Why Is It Important To Conserve The Forest?

The forest is the source of the worlds oxygen and home to millions of animals

Why is it important to conserve our forests?
Forests maintain chemical compounds from the Earth’s atmosphere.  Plants from our forests eventually changed our atmosphere in the past to an atmosphere that can support animal and human life.  Forests and plants enable the production of oxygen which we need to survive.
In the state of Virginia, forests cover approximately 15.8 million acres of land.  In 2006 the economic impact the forestry industry made in Virginia alone was an estimation of 29 billion dollars.  The forest industry in Virginia was ranked first in the nation in manufacturing employment.  Sadly, Virginia is losing its forest lands at a rate of 26,000 acres per year, and it’s only getting worse.  The forests are being converted into residential dwellings as well as business complexes.  Loss of forest land obviously affects more than just our atmosphere and habitat.  It affects the economic standing of any state or country.
What happens in forests around the world will have a big effect on us.
Avoiding the destruction of the global forest should be a critical strategy to fight global warming and is one of the most cost-effective and needed ways.
Forests have a critical role to play in promoting the well-being of both our environment and our economy
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and store it. They also provide habitat for endangered species, clean drinking water and offer economic opportunities. But the importance of forests has been overlooked in the ongoing discussions about dealing with climate change, the panellists said.
Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate around the world. One acre of forest is destroyed every second — or 37 million acres a year, an area larger than Ohio.
The loss of the rain forest in Indonesia and Brazil today accounts for 20 percent of emissions of carbon dioxide, a key global-warming gas. That is more carbon going into the atmosphere than all the automobiles, trucks, planes and trains in the world.
Indonesia is No. 3 and Brazil is No. 4 for carbon dioxide emissions, largely because of deforestation, behind the United States and China, data show.