The table delineates the main causes of deforestation in South America, Southeast Asia and Central Africa across two separate decades along with the proportion of land lost. during the period.
Overall, all the regions experienced land degradation from a variety of factors at vaying proportions. Cattle ranching significantly affected land in South America while commercial agriculture was the commonest factor in Southeast Asia. Land in central africa was rendered unproductive significantly due to subsistence farming.
In south America, up to 70% of the total forest cover was damaged as a result of cattle ranching. Commercial agriculture had a considerable effect on about half of the land in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, Central africa had a different experience where subsistence farming was the biggest problem effecting about 40% of forests.
While small scale farming was destroying Central africa’s fertile land, this issue was the least of South America’s problems since it’s prevalence was just about 2%. Comaparatively, Souteast Asia reported a higher percentage of about 15% . Logging on the other hand had considerable damage of about 20% in Southeast Asia followed by nearly 12% in Central Africa and South America had less than 5%. Notably, all the countries reported other unidentified causes of deforestation.