Deforestation has been an issue since the development of urban living and human populations. While the earth used to be covered in six million hectares of lush, deciduous forests, deforestation has had a terrible impact on the earth, harming not just forests but each species that makes a home in these habitats.

   Ten thousand years ago, at the end of the last ice age and before the development of large human populations, the earth was covered in forests by 57 percent, making up six million hectares of natural forest. Through the years, deforestation has been implemented and has gotten exponentially worse at the hands of humans. Now, 46 percent of land space on Earth is used as agricultural and grazing land. Apart from the portion of land covered by grassland habitat, this has cut the forest coverage down to only 38 percent, a 19 percent and two-million-hectare decrease. The large population of humans and their need for food has caused the need for a huge global agriculture industry, which unfortunately requires a large amount of land clearing, so much so that it is the main cause of deforestation.

   The loss of vital forests from the surface has not only been harmful to the soil and the trees themselves, but also to the animals living in the forests. It is estimated that between 200 and 2,000 species go extinct each year, and many say that we are entering the sixth mass extinction on Earth. The rampant deforestation caused by humans is contributing greatly to these statistics. If deforestation is not combated and if the forests cannot bounce back, more species will become extinct until the biodiversity of the earth is a tiny fraction of what it once was.

   A great example of an important forest is the Amazon rainforest system. This is the largest forest region in the world and hosts much of the world’s species diversity. Studies have shown that the Amazon species account for nine percent of mammals, 14 percent of birds, eight percent of amphibians, 13 percent of freshwater fish species, and 22 percent of vascular plant species. This is a good show of the rainforest’s wide array of species and biodiversity. However, this grand collection of life is being destroyed by deforestation, as lands are cleared, rivers become dry or polluted, and the changes caused by global warming become too much for the habitat. 17 percent of this forest system has died while another 17 percent has become greatly unhealthy and degraded.

   The Amazon rainforest is just one of the many forests of the world struggling in the face of rampant deforestation. In order to improve the health of the natural world, forests must be conserved and nurtured back to health.