Practice question

Agricultural expansion is the largest global driver of deforestation. Forests are cleared to create cropland, cattle pasture, plantations, and infrastructure associated with production. In tropical regions, commodities such as beef, soy, oil palm, cocoa, and timber interact with local subsistence farming and land tenure to determine where clearing occurs. Logging can directly remove canopy trees and open roads that make later agricultural conversion easier, but a logged area is not necessarily permanently deforested if forest cover regenerates. Mining and urban growth cause severe local losses yet occupy less total forest area globally than agriculture. Fire is often a tool used during conversion rather than the underlying economic driver. Removing forests reduces habitat, fragments populations, releases carbon stored in vegetation and soils, changes evapotranspiration, and increases erosion and nutrient runoff. The relative importance of causes differs among countries, so the statement concerns the worldwide aggregate rather than every location. Protecting forests therefore requires attention to food systems, yields, supply chains, governance, and demand, alongside regulation of logging and development.