Массовая вырубка леса

Taking every tree

• Sometimes loggers remove not just some trees, but all of them.
• A whole hillside of forest becomes bare ground in days.
• This method is fast and cheap for the timber industry.
• But it leaves the land badly damaged. This is clearcutting.

What clearcutting is

• Clearcutting 皆伐 removes every tree in an area at once.
• It is the cheapest, fastest way to harvest timber.
• The short-term benefit is a quick, large profit from the wood.
• But the long-term costs to the land are severe.

Deforestation lowers biodiversity and causes erosion 侵蚀, flooding, and higher CO2

A fresh clearcut on a hillside: every tree in the strip is taken at once, leaving bare soil that erodes and washes into streams

Bare soil erodes

• With every tree gone, nothing holds the soil in place.
• Rain washes the exposed topsoil away — severe erosion.
• The eroded soil silts up rivers and can cause flooding.
• Without its fertile topsoil, the land struggles to recover.

Habitat and biodiversity lost

• A forest is home to countless species of plants and animals.
• Clearcutting destroys that whole habitat at once.
• Many species lose their food and shelter, lowering biodiversity.
• Gentler methods, like selective cutting, harm the forest far less.