Resources and environment, Year 10: deforestation and managing rainforests

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

提示The trend is better news than you might expect.

为什么The 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

提示The opposite of commercial.

为什么In 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

提示Who can now drive in?

为什么Before 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

提示Think of standing under an umbrella.

为什么Under 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

提示A basin holds what flows into it.

为什么Growing 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

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

为什么Logging, 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

提示The opposite of clear felling.

为什么Younger 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

提示Its name pairs what is owed with what is protected.

为什么Some 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

提示Guides, lodges and park fees.

为什么Ecotourism 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

提示Think about what a shopper can now refuse.

为什么Hardwoods 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

提示A pharmacist hands these over.

为什么Rainforests 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

提示It can be kept going for ever.

为什么Every 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.