7 countries of the world amount to around 60% of the total deforestation on the planet: Brazil, Canada, China, United States, Indonesia, Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The net loss of the world’s forests is estimated at 7.3 million hectares per year.
Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to agriculture or urban use.
More than half of the world's timber and 72 percent of paper is consumed by 22 percent of the world's population.
The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity.
The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population yet consumes more than 30 percent of the world's paper.
60-70% of deforestation in the Brasilian Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture.
The overwhelming direct cause of deforestation is agriculture.
Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions.
Subsistence farming is responsible for 48 percent of deforestation; commercial agriculture is responsible for 32 percent of deforestation; logging is responsible for 14 percent of deforestation and fuel wood removals make up 5 percent of deforestation.
The Amazon rainforest has lost fifteen percent of its forest cover since 1970 alone.
