If we can take advantage of these innovations, we can bring deforestation to an end. How many trees have been cut down? Tyukavina, A., Hansen, M. C., Potapov, P. V., Stehman, S. V., Smith-Rodriguez, K., Okpa, C., & Aguilar, R. (2017). But, the fact that forest transitions are possible should give us confidence that a positive future is possible. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited. Africa is also different here. Humans have been cutting down trees for millennia. (2020).References:FAO and UNEP. Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. Lewis, S. L., Edwards, D. P., & Galbraith, D. (2015). Brazil, for example, went through a period of very rapid deforestation in the 1980s and 90s (its early transition phase) but its losses have slowed, meaning it is now in the late transition. Mapping tree density at a global scale. According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for around 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In 2012 the mid-year of this period global emissions from fossil fuels, industry and land use change was 40.2 billion tonnes. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? How many trees are lost to deforestation each year? All the software and code that we write is open source and made available via GitHub under the permissive MIT license. are added every year. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. Each year, an estimated 15 billion trees are cut down around the world. How many trees have been cut down? In a related post we have combined this FAO data with global deforestation rates from Williams (2003) to document forest change over the last 300 years this gives us data on forest change from 1700 onwards. More than 7 million hectares of forest, or 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees, are cut down every year because of deforestation. International trade is important for socioeconomic development. Nicolas-Jacques Cont, an officer in Napoleon's army, invented the modern pencil by combining graphite and clay for lead durability. Many rich countries are driving deforestation in other parts of the world, but are regrowing forests domestically. When we treat these impacts equally we make it difficult to prioritize our efforts in the fight against deforestation. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. [1] That's 15.3 billion every year. Williams, M. (2003). Another way that richer countries can contribute is by investing in technologies such as improved seed varieties, fertilizers and agricultural practices that allow farmers to increase yields. An area the size of the United States. Without reliable metrics that capture all of these differences, we will have to stick with total changes in forest area for now. The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. According to CNN, each year over 1,000 plants and animal species go extinct due to deforestation and subsequent habitat loss. Growing all those trees requires about 19.7 square miles of land. Licenses: All visualizations, data, and articles produced by Our World in Data are open access under the Creative Commons BY license. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Half of global forest loss occurred between 8,000BC and 1900; the other half was lost in the last century alone. In a previous post we looked at this change in global forests over the long-run. This was first coined by Alexander Mather in the 1990s.Mather, A. S. (1990). This is nearly always true of planted forests in temperate regions there, planted forests are long-established and do not replace primary existing forests. How many trees are chopped down for Christmas? Only 10% of this was lost in the first half of this period, until 5,000 years ago. For this reason, data sources including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization tend to aggregate annual losses as the average over five-year or decadal periods. The first step in doing this is for rich countries to monitor their deforestation impacts overseas more closely. The research says 15.3 billion trees are chopped down every year. Imported emissions are also high for Taiwan, Belgium and the Netherlands at around one tonne. Many farmers rely on international buyers to earn a living and improve their livelihoods. 14% of deforestation is driven by consumers in the worlds richest countries we import beef, vegetable oils, cocoa, coffee and paper that has been produced on deforested land.12. The rate of deforestation is declining, but we still lost forests at a whopping 10 million hectares per year between 2015-2020. Web3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. We can calculate this increase as [(7.63 billion 3.09 billion) / 3.09 billion * 100 = 147%]. How many trees have been cut down? Imagine over 100 large harvesters working non-stop. 432). There is a geographical argument (why the tropics?) But when forests are cut, burned or otherwise removed they emit carbon instead of absorb carbon. Healthy communities: Tree-filled neighborhoods lower levels of domestic violence and are safer and more sociable. The world loses 5 million hectares of forest to deforestation each year. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca9825en. Thats 6 billion hectares. Noriko Hosonuma et al. This diagram is adapted from the work of Hosonuma et al. But, understanding the role of deforestation in the products we buy is important. Estimates vary, but most date the end of the last great ice age to around 11,700 years ago.Kump, L. R., Kasting, J. F., & Crane, R. G. (2004). Many countries have much less forest today than they did in the past. How much deforestation happens every day? [1] That's 15.3 billion every year. Still, more than half of the worlds habitable land was forested. Help us do this work by making a donation. The changes to the forest are often temporary and its expected that they will regrow. But then the trend turned, and it moved from deforestation to reforestation. WebThe UN FAO estimate that 10 million hectares of forest were cut down each year. But it can bridge between deforestation and degradation depending on the timeframe and permanence of these agricultural practices. Why? How many trees are cut down each year?. Global forest resources. WebEvery year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. How do these two measures compare? They should keep their domestic reforestation targets in perspective with their net impact on global forests. Which countries are gaining, and which are losing forest? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 361(1465), 195-210. The amount of land per person that was needed to produce enough food was not small in fact, it was much larger than today. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. The turn of the 20th century is when global forest loss reached the halfway point: half of total forest loss occurred from 8,000BC to 1900; the other half occurred in the last century alone. On the x-axis we have imported deforestation. Over the decade since 2010, the net loss in forests globally was 4.7 million hectares per year.1 However, deforestation rates were much significantly higher. Science, 349(6250), 827-832. Most tropical deforestation is driven by demand for products in domestic markets. Loss of Biodiversity: Forests are the only liveable habitat for a variety of species around the globe many of which have not even have been discovered. This is probably less than many people would expect. What are the major impacts of mass deforestation and forest loss? And to identify where deforestation is occurring; perhaps as important, show where forest loss is not deforestation. But we should keep these important aspects in mind when comparing forest losses and gains. As to the number of trees this represents, its impossible to get an accurate count. Population growth meant that todays rich countries across Europe and North America needed more and more resources such as land for agriculture, wood for energy, and for construction.8. On balance, it would still have a positive impact on the size of global forests; its net contribution would be increasing forest area by 25,000 hectares.32 However, this country might still be causing more damage than this for a couple of reasons. We will always indicate the original source of the data in our documentation, so you should always check the license of any such third-party data before use and redistribution. As mentioned above, about 15 billion trees are cut down each year. Thats one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. How many trees does IKEA cut down a Hosonuma et al. Agricultural and urban land: The UN FAO Statistical database provides data on global agricultural and urban land from 1961 onwards. In the coming decades this is where we might expect to see the most rapid loss of forests unless these countries take action to prevent it, and the world supports them in the goal. Forest loss or tree loss captures two fundamental impacts on forest cover: deforestation and forest degradation. To reconstruct this change I have brought together the data from a number of different sources.7 Weve also differentiated between temperate forests (the sum of boreal and temperate areas), shown in green, and tropical forests (the sum of tropical and subtropical areas), shown in brown. (2019) quantified the deforestation embedded in traded goods between countries.30 They did this by calculating the amount of deforestation associated with specific food and forestry products, and combining it with a trade model. The change is temporary. But, supply chains are international. And, we might place more value on preserving primary, native forests that havent yet been deforested over regrowing forests that have lost their previous ecosystems. The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) A note on UN FAO forestry data Data on net forest change, afforestation and deforestation is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organizations Forest Resources Assessment. Most of todays richest countries all of Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea have passed the turning point and are now regaining forest. Shifting agriculture is usually classified as degradation because the land is often abandoned and the forests regrow naturally. Rather than looking at total figures by country [if youre interested, we have mapped them here] we have calculated the per capita footprint. 38. How many trees does IKEA cut down a Net importers of deforestation (shown in brown) are countries that contribute more to deforestation in other countries than they do in their home country. Stage 1 The Pre-Transition phase is defined by having high levels of forest cover and no or only very slow losses over time. Approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are being cut each year according to a report referenced on the Rainforest Action Networks website (RAN) and other publications. Global deforestation peaked in the 1980s. Tropical forests are also large carbon sinks, and can store a lot of carbon per unit area.26. (2018), published in Science.20, Commodity-driven deforestation and urbanization are deforestation: the forested land is completely cleared and converted into another land use a farm, mining site, or city. The study also finds that human activity negatively affects tree abundance from the boreal forests to the equator. University of Chicago Press. Note that this only measures the emissions from tropical deforestation it doesnt include any other emissions from agricultural production, such as methane from livestock, or rice, or the use of fertilizers. High-income countries were the largest importers of deforestation, accounting for 40% of it. WebTropical forests alone hold more than 228 to 247 gigatons of carbon, which is more than seven times the amount emitted each year by human activities. Environmental Research Letters, 7(4), 044009. Environmental Research Letters, 14(5), 055003. (2017) estimate that the average EU diet, excluding deforestation, is responsible for 0.5 tonnes CO2 per person. Lewis, S. L. (2006). Most deforestation today occurs in low-to-middle income countries. This increase was mostly driven by tropical deforestation as countries across Asia and Latin America followed the path of Europe and North America. In just over 100 years the world lost as much forest as it had in the previous 9,000 years. (2017). When we cut down primary rainforest we are transforming this ecosystem forever. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. But when forests are cut, burned or otherwise removed they emit carbon instead of absorb carbon. Given the current estimate of the total tree cover on the planet, that could equate to about 0.11% of trees being cut each year. It was a net importer. If you struggle to increase crop yields but want to produce more food, then expanding your agricultural land is the only option. This number comes from the World Bank, which estimates that there are 3 trillion trees on the planet. After long periods of forest clearance in the past, most of todays richest countries are increasing tree cover through afforestation. We should not only look at where these foods are produced, but also where the consumer demand is coming from. [4] Forests cover 4.06 billion hectares (just less than 31%) of This is very close to our estimate of a one-third loss. Global Environmental Change, 15(1), 23-31. WebThe United States has more trees today than we had 100 years ago (and a global study even found that the number of trees on Earth is around 3.04 trillion, a much higher number than previously believed.) By Georgina Rannard. That these countries have recently regained forests is also visible in the long-term forest trends above. This means interventions at the national-level will be key: this can include a range of solutions including policies such as Brazils soy moratorium, the REDD+ programme to compensate for the opportunity costs of preserving these forests, and improvements in agricultural productivity so countries can continue to produce more food on less land. Its the foods and products we buy, not where we live, that has the biggest impact on global land use. Web42 million trees are cut down each day. The Forest Transition therefore tends to follow a development pathway.16 As a country achieves economic growth it moves through each of the four stages. Science Advances, 3(4), e1601047. This might put the responsibility for ending deforestation solely on tropical countries. Urbanization, the other driver of deforestation accounts for just 0.6%. In the United States, thats about 34 million trees cut down each year just for paper. Most emissions 71% came from foods consumed in the country that they were produced. From 1700 to 1850, 19 million hectares were being cleared every decade. Our crop yields improve and so we need less land for agriculture. From 1850 to 1920, losses were around 50% higher at 30 million hectares per decade thats like losing a forested area the size of Italy every 10 years. But distilling changes to this single metric tree or forest loss comes with its own issues. 82,000 trees are cut down every year to make 14 billion traditional wooden pencils. In their analysis of global forest loss, Philip Curtis and colleagues used satellite images to assess where and why the world lost forests between 2001 and 2015. That means that each year, one percent of all trees are being destroyed. The total cut down so far is over 470 million trees since January 1st. Although there is some year-to-year variability [you can explore the data use the timeline on the bottom of the chart from 2005 to 2013] we see a reasonably consistent divide: most countries across Europe and North America are net importers of deforestation i.e. The average across the EU was 0.3 tonnes CO2 per person. First, it reiterates that deforestation is not a new problem: relatively small populations of the past were capable of driving a large amount of forest loss. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 753-765. Approximately 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are being cut each year according to a report referenced on the Rainforest Action Networks website (RAN) and other publications. We lost 150 million hectares an area half the size of India during that decade. Science, 361(6407), 1108-1111. The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data. The story of both soy and palm oil are complex and its not obvious that eliminating these products will fix the problem. How many trees are cut down each year?. Some interesting facts state that every second, 1.5 acres of wood are cut down, Share of deforestation that is driven by domestic consumption, Annual CO emissions from deforestation for food production, trade-adjusted. But they wanted to contribute to a more informed discussion about where to focus forest conservation efforts by understanding why forests were being lost. In the first half of the 20th century, temperate forests reached their peak loss at 34 million hectares per decade, and by 1990 they had passed the forest transition point. Crowther, T. W., Glick, H. B., Covey, K. R., Bettigole, C., Maynard, D. S., Thomas, S. M., & Tuanmu, M. N. (2015). Humans have already destroyed around 46% of the trees on Earth. When in history did we lose it? As to the number of trees this represents, its impossible to get an accurate count. The State of the Worlds Forests 2020. If we can identify the producer countries, importing countries, and specific products responsible, we can direct our efforts towards interventions that will really make a difference. Absolute estimates of forest cover from other sources may differ for this reason. On the horizontal axis we have time, spanning from 1700 to 2020; on the vertical axis we have the decadal change in forest cover. Tree density in primary forests varies from 50,000-100,000 trees per square km, so the math would put this number at 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees cut down each year. How Many Trees are Cut down for Paper Each Year . As we explore in more detail in our related article, countries tend to follow a predictable development in forest cover, a U-shaped curve.9 They lose forests as populations grow and demand for agricultural land and fuel increases, but eventually they reach the so-called forest transition point where they begin to regrow more forests than they lose. Global Environmental Change, 56, 1-10. What are the major impacts of mass deforestation and forest loss? It will be possible for our generation to achieve the same on the global scale and bring the 10,000 year history of forest loss to an end. It was a net exporter. But, it would be wrong to think that the only impact rich countries have on global forests is through changes in their domestic forests. Across sub-tropical countries we have a mix: many upper-middle income countries are now in the late transition phase. Most traded emissions are embedded in soy and palm oil exports to China and India; and beef, soy and palm oil exports to Europe. In the figure we see visual examples from the study of forest loss classification by Philip Curtis et al. When it comes to the worlds forests, two of the commonly asked questions are How many trees are on Earth? and How many trees are cut down each year? According to the Environmental Paper Network, an estimated 30% of felled trees are used for paper products. And its not just in forests eitherits also happening on farms, in cities, and on private property.