Biodiversity

Deforestation on a human scale results in decline in biodiversity.[47] and on a natural global scale is known to cause the extinction of many species.[4] The removal or destruction of areas of forestcover has resulted in a degraded environment with reduced biodiversity.[48] Forests support biodiversity, providing habitat for wildlife;[49] moreover, forests foster medicinal conservation.[50] Withforest biotopes being irreplaceable source of new drugs (such as taxol), deforestation can destroy genetic variations (such as crop resistance) irretrievably.[51]
Since the tropical rainforests arethe most diverse ecosystems on Earth[52][53] and about 80% of the world's known biodiversity could be found in tropical rainforests,[54][55] removal or destruction of significant areas of forest coverhas resulted in a degraded[56] environment with reduced biodiversity.[4][57]
It has been estimated that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforestdeforestation, which equates to 50,000 species a year.[58] Others state that tropical rainforest deforestation is contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction.[59][60] The known extinction rates fromdeforestation rates are very low, approximately 1 species per year from mammals and birds which extrapolates to approximately 23,000 species per year for all species. Predictions have been made thatmore than 40% of the animal and plant species in Southeast Asia could be wiped out in the 21st century.[61] Such predictions were called into question by 1995 data that show that within regions ofSoutheast Asia much of the original forest has been converted to monospecific plantations, but that potentially endangered species are few and tree flora remains widespread and stable.[62]
Scientificunderstanding of the process of extinction is insufficient to accurately make predictions about the impact of deforestation on biodiversity.[63] Most predictions of forestry related biodiversity loss...