TREE FACTS

Trees play an important role in the water cycle, grounding the water in their roots and releasing it into the atmosphere.
Here are some interesting facts about trees and the impact of deforestation around the world.

Trees and plants are being burned, degraded and logged at astonishing rates.

46%

of the world's forests are already destroyed.

Deforestation comes in many forms, including fires, clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching and development, unsustainable logging for timber, and degradation due to climate change.

1.6

billion people rely on forests for their livelihoods.

In the Amazon, more than half the water in the ecosystem is held within the plants. Without trees and plants, the climate may become dryer.

80%

of the world’s terrestrial plants and animals live in forests and are losing their habitats to deforestation. Loss of habitat can lead to species extinction. This is not only a biodiversity tragedy but also has negative consequences for medicinal research and local populations who rely on the animals and plants in the forests for hunting and medicine.

46-58 thousand

Square miles of forest are lost every year. That's equivalent to 48 football fields every minute.

The United States

has less than 5% of the world’s population yet consumes more than 30% of the world’s paper.

The world’s rainforests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation.

50%

of all terrestrial plant and animal species in the world live in tropical rainforests.

Every
1.2 seconds

man destroys an area of forest the size of a football field.

Climate change

If forests are destroyed through logging or burning, their carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, a climate-changing greenhouse gas.

80,000 acres

of forests disappear from the Earth every day!

The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has had adverse impacts on bio-sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, along with damage to habitat, biodiversity loss, and aridity.

12.4 million

acres of forests are permanently converted to growing commodity crops, such as palm oil, each year.

121+

natural remedies in the rainforest can be used as medicines.

Deforestation and forest degradation can cause biodiversity to decline. When forest cover is removed, wildlife is deprived of habitat and becomes more vulnerable to hunting. Considering that about 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity can be found in forests, deforestation puts at risk a majority of the Earth’s biodiversity.

28,000

species are expected to become extinct by the next 25 years due to deforestation.

22lbs

of CO2 is sequestered by a mature tree every year.

More than half of the world's timber and 72% of paper is consumed by 22% of the world's population (the United States, Europe, and Japan). Worldwide, industrialized countries consume over twelve times more wood products per person than non-industrialized countries.

20% of current greenhouse gas

Tropical forest destruction accounts for about 20 percent of current greenhouse gas emissions.

Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.

3.5/10 TREES

get chopped down and are processed into pulp for making paper products such as tissue paper, toothpaste, magazines and more...

Without tree roots to anchor the soil and with increased exposure to sun, the soil can dry out, leading to problems like increased flooding and inability to farm. The WWF states that a third of the world’s arable land has been lost to deforestation since 1960. Cash crops planted after clear cutting or burning — like soy, coffee, and palm oil — can actually exacerbate soil erosion because their roots cannot hold onto the soil the way trees’ can.

15%

of all greenhouse gas emissions are the result of deforestation.

Healthy forests help absorb greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions that are caused by human civilization and contribute to global climate change. Without trees and plants, more carbon and greenhouse gasses enter the atmosphere. To make matters worse, trees actually become carbon sources when they are cut, burned, or otherwise removed.

700 pounds

of paper are used by the average US citizen every year.

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