With its light and shadows, with its intricate weave of branches and brush that offer shelter to small creatures and fearsome beasts alike, the forest has always been one of the symbols of the mystery of life’s ability to withstand adversity, a metaphor for the complexity of human existence and thought. In the daytime it cheers the soul with the green of the foliage, the song of the birds, and the murmur of the waters; in the evening it becomes dark and foreboding, in spring it blooms with fragrances, in winter it fills with mud and is stripped bare. This is why poets like Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio used it to embody our most hidden fears and the quest we all undertake in search of our true self. But this magical place also has a more ‘material’ value, indispensable for humanity at both the biological and economic levels.
In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly established the International Day of Forests, which is celebrated on March 21. In 2021, the year that opens the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), the theme of the day was "Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being", aimed at creating a healthier world for us and for future generations (ISPRA, “Foreste e biodiversità, troppo preziose per perderle”, Quaderni Natura e Biodiversità, 13/2020).
Woodlands and forests
A forest is defined as a natural, non-anthropized area entirely covered by tall trees that grow independently, differing from woodlands in its greater extension and the spontaneity of the origin and type of vegetation.
From a geographical point of view, we can distinguish various types of forests:
Equatorial
Tropical
Mediterranean
Boreal
Austral.
The forest as a treasure
Forests contribute to soil protection, they participate in the water cycle, and they regulate the climate, insofar as they mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, during photosynthesis, trees absorb important significant of CO2 which is the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. As such, forests also mitigate the risks of extreme weather events that in recent years have reached alarming levels. Moreover, they represent the natural habitat of many species of animals, providing three of the key elements for the survival of a species as identified by the WWF:
Water – they are vast “catch basins” for water storage.
Nourishment – they host the flora that feeds much of the fauna, on which other animals then prey, and are therefore the anchor of the entire food chain.
Shelter – trees provide plants and animals with protection from harmful sunlight, excessive precipitation, and violent winds.
The forest is also important from a socioeconomic standpoint, as we will see later on.
Forest biological diversity
Forests are home to 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. More than 60,000 different species of trees provide habitats for 80% of all amphibian species, 75% of all bird species, and 68% of all mammal species. Forest biological diversity refers to all life forms found within forested areas and the ecological roles they perform. It encompasses not just trees, but the multitude of plants, animals and microorganisms that inhabit forest areas - and their associated genetic diversity. Forest biological diversity can be considered at different levels, including ecosystem, landscape, species, population and genetic. Complex interactions can occur within and between these levels. This complexity allows organisms to adapt to continually changing environmental conditions and to maintain ecosystem functions. (FAO, The State of the World’s Forests, 2020).
Among the main threats to forest biodiversity are deforestation, fragmentation, degradation, hunting, and the arrival of invasive species, which collectively lead to the destruction or degradation of nearly 12 million hectares of forest each year, most of it tropical rainforest.
The forests of Europe and the rest of the world
More than 40% of the land area of the European Union (1.77 million km2) is covered by forests. Although the percentage is increasing every year by 0.4%, Europe's forests have to cope with climate change and therefore require careful management.
Globally, forests cover an area of almost 4 billion hectares, distributed unevenly over more than 31% of the earth's surface. In fact, more than half of them are located in only five countries: the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and China.
Deforestation
The forest, such a precious resource, has always been used by humanity. But it was not until the last century that the degree of exploitation became so excessive as to have broken, in many cases, the precarious balance of sustainable use. Indeed, deforestation is one of the main environmental problems of the contemporary world.
According to the FAO, in the last 25 years, an average net loss of 5.2 million hectares per year has been recorded, calculating the difference between the destruction of existing forests (12 million hectares, including most of the primary forests) and the creation of new forests.
Forests are used and often destroyed by humans:
for the production of wood, mainly used as fuel;
to obtain arable land, especially in developing regions (this land is often the acquired by speculators for building or mining purposes);
to satisfy the growing need for land for intensive livestock farming.
At the global level, according to ISPRA, the causes differ from region to region. For example, in Latin America and Southeast Asia, the majority of deforestation is now the result of agro-industrial activities (specifically, livestock ranching in the Amazon and large-scale agribusiness and intensive logging in Southeast Asia), while in Africa, the cause is more often attributed to subsistence farming, which relies on the "slash and burn" method. Arson, which already accounts for significant loss of forested areas in itself, has further negative consequences, namely an exacerbated accumulation of atmospheric carbon.
We have mentioned hydrogeological instability and loss of biodiversity. We must add that, in recent years, the demand by mega-corporations in the fields of cosmetics and palm oil production, the raw materials for which are obtained by the felling of trees, has greatly increased. Unfortunately, the EU is second only to China as the largest importer of forest products, "unwittingly" contributing to global deforestation. In a 2017 report, the WWF identified the EU as being responsible for 16% of deforestation tied to international trade, for a total of 203 thousand hectares and 116 million tons of CO2 emissions, surpassed only by China at 24%. More specifically, comparing the numbers of individual nations, Italy (with 35,800 hectares per year) is second among the eight European countries responsible for 80% of the deforestation resulting from the importation of products from tropical countries.
The main products responsible are:
soybeans (31%),
palm oil (24%),
beef (10%),
lumber and paper (8%),
cacao (6%)
coffee (5%)
An emblematic case of deforestation is represented by the Amazon tropical rainforest, the largest in the world, which covers an area of about six million square kilometers divided among 9 nations, including Brazil which accounts for about 60%. It is an extraordinary biological reserve, home to millions of species of insects, birds, plants, and other life forms.
But the "green lung" of the planet has been sick for a long time, and in recent years the questionable anti-environmentalist policy of President Bolsonaro has aggravated the problem. From 2010 to 2020, the entire region emitted 16.6 billion tons of Co2, while absorbing only 13.9 billion tons. This corresponds to releasing almost 20% more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it has absorbed.
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