Basic Knowledge in Agriculture #51

Greetings, dear steemians, I believe you are all fine as I am. I appreciate hive-118902 for organising this contest. This week, we shall be talking about Deforestation, and below are my views on the guiding questions.

Source Edited using GridArt

What do you understand by Deforestation

Deforestation is viewed as the cutting down of trees or clearing of forests for economic or agricultural purposes. These agricultural or economic purposes include:

• Urbanisation: This has to do with the clearing of forests for expanding cities or structural development. Recently, a large forest was cleared in my community with the sole aim of constructing a stadium for sporting activities.
• Mining: This is the clearing of forest for the purpose of extracting mineral resources like gold, copper, iron, limestone, and coal etc.
• Timber Forest can also be cleared to produce timber for house roofing and furniture.
• Charcoal/Firewood: Charcoal is made by heating organic matter, such as wood. This is one major purpose for clearing forests in my community these days as everyone is now cooking with a charcoal stove or firewood since the price of cooking gas and kerosene is high.
• Farming activities: Forests are also cleared to make farmland to grow crops like maize, beans, and guineacorn, etc, for consumption and money making.

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What are the Dangers of Deforestation
Some of the dangers of soil deforestation are:

• Soil Erosion: Forests or trees provide protective canopies that interrupt or obstruct rain from hitting the soil directly. Therefore, removing these trees allows the rain and even wind to wash away the fertile top layer of the soil.
• Destruction of biodiversity: Forests serve as habitats for different kinds of animals like lions, reptiles, birds, etc and clearing these forests will definitely render these animals homeless, exposing them to the risk of being killed or going into extinction.
• Flooding: The clearing of the forest destroys the canopy provided for the soil, which increases the risk of flooding, especially when there is heavy rainfall.
• Deforestation releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to climate change and global warming.
• Loss of livelihood: Many people depend on the forest as their source of livelihood. From the forest, some get food, timber, meat, medicine, etc. Therefore, destroying these forests poses a challenge to their livelihood.

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How can deforestation be reduced
There are a few numbers of ways that deforestation can be reduced, some of which are:

• Education/Awareness: The government can create awareness and educate its citizens on the importance and dangers of deforestation.

• Afforestation: This can be viewed as the planting of trees. For every tree that is cut down, two or more trees are supposed to be planted as a replacement.

• The government should create and implement policies that can control the activities that promote deforestation.

• The government should encourage the use of iron for roofing instead of wood.

Conclusion
I appreciate you for reading my article to this point. I also invite @selina1, @sushanta83, @max-pro and @simaroy to join the contest.

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Regard