Deforestation facts

• 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.