Biodiversity Loss Due to Forest Diversion

Biodiversity Loss Due to Forest Diversion

Vinaya Satyawan Tari, Vandana Gupta, Ashutosh S. Joshi, Poonam Nirmalkumar Kurve, Naresh Chandra
Copyright: © 2024 |Pages: 29
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-6950-0.ch010
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Abstract

The world is continuously progressing towards technological advancement. Eventually, global biodiversity is taking a consistent downfall. This is not only disrupting the ecosystem services and livelihood spatially but also impacts carbon offsetting globally in the present context. In the arena of biodiversity loss in the last three decades the problem remains unresolved, despite environmental regulations present at national and international levels to protect biodiversity. Forest diversion has been observed to be one of the major root causes for these losses which is further resulting in habitat deterioration and fragmentation. Numerous case studies have been reported that support biodiversity loss due to forest diversions. The conversion of forest land to commercial purposes such as plantations, infrastructural developments, and residential projects has shown a major impact on biodiversity loss, especially in the tropics.
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Introduction

The term biodiversity or biological diversity refers to the variation of life right from genes to ecosystems on Earth. It comprises the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life. Today’s biodiversity is the result of the evolution of 4.5 billion years. Plants and oceans are important carbon absorbers. Forests store twice as much carbon as they emit. In contrast, an estimated 25% of global carbon emissions are sequestered alongside forests in other vegetative forms, such as grasslands or rangelands (fields, prairies, shrublands, etc.). Ecosystems and the biota inhabiting them face serious threats due to it. This is an attempt to highlight the specific case studies to envisage the effects of Forest Diversion on the biodiversity of India. This chapter also included some international scenarios through interesting case studies.

According to the report of UNEP on the state of the world’s forests (2020), the global distribution of forests is shown in Table 1.

Table 1.
Global distribution of forests showing countries with the largest forest area, 2020
CountryForest Area (in million hectares)% of Worlds Forest
Russian Federation81520
Brazil49712
Canada3479
United States of America3108
China2205
Australia1343
Democratic Republic of the Congo1263
Indonesia922
Peru722
India722
Rest of the World137534

Source: Food And Agriculture Organization, 2020

Key Terms in this Chapter

Habitat Loss: Discontinuous diversion of forest leads to fragmentation of forest area and consequently, it separates populations from community leading to prevention of hereditary exchange which further may make the species prone to extinction.

Forest Diversion: The utilization of forest land and allied resources for purposes other than the forest is called ‘Forest diversion’

Biodiversity Loss: The decline or disappearance of species.

ESG: Environmental and social Governance metrics are used to analyse an organization’s sustainability practices.

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