The benefits of toilet paper against deforestation

What does deforestation have to do with bamboo? Bamboi® has the solution to deforestation.

Tree felling is not good for the environment and nature. It disrupts biodiversity and leads to the loss of habitat for animal and plant species. Climate change is both a cause and a consequence of deforestation. In addition, deforestation also has a significant impact on the local population.

Bamboo offers a possible solution to combat deforestation. Bamboo grows quickly, without needing to be replanted. Moreover, bamboo absorbs more CO2 than normal trees. The following article discusses what deforestation is, the causes and consequences of deforestation, and finally how bamboo can serve as a solution to combat deforestation.

What is deforestation?

Deforestation is the deliberate felling of trees. For centuries, forests have been cut down to make room for agriculture and livestock farming. In addition, forests are cut down to extract wood for fuel, production, and construction.

Deforestation has greatly changed landscapes around the world. About 2000 years ago, 80 percent of Western Europe was forest. Now it is only about 34 percent. In North America, between 1600 and 1870, about half of the forests in the eastern part of the continent were cut down for wood and agriculture. China has lost large parts of its forests over the past 4000 years and is now just over 20 percent forest.

Today, the greatest deforestation takes place in the tropical rainforest. This is due to the construction of roads in areas that were previously almost inaccessible. By constructing or improving roads, the forests also become more accessible for exploitation. One way to exploit the forest is the slash-and-burn farming method. As can be inferred from the name of the method, the wood is first chopped and then burned. The remaining ash then serves as fertilizer for the crops. The disadvantage of this method, however, is that the piece of land is only fertile for a few years, after which the farmers leave and repeat the process elsewhere. This makes large areas of land infertile, making this method of farming a major contributor to deforestation in the tropics. The trees in tropical forests are also cut down to make way for livestock farming and oil palm and rubber tree plantations.

The causes of deforestation

The (illegal) felling of trees is not good for the environment. Although there are various causes of deforestation, the degradation of forests is mainly the result of human activities. Below is a brief discussion of the five main causes of deforestation.

Industrial agriculture

Industrial agriculture refers to the agricultural model that has been characteristic of recent decades. Industrial agriculture consists of large farms that produce the same crop year after year. This form of agriculture goes hand in hand with intensive use of artificial fertilizers, weed killers, and pesticides. Industrial agriculture is responsible for about 85 percent of deforestation worldwide.

Although this can usually be attributed to meat production, soy and palm oil plantations are close behind as causes of deforestation. According to an impact study by the European Commission, the EU mainly imports products such as palm oil (34%), soy (32.8%), wood (8.6%), cocoa (7.5%) and coffee (7%) from deforested areas. Palm oil contributes significantly to deforestation in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Logging

Every year, about 380,000 hectares of forest are cut down to meet the global demand for wood and wood products, accounting for about 60 percent of deforestation. Another 25% of the forests are cut down for firewood and charcoal. These degraded forests are much more vulnerable to conversion to other forms of land use such as mining, agriculture, and habitation.

Mining

Thanks to an ever-increasing demand for minerals, mining in tropical forests is increasing. And because large-scale mining is an intensive, industrial enterprise, it requires the development of large-scale infrastructure. This only further damages the areas.

Expansion and infrastructure

As population growth overwhelms the land, large tracts of forest are cut down to make way for the expansion of cities and settlements. And with the growth of these cities and settlements comes even more infrastructure.

Climate change

Finally, climate change is both a major cause and consequence of deforestation. The extreme events caused by climate change, such as floods, fires, and droughts, damage the forests. But deforestation in turn is harmful to the climate, as they play a crucial role in providing clean air, regulating the water cycle, capturing CO2, and preventing biodiversity loss and soil erosion.

The consequences of deforestation

As mentioned above, climate change caused by the loss of trees is a major consequence of deforestation. Below, we delve deeper into the main consequences of deforestation.

Loss of habitat

One of the most disturbing consequences of deforestation is the loss of habitat for animal and plant species. About 70 percent of animals and plant species live in forests. The trees of the rainforest provide protection. The canopy of fallen leaves from the trees also provides the right temperature. Deforestation leads to a drastic temperature difference between day and night, which is, to put it mildly, not favorable for many animal and plant species.

The panda is the symbol for endangered animals, and its habitat has been greatly reduced by deforestation. That's why in 2021, the Wildlife Fund of Amersfoort Zoo planted over 8000 young trees in Nepal together with the local population, in order to save the panda's natural habitat.
There are still about two to three thousand pandas in China. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), this number means that the panda is classified between endangered and vulnerable species. The panda has not yet reached the last stage before extinction, the classification of critically endangered. Nevertheless, it is necessary to protect this species and its habitat to ensure that the number of pandas does not decrease. Bamboi toilet paper only uses bamboo from Sichuan and is fortunately not interesting for pandas. More about bamboo can be found on our website.

Increased greenhouse gases

In addition to the loss of habitat, the lack of trees also results in a larger amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere. Trees normally remove carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis. Trees also contain carbon, but this is trapped in the wood. When the trees are burned, the carbon returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. With fewer trees around to absorb the carbon dioxide, this greenhouse gas accumulates in the atmosphere and accelerates global warming. Thus, deforestation results in more carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.

Soil erosion and flooding

The impact of deforestation is also directly noticeable. The loss of trees from a forest makes the soil more susceptible to soil erosion. This makes the remaining plants more vulnerable to fire, as the forest changes from a closed, moist environment to an open dry environment.

Indirectly, the consequence of deforestation is also noticeable. Often these are complex processes involving various factors. Think, for example, of privatization, access to land, corruption, low status, and power positions. These processes take place all over the world and often progress gradually over a period of many years through the centuries.

Water in the atmosphere

Trees also help maintain the water level in the atmosphere by regulating the water cycle. One of the most important forests for regulating the earth's water cycle is the Amazon rainforest. The millions of trees in the Amazon region work together to bring moisture into the air, creating air currents that regulate the earth's weather patterns. In deforested areas, there is less water in the air to return to the ground. This results in drier soil and the inability to grow crops. Below, we will delve deeper into the important role the Amazon region plays in regulating the earth's climate.

Amazon deforestation

As briefly mentioned above, the Amazon region is one of the most important forests for regulating the water cycle on the planet. This region is a rainforest in South America that spans nine different countries. With its 7.7 million square kilometers, the Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest on earth. The area is also called the 'lungs of the earth', as it produces 40 percent of the earth's oxygen - while the area only occupies six percent of the earth's surface.

Unfortunately, the Amazon region is also threatened by massive deforestation. In fact, most trees are cut down in the Amazon region. According to a recent report from January 2022 by the World Wildlife Fund, by 2030 more than a quarter of the Amazon forest will have been stripped of its trees if logging continues at the same pace. It is estimated that even 40 percent of the Amazon region will be destroyed by 2050. That's an area the size of the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy combined.

In addition, local communities also heavily depend on the Amazon region. When companies cut down forests, these communities lose the means to grow the food they need to survive, leading to food insecurity. Hundreds of millions of people depend on tropical forests for their food, and the highest concentrations of food insecure populations live in regions with tropical forests.

Deforestation of the Amazon region is a major problem and as mentioned earlier in this article there are various reasons for cutting down trees. Cutting down trees for palm oil, soy, livestock and agriculture, and also wood and thus paper, play a major role in deforestation. This is one of the main reasons that Bamboi chooses bamboo toilet paper. Bamboo grows quickly, grows without needing to be replanted and absorbs more CO2 than normal trees. In addition, our type of bamboo is fortunately not interesting for pandas. Products made from bamboo can therefore serve as a solution to combat deforestation.

Solution to deforestation

Forests protect us from climate change. For example, at the end of 2021, during the climate summit in Glasgow, the aim was expressed to put an end to deforestation by 2030. But because deforestation is a complex and large problem, there is not one solution for it. To eliminate tree felling, there should no longer be any support for validating deforestations. This means that there should be no profitable reason for rainforest logging, and it is often large players such as companies and governments that have a say in this.

However, you can also contribute a little by adjusting your own behavior patterns, for example by not buying certain products or using sustainable replacement