Deforestation by continent

In 2009, two-thirds of the world's forests were located in just 10 countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States, China, Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, India, and Peru.

[10] According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Africa lost the highest percentage of tropical forests of any continent during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s.

[15] Research carried out by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2006 shows that rates of illegal logging in Africa vary from 50% in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea to 70% in Gabon and 80% in Liberia,[16] where timber revenues played a major role in financing the Sierra Leone Civil War[17] and other regional armed conflicts until the UN Security Council imposed a ban on all Liberian timber in 2003.

[18] Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been caused partly by unregulated logging and mining, but mostly by the demands made by the subsistence activities of a poor population.

[20][21] The main cause of deforestation in the East African country of Ethiopia is a growing population and subsequent higher demand for agriculture, livestock production, and biofuel.

[25] Ethiopia, the third largest country in Africa by population, has been hit by famine many times because of shortages of rain and depletion of natural resources.

He reported that his district was once forested and full of wildlife, but that overpopulation caused people to come and clear it to plant crops, cutting all trees to sell as firewood.

[29] Deforestation,[30] with resulting desertification, water resource degradation, and soil loss has affected approximately 94% of Madagascar's previously biologically productive lands.

[35] Deforestation in Russia is particularly damaging as the forests have a short growing season due to extremely cold winters and therefore take longer to recover.

[47] Deforestation has directly resulted from poorly managed commercial logging, fuel wood collection, agricultural invasion, and infrastructure and urban development.

Indirect pressures include rapid population growth, inequalities in land tenure, lack of agriculture technology, and limited employment opportunities.

[69] An estimate by the World Wildlife Fund concluded that between 1973 and 2009, 43% of forest loss in the Greater Mekong subregion occurred in Thailand and Vietnam.

[75] According to a 2005 report conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Vietnam has the second highest rate of deforestation of primary forests in the world, second only to Nigeria.

The Irish state promoted reforestation during the 20th century, reversing the trend, with an increase to 12% tree cover today, which still however remains one of the lowest percentages in Europe, where the average is 39%.

The lean grass-fed cattle produced by Central American ranches (as opposed to grain-fed cattle raised elsewhere) was perfectly suited for American fast-food restaurants and this seemingly bottomless market has created the so-called "hamburger connection" which links "consumer lifestyles in North America with deforestation in Central America".

In 1600, prior to the arrival of European-Americans, roughly half of the land area of the present-day United States was forest – about 4,000,000 square kilometres (990,000,000 acres).

Littoral rainforest growing along coastal areas of eastern Australia is now rare due to ribbon development to accommodate the demand for seachange lifestyles.

The Amazon region includes the territories of nine nations, with Brazil containing the majority (60%), followed by Peru (13%), Colombia (10%), and smaller portions in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

[132][133] Recent development of a new variety of soybean has led to the displacement of beef ranches and farms of other crops, which, in turn, move farther into the forest.

[143] Due to mostly cattle ranching, mechanized cultivation and small-scale agriculture, Bolivia lost approximately 200,000 hectares of rainforest per year between 2006 and 2010.

[144] Brazilian companies and farmers in particular have made large investments giving them increasing control and influence over Bolivian land, which has resulted in deforestation.

[144] The Tierras Bajas region in eastern Bolivia, which was a site of a World Bank Development project, has seen some of the greatest deforestation due to the establishment of industrial scale soybean plantations largely by foreign landowners.

[146] Inexpensive land and fertile soil were additional driving factors for these immigrants who contributed to organizing commercial farming causing deforestation to increase by 60% from the 1980's to the 1990's.

[149] Concerns about the impact of illegal logging on deforestation were so serious that in 2011 Bolivian protestors were able to halt the construction of a highway that would have increased access to the TIPNIS territory.

Despite modern views of Atacama Desert as fully devoid of vegetation in pre-Hispanic and Colonial times a large flatland area known as Pampa del Tamarugal was forested, with demand of firewood associated silver and saltpeter mining causing widespread deforestation.

While Tarapacá was still part of Peru demand of firewood by salpeter processing using the paradas method led to widespread deforestation around La Tirana and Canchones plus some areas to the south of these localities.

[151] Deforestation results mainly from logging for timber, small-scale agricultural ranching, mining, development of energy resources such as hydro-electricity, infrastructure, cocaine production, and farming.

This has a profound ecological impact in that Colombia is extremely rich in biodiversity, with 10% of the world's species, making it the second most biologically diverse country on Earth.

According to the Ministry of Environment (Peru) between 2001 and 2018 the country lost 2.2 million hectares of forest, mostly in the Amazonian regions of Loreto, San Martín and Ucayali.

[160] Small scale agriculture is the main cause of the deforestacion, but also pressure from extractive industries and illegal mining and narco trafficking.