What does deforestation have to do with bamboo? Bamboi® has the solution against deforestation.
Cutting down trees is not good for the environment and nature. It disrupts biodiversity and causes loss of habitat for animal and plant species. Climate change is both a cause and a consequence of deforestation. Additionally, deforestation also has a major impact on local populations.
Bamboo offers a possible solution for combating deforestation. Bamboo grows quickly, without needing to be replanted. Moreover, bamboo stores more CO2 than normal trees. The following article discusses what deforestation is, the causes and consequences of deforestation, and finally how bamboo can serve as a solution to combat deforestation.
What is deforestation?
Deforestation is the deliberate cutting down of trees. For centuries, forests have been cleared to make room for agriculture and livestock farming. In addition, forests are cut down to obtain wood for fuel, production, and construction.
Deforestation has drastically changed landscapes around the world. About 2000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forest. Now it's about 34 percent. In North America, between 1600 and 1870, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down for timber and agriculture. China has lost large parts of its forests over the past 4000 years and is now just over 20 percent forest.
Today, the largest deforestation takes place in the tropical rainforest. This is due to the construction of roads in areas that were previously almost inaccessible. By constructing or improving roads, the forests are also more accessible for exploitation. One way to exploit the forest is the slash-and-burn agriculture method. As can be deduced from the name of the method, the wood is first chopped and then burned. Subsequently, the remaining ash serves as fertilizer for the crops. However, the disadvantage of this method is that the piece of land is only fertile for a few years, after which the farmers leave and repeat the process elsewhere. This makes large areas of land infertile, causing this method of agriculture to make a major contribution to deforestation in the tropics. The trees in tropical forests are also cut down to make way for livestock farming and oil palm and rubber tree plantations.
The causes of deforestation
(Illegal) cutting of trees is not good for the environment. Although various causes can be identified for deforestation, the degradation of forests is mainly the result of human activities. Below, we briefly discuss the five main causes of deforestation.
Industrial agriculture
Industrial agriculture refers to the agricultural model that has been characteristic of recent decades. Industrial agriculture consists of large farms that produce the same crop year after year. This form of agriculture goes hand in hand with intensive use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Industrial agriculture is responsible for about 85 percent of global deforestation.
Although this can usually be attributed to meat production, soy and palm oil plantations follow closely as causes of deforestation. According to an impact study by the European Commission, the EU mainly imports products such as palm oil (34%), soy (32.8%), wood (8.6%), cocoa (7.5%), and coffee (7%) from deforested areas. Palm oil contributes significantly to deforestation in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Logging
Every year, about 380,000 hectares of forest are cut down to meet the global demand for wood and wood products, accounting for about 60 percent of deforestation. Another 25% of forests are cut down for firewood and charcoal. These degraded forests are much more vulnerable to conversion to other forms of land use such as mining, agriculture, and habitation.
Mining
Thanks to an ever-increasing demand for minerals, mining in tropical forests is on the rise. And because large-scale mining is an intensive, industrial undertaking, it requires the development of large-scale infrastructure. This only further damages the areas.
Expansion and infrastructure
As population growth overwhelms the land, large areas of forest are cleared to make way for the expansion of cities and settlements. And with the growth of these cities and settlements comes even more infrastructure.
Climate change
Finally, climate change is both an important cause and consequence of deforestation. The extreme events caused by climate change, such as floods, fires, and droughts, damage forests. But deforestation in turn is harmful to the climate, as forests play an important role in providing clean air, regulating the water cycle, capturing CO2, and preventing biodiversity loss and soil erosion.
The consequences of deforestation
As mentioned above, climate change caused by the loss of trees is a major consequence of deforestation. Below, we delve deeper into the main consequences of deforestation.
Loss of habitat
One of the most disturbing consequences of deforestation is the loss of habitat for animal and plant species. About 70 percent of animal and plant species live in forests. The trees of the rainforest provide protection. The canopy of fallen leaves from the trees also ensures the right temperature. Deforestation leads to a drastic temperature difference between day and night, which is, to put it mildly, not favorable for many animal and plant species.
The panda is the symbol of endangered animals, and its habitat has been severely restricted by deforestation. Therefore, in 2021, the Wildlife Fund of Amersfoort Zoo planted over 8000 young trees in Nepal together with the local population, to save the natural habitat of the panda.
There are about two to three thousand pandas left in China. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), this number classifies the panda between endangered and vulnerable species. The panda has not yet reached the last stage before extinction, the classification critically endangered. Nevertheless, it is necessary to protect this species and its habitat to ensure that the number of pandas does not decrease. Bamboi toilet paper only uses bamboo from Sichuan and is fortunately not at all interesting for pandas. You can read more about bamboo on our website.
Increased greenhouse gases
In addition to the loss of habitat, the lack of trees also causes a larger amount of greenhouse gases to enter the atmosphere. Trees normally remove carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis. Trees also contain carbon, but this is locked up in the wood. When the trees are burned, the carbon returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. With fewer trees around to absorb the carbon dioxide, this greenhouse gas accumulates in the atmosphere and accelerates global warming. Thus, deforestation causes more carbon dioxide to enter the atmosphere.
Soil erosion and flooding
The impact of deforestation is also directly noticeable. The loss of trees from a forest makes the soil more susceptible to soil erosion. This makes the remaining plants more vulnerable to fire, as the forest changes from a closed, moist environment to an open dry environment.
Indirectly, the consequence of deforestation is also noticeable. Often these are complex processes involving various factors. Think, for example, of privatization, access to land, corruption, low status, and power positions. These processes take place all over the world and often occur gradually over a period of many years through the centuries.
Water in the atmosphere
Trees also help maintain water levels in the atmosphere by regulating the water cycle. One of the most important forests for regulating the water cycle on Earth is the Amazon rainforest. The millions of trees in the Amazon area work together to bring moisture into the air, creating air currents that regulate weather patterns on Earth. In deforested areas, there is less water in the air to return to the soil. This then causes drier soil and the inability to grow crops. Below, we will delve deeper into the important role that the Amazon region plays in regulating the climate on Earth.
Amazon deforestation
As briefly mentioned above, the Amazon region is one of the most important forests for regulating the water cycle on the planet. This area is a rainforest in South America that spans nine different countries. With its 7.7 million square kilometers, the Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest on Earth. The area is also called the 'lungs of the Earth' because it produces 40 percent of the oxygen on Earth - while the area only covers six percent of the Earth's surface.
Unfortunately, the Amazon region is also threatened by massive deforestation. In fact, the most trees are cut down in the Amazon region. According to a recent report from January 2022 by the World Wildlife Fund, more than a quarter of the Amazon forest will be stripped of its trees by 2030 if deforestation continues at the same pace. It is estimated that even 40 percent of the Amazon region will be destroyed by 2050. That's an area the size of the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy combined.
In addition, local communities are also heavily dependent on the Amazon region. When companies cut down forests, these communities lose resources to grow the food they need to survive, putting them in food insecurity. Hundreds of millions of people depend on tropical forests for their food, and the highest concentrations of food-insecure populations live in regions with tropical forests.
Deforestation of the Amazon region is a big problem and as mentioned earlier in this article, there are various reasons for cutting down trees. Cutting trees for palm oil, soy, livestock farming and agriculture, as well as wood and thus paper play a major role in deforestation. This is one of the main reasons why Bamboi chooses bamboo toilet paper. Bamboo grows quickly, grows without needing to be replanted, and stores more CO2 than normal trees. Additionally, our bamboo species is fortunately not interesting for pandas. Products made from bamboo can therefore serve as a solution to combat deforestation.
Solution to deforestation
Forests protect us against climate change. At the end of 2021, during the climate summit in Glasgow, the aim was expressed to end deforestation by 2030. But because deforestation is a complex and large problem, there is also not one solution for it. To eliminate tree cutting from the world, there should be no support to validate deforestation. This means that there should be no profitable reason for cutting down rainforest, and it's often big players like companies and governments that have a say in this.
Yet you can also contribute a little by adjusting your own behavioral patterns, for example by not buying certain products or using sustainable replacement products instead. For example, ecologically responsible paper where cutting down trees is not necessary. To be sure that paper or other wood products are sustainable and purchased from managed forests, you can look for the FSC certificate. This certification shows that the wood or paper products are sustainable and come 100% from responsible forests. All our rolls are 100% FSC® certified with license number FSC®-C016391.
Paper made from bamboo is a good example of this. Unlike trees, bamboo plants only need three years to fully grow, and they can be 'mowed' in the first year. Bamboo is 'mowed' because it's a grass species and the plant regrows from its own roots after harvesting. So no deforestation, and by using bamboo you also protect the remaining forests on Earth. Additionally, a bamboo plant needs less water than trees and bamboo doesn't need pesticides to grow. This makes it an attractive alternative for those looking for sustainable paper products. Also read how to prune bamboo.
In short, deforestation is a big problem and harmful to the environment. There are various causes of deforestation, but most are related to human influences. Additionally, climate change is both a cause and a consequence of deforestation. It's difficult to mention a solution for deforestation given the size and complexity of the phenomenon, and it's mainly the big players like companies and governments that will have to adapt.
Yet everyone can contribute to countering deforestation, for example by buying sustainable products that prevent logging. An example of this is our Bamboi bamboo toilet paper. Do you also want to help combat deforestation? Then order the bamboo toilet paper from Bamboi in our webshop!
