Resources and environment, Year 10: deforestation and managing rainforests

It has fallen (from about 18 to about 11 million hectares a year)

HintThe trend is better news than you might expect.

The whyThe UN's forest assessment put deforestation at 17.6 million hectares a year in 1990 to 2000 and 10.9 million a year in 2015 to 2025 (FAO, 2025). That figure is for all the world's forests. For tropical rainforest alone the trend is less clear: satellite records show losses of old-growth tropical forest rising to a record in 2024 before falling in 2025 (World Resources Institute, 2026). Check the figures for your own case study.

Subsistence farming

HintThe opposite of commercial.

The whyIn a rainforest it usually means a family clearing a small plot. Commercial farming, such as cattle ranching or plantations of soya or palm oil, clears far larger areas because it grows crops to sell for profit.

It opens the forest up to loggers, farmers, miners and settlers

HintWho can now drive in?

The whyBefore the road, the area could be reached only on foot or by river. After it, lorries can carry timber, cattle and ore out, and new settlers arrive. Clearance spreads out from the road in side tracks.

It intercepts the rain, so the drops do not strike bare soil directly

HintThink of standing under an umbrella.

The whyUnder forest, rain hits leaves first and reaches the ground gently. Once the trees are cleared, heavy downpours hit the bare surface, loosen it and wash it downhill. The thin fertile top layer is the first to go.

It takes in more carbon dioxide than it gives out, and stores the carbon

HintA basin holds what flows into it.

The whyGrowing trees take carbon dioxide from the air and lock the carbon in their wood. When forest is burned or left to rot, that carbon goes back into the air, and there are fewer trees left to absorb it. So deforestation adds to climate change twice over.

It brings jobs and export income that help the country to develop

HintThink about what timber, beef, palm oil and metal ores are worth abroad.

The whyLogging, ranching, plantations, mines and dams all employ people and earn money from sales abroad. Taxes on them can pay for roads, schools and hospitals. The gains may not last: once the forest and its soil are gone, so is the income.

Selective logging

HintThe opposite of clear felling.

The whyYounger trees are left to grow, so the canopy stays largely whole and the soil stays covered. New trees are often planted in the gaps. The forest can be logged again decades later.

A debt-for-nature swap

HintIts name pairs what is owed with what is protected.

The whySome countries cut down forest to earn money to repay loans. If a lender or a conservation group cancels part of the debt, that pressure eases, and the country commits the money to protecting the forest instead.

Visitors pay to see it intact, so it earns them more alive than cut down

HintGuides, lodges and park fees.

The whyEcotourism means small numbers of visitors, local guides and little damage. The income carries on year after year, unlike a single payment for timber. It works only if the money really does reach local people.

Buyers can choose certified wood, so illegally or carelessly logged timber is harder to sell

HintThink about what a shopper can now refuse.

The whyHardwoods such as mahogany and teak fetch high prices. International agreements and certification schemes, such as the Forest Stewardship Council label, track wood from forest to shop. If importers accept only certified wood, there is less profit in destructive logging.

medicines

HintA pharmacist hands these over.

The whyRainforests are also home to indigenous peoples. Their value to the environment is separate: they store carbon, recycle water into rainfall and hold more than half the world's species.

sustainable

HintIt can be kept going for ever.

The whyEvery strategy AQA lists is a way of doing this: selective logging and replanting, conservation and education, ecotourism, international agreements on hardwoods, and debt reduction. To judge one, ask whether people still earn a living and whether the forest is still there afterwards.