HELP ELA'S FOREST FELLOWSHIP

Time for change

“Breath for the Future” - Inspiring example of a positive change

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The Amazon Rainforest - my call for action

The Amazon rainforest, located in South America, the largest-known tropical rainforest is home to more than 400 types of mammals, more...

About me

My name is Ela. I am 11 years old and I live in Basel. I have attended BKA (Bilingual Kids Academy) since I was 1.5 years old. My father comes from Turkey and my mother from Poland, but I was born in Basel. I have a younger 6 year old sister Alya. We visit both countries often to meet with my family that still lives there. I am always amazed with the nature, plants and animals that I see both in Poland and Turkey. Since I was little, I cared about nature a lot. I love all animals. In my free time, I read a lot, play piano and draw freely. I hope when you go through my website you will understand why I find deforestation an urgent topic, why we need to act very soon and why I think everyone should be aware of how this impacts communities and how you can do something about it. It is about the future of this planet and life on it.

Our world’s forests

Our world's forests cover an area of 31% of our total land area, a ninth of our Earth. The graph below shows which countries have the most forest and how it's distributed across them.

The main types of forests include: boreal (taiga), temperate, subtropical and tropical. Tropical forests cover 45% of our forest area, boreal forests cover 27%, temperate forests cover 16% and 11% of our forest area is covered by subtropical forests.

Forests' importance

Forests are complex ecological systems and natural resources in which trees are the dominant life-form. They play an important role in our lives and the lives of its inhabitants. They are a vitally important element that keeps our planet in balance.

Right climate and clean air

Forests, as an ecosystem, provide homes to animals, plants, fungi and many more. They also stabilize our temperature and climate. Trees turn CO2, that we breathe out and vastly produced by industry, into oxygen (this process is known as photosynthesis) which we can breathe in again and the cycle continues.

Keeping soil in place

Tree roots stop erosions, landslides and floods as they are tightly stuck in the ground. This then acts like a barrier and stops any extra parts of rocks, soil clumps and many more loose parts from falling from nearby hills, mountains or cliffs. They keep soil in place when the area is a bit flooded. This also keeps the ground for plants to grow.

Resources for us

These forests provide many important resources in our daily lives, for example, wood for furniture, food like fruits and vegetables, nuts, mushrooms. These are also important for the animals there so the forests provide food for both humans and animals.

They also provide many natural resources, for example they have some special types of minerals in the soil as the soil in the forest is really mineral-rich. Forests also provide resources like petrified wood, fossil fuels like oil and even more.

Many plants found in forests are used in medicinal cures since (25% total plants used in medicine), they can even cure severe illnesses like cancer.

Forests are great places to hike, camp and explore. They offer a chance to see wildlife, enjoy nature, and have adventures.

Helping the water cycle

Another way that forests keep the earth cool is by providing shade and supporting water circulation.

The forests help the water cycle a lot by releasing water vapor into the air in order to bring rain, they absorb and release water which helps rivers and streams flow.

Deforestation

Deforestation is the process of removing forests or areas of trees from land which is then converted to non-forests used. The forests are burnt or flooded for many reasons like agricultural reasons, space for pigs and cattle, logging, to make space to build factories and urban areas. The cut down trees are then used as natural resources.

Some forests will never grow back (called commodity driven deforestation).

The main incentives for people are MONEY.

Deforestation as a topic occurs when discussing what is happening these days in countries and regions that are near the Equator or the middle of the globe. But forests have disappeared and still disappear all over the world.

According to the World Resource Institute around 80% of World's forests have disappeared so far.

Half of global tree loss (239 Mha) this century occurred in the tropical zones which accounted for nearly 97 percent of all global deforestation.

The annual rate of deforestation doubled from 6.7 Mha in 2001 to 12.1 Mha in 2023. Brazil and Indonesia experienced the largest area of tree loss this century and only 36% of the rainforest is still intact.

The rate of deforestation is very fast with forests of the size of 30 football fields disappearing every minute (42 million trees).

Around 28000 species of plants and animals are expected to become extinct due to deforestation in the next 25 years.