Question

Why must we conserve our forests? List two factors responsible for causing deforestation?

Answer 1

Hint: Deforestation means clearing of forests to claim land for use by human beings in an unconditional manner resulting in a decrease in forest covers across the world.

Complete answer: Reasons for conserving our forests:
1. To conserve forest-dwelling species that are in a situation of extinction and causing a loss of irreplaceable genetic resource.
2. To conserve groundwater recharge due to deforestation percolation and groundwater recharge will decrease causing an increase in soil erosion.
3. To balance the consumption of $CO_2$ and the production of $O_2$ will get adversely affected due to deforestation.
4. To prevent the loss of biodiversity
5. To prevent change in the weather patterns.
6. To prevent global warming due to the release of more $CO_2$

Additional information: Causes or factors responsible for deforestation:
1. Population explosion:
2. Man has reclaimed land for housing agriculture, factories, roads, and rail tracks. Increased in timber demand for contributed to large scale felling of trees
3. Shifting cultivation/ humming cultivation:
4. In certain parts of India such as northeastern states, the forest is burnt, ash is mixed with soil, and crops are sown to cleared land and they are abandoned for the new area until its fertility has been naturally restored.

Note: Other causes of deforestation include forest fires, pests, grazing, and gnawing mammal, weather, dam construction, mining, urbanization, and industrialization, etc.
Conservation of forests is a major step towards preventing forests.
Reforestation of land cleared by deforestation.
Recycling wood-based products.