from members of the public calling out the company’s role in fueling deforestation and degradation.