How can we restore forests?

Forests take up roughly “30% of Earth’s land surface,” and are constantly used as homes, to provide resources, and even jobs. According to Derouin, “Forests also are a source of food, medicine and fuel for more than a billion people.” Forests also provide millions with job opportunities. These have many positive benefits, but also can lead to the destruction of our global forests. We rely on forests for food, wood and other materials, and even some medicines. Farmers in the tropics burn areas of vegetation to make room for crops or livestock. As we strip forests of those resources, “...complex ecosystems are disrupted or perish.” By relying so much on forests, we also develop problems like what children are experiencing in places like Uganda. Families rely on forests for firewood, so they send their children to collect more wood. The children have started traveling farther back because there’s no more wood closer to the front of the forest. Some even miss school as the activity can take an entire day. Another problem faced with deforestation is water quality, as a lot of our clean water comes from watersheds within forests. The world’s water quality worsens as more trees are lost. There are even more effects to deforestation, but how can these changes be stopped? While some changes of deforestation are irreversible, there are changes our societies can make to give forests a fresh start. For example, planting new trees could help restore some of the trees that have been lost. Another solution is to develop sustainable agriculture methods to eliminate the need to expand fields and pastures. While these solutions take time, it is important to start them now before even more changes take place. The sooner areas can be restored, the sooner ecosystems can start to repair themselves (Derouin).