Editing Deforestation (section)

== History ==
{{Further|Timeline of environmental history}}

===Prehistory===
The [[Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse]]<ref name="Benton" /> was an event that occurred 300 million years ago. Climate change devastated tropical rainforests causing the extinction of many plant and animal species. The change was abrupt, specifically, at this time climate became cooler and drier, conditions that are not favorable to the growth of rainforests and much of the biodiversity within them. Rainforests were fragmented forming shrinking 'islands' further and further apart. Populations such as the sub class [[Lissamphibia]] were devastated, whereas [[Reptile|Reptilia]] survived the collapse. The surviving organisms were better adapted to the drier environment left behind and served as legacies in succession after the collapse.{{Cn|date=June 2024}}

[[File: Néolithique 0001.jpg|thumb|An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, ax heads, chisels, and polishing tools.]]
Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Leslie|url=https://archive.org/details/healingpowerofra00tayl|title=The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs: A Guide to Understanding and Using Herbal Medicinals|publisher=Square One|year=2004|isbn=9780757001444}}</ref>
Small scale deforestation was practiced by some societies for tens of thousands of years before the beginnings of civilization.<ref name="FutureEaters">{{Cite book|last=Flannery|first=T|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0730104877|title=The future eaters|publisher=Reed Books|year=1994|isbn=0-7301-0422-2|place=Melbourne}}</ref> The first evidence of deforestation appears in the [[Mesolithic period]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Tony|year=1997|title=Clearances and Clearings: Deforestation in Mesolithic/Neolithic Britain|journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology|volume=16|issue=2|pages=133–146|doi=10.1111/1468-0092.00030}}</ref> It was probably used to convert closed forests into more open ecosystems favourable to game animals.<ref name="FutureEaters" /> With the advent of agriculture, larger areas began to be deforested, and fire became the prime tool to clear land for crops. In Europe there is little solid evidence before 7000 BC. Mesolithic [[hunter-gatherer|foragers]] used fire to create openings for [[red deer]] and [[wild boar]]. In Great Britain, shade-tolerant species such as [[oak]] and [[Ash tree|ash]] are replaced in the [[palynology|pollen record]] by [[hazel]]s, brambles, grasses and nettles. Removal of the forests led to decreased [[transpiration]], resulting in the formation of upland [[peat bog]]s. Widespread decrease in [[elm]] [[pollen]] across Europe between 8400 and 8300 BC and 7200–7000 BC, starting in southern Europe and gradually moving north to Great Britain, may represent land [[clearing (geography)|clearing]] by fire at the onset of [[Neolithic]] agriculture.

The [[Neolithic period]] saw extensive deforestation for [[Agriculture|farming land]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=hand tool: Neolithic tools|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/254115/hand-tool/39205/Neolithic-tools|date=19 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Neolithic Age from 4,000 BC to 2,200 BC or New Stone Age|url=http://www.archaeolink.co.uk/Neolithic-Age.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070304122056/http://www.archaeolink.co.uk/Neolithic-Age.html|archive-date=4 March 2007|access-date=2 October 2008|website=www.archaeolink.co.uk}}</ref> Stone axes were being made from about 3000 BC not just from flint, but from a wide variety of hard rocks from across Britain and North America as well. They include the noted [[Langdale axe industry]] in the [[English Lake District]], quarries developed at [[Penmaenmawr]] in [[North Wales]] and numerous other locations. Rough-outs were made locally near the quarries, and some were polished locally to give a fine finish. This step not only increased the [[mechanical strength]] of the axe, but also made penetration of wood easier. [[Flint]] was still used from sources such as [[Grimes Graves]] but from many other mines across Europe.

Evidence of deforestation has been found in [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] [[Crete]]; for example the environs of the [[Palace of Knossos]] were severely deforested in the [[Bronze Age]].<ref>Hogan, C. Michael (22 December 2007). [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes "Knossos fieldnotes"], ''The Modern Antiquarian''</ref>

===Pre-industrial history===
{{See also|Deforestation during the Roman period|Deforestation by continent}}
[[File:Rano Raraku quarry.jpg|thumb|[[Easter Island]], deforested. ]]

Just as archaeologists have shown that prehistoric farming societies had to cut or burn forests before planting, documents and artifacts from early civilizations often reveal histories of deforestation. Some of the most dramatic are eighth century BCE Assyrian [[Assyrian Timber Transportation relief|reliefs]] depicting logs being floated downstream from conquered areas to the less forested capital region as spoils of war. Ancient Chinese texts make clear that some areas of the Yellow River valley had already destroyed many of their forests over 2000 years ago and had to plant trees as crops or import them from long distances.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Ian M.|title=The Cultivated Forest: People and Woodlands in Asian History|last2=Davis|first2=Bradley C.|last3=Lander|first3=Brian|last4=Lee|first4=John|date=2022|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=9780295750903|location=Seattle}}</ref> In South China much of the land came to be privately owned and used for the commercial growing of timber.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=Ian M.|title=Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China|date=2020|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=9780295747330|location=Seattle}}</ref>

Three regional studies of historic erosion and alluviation in [[ancient Greece]] found that, wherever adequate evidence exists, a major phase of erosion follows the introduction of farming in the various regions of Greece by about 500–1,000 years, ranging from the later Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Van Andel|first1=Tjeerd H.|last2=Zangger|first2=Eberhard|last3=Demitrack|first3=Anne|year=2013|title=Land Use and Soil Erosion in Prehistoric and Historical Greece|url=http://www.esf.edu/cue/documents/vanAndel-etal_LandUse-HistoricGreece_1990.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Journal of Field Archaeology|volume=17|issue=4|pages=379–396|doi=10.1179/009346990791548628|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529055219/http://www.esf.edu/cue/documents/vanAndel-etal_LandUse-HistoricGreece_1990.pdf|archive-date=2013-05-29}}</ref> The thousand years following the mid-first millennium BC saw serious, intermittent pulses of soil erosion in numerous places. The historic [[silting]] of ports along the southern coasts of [[Asia Minor]] (''e.g.'' [[Clarus]], and the examples of [[Ephesus]], [[Priene]] and [[Miletus]], where harbors had to be abandoned because of the silt deposited by the Meander) and in coastal [[Syria]] during the last centuries BC.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Miletus|url=https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/miletus|access-date=2022-11-22|website=The Byzantine Legacy|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Miletus (Site)|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Miletus&object=Site|access-date=2022-11-22|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

[[Easter Island]] has suffered from heavy [[soil erosion]] in recent centuries, aggravated by agriculture and deforestation.<ref>[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/The_Mystery_of_Easter_Island.html "The Mystery of Easter Island"], ''Smithsonian Magazine'', 1 April 2007.</ref> The disappearance of the island's trees seems to coincide with a decline of its civilization around the 17th and 18th century. Scholars have attributed the collapse to deforestation and over-exploitation of all resources.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Consequences of Deforestation: Easter Island (Diamond 1995)|url=http://www.mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm|publisher=mongabay.com|access-date=8 July 2008|archive-date=29 April 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429014142/http://mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Jared Diamond, Easter Island's End|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html|publisher=hartford-hwp.com}}</ref>

The famous silting up of the harbor for [[Bruges]], which moved port commerce to [[Antwerp]], also followed a period of increased settlement growth (and apparently of deforestation) in the upper river basins. In early medieval [[Riez]] in upper [[Provence]], alluvial silt from two small rivers raised the riverbeds and widened the floodplain, which slowly buried the Roman settlement in alluvium and gradually moved new construction to higher ground; concurrently the headwater valleys above Riez were being opened to pasturage.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Iyyer|first=Chaitanya|title=Land Management: Challenges & Strategies|publisher=Global India Publications|year=2009|isbn=9789380228488|pages=11}}</ref>

A typical [[progress trap]] was that cities were often built in a forested area, which would provide wood for some industry (for example, construction, shipbuilding, pottery). When deforestation occurs without proper replanting, however; local wood supplies become difficult to obtain near enough to remain competitive, leading to the city's abandonment, as happened repeatedly in Ancient [[Asia Minor]]. Because of fuel needs, mining and metallurgy often led to deforestation and city abandonment.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chew|first=Sing C.|title=World Ecological Degradation|publisher=AltaMira Press|year=2001|location=Oxford, England|pages=69–70}}</ref>
[[File:Rugendas - Defrichement d une Foret.jpg|thumb|[[Slavery in Brazil|Slaves]] clearing the [[Atlantic Forest]] in Brazil, {{Circa|1820–1825}}]]
With most of the population remaining active in (or indirectly dependent on) the agricultural sector, the main pressure in most areas remained land [[clearing (geography)|clearing]] for crop and cattle farming. Enough wild green was usually left standing (and partially used, for example, to collect firewood, timber and fruits, or to graze pigs) for wildlife to remain viable. The elite's (nobility and higher clergy) protection of their own hunting privileges and game often protected significant woodland.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Major parts in the spread (and thus more durable growth) of the population were played by monastical 'pioneering' (especially by the [[Benedictine]] and [[commerce|Commercial]] orders) and some [[feudal]] lords' recruiting farmers to settle (and become tax payers) by offering relatively good legal and fiscal conditions. Even when speculators sought to encourage towns, settlers needed an agricultural belt around or sometimes within defensive walls. When populations were quickly decreased by causes such as the [[Black Death]], the [[European colonization of the Americas#Disease and indigenous population loss|colonization of the Americas]],<ref name="Brierley et al 2019">{{cite journal|last1=Koch|first1=Alexander|last2=Brierley|first2=Chris|last3=Maslin|first3=Mark M.|last4=Lewis|first4=Simon L.|year=2019|title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=207|pages=13–36|bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004|doi-access=free}}</ref> or devastating warfare (for example, [[Genghis Khan]]'s [[Mongol]] hordes in eastern and central Europe, [[Thirty Years' War]] in Germany), this could lead to settlements being abandoned. The land was reclaimed by nature, but the [[secondary forest]]s usually lacked the original [[biodiversity]]. The [[Mongol invasions and conquests]] alone resulted in the reduction of 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere by enabling the re-growth of carbon-absorbing forests on depopulated lands over a significant period of time.<ref>{{cite web|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=20 January 2011|title=War, Plague No Match For Deforestation in Driving CO2 Buildup|url=https://carnegiescience.edu/news/war-plague-no-match-deforestation-driving-co2-buildup|access-date=22 November 2019|publisher=[[Carnegie Institution for Science]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Q|Q106515792}}</ref>

[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 60009006 Goudwinning door middel van het afspo.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in [[Suriname]] {{Circa|1880–1900}}]]

From 1100 to 1500 AD, significant deforestation took place in [[Western Europe]] as a result of the [[Human overpopulation|expanding human population]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Groenewoudt|first1=Bert|last2=van Haaster|first2=Henk|last3=van Beek|first3=Roy|last4=Brinkkemper|first4=Otto|date=2007-01-01|title=Towards a reverse image. Botanical research into the landscape history of the eastern Netherlands (1100 B.C.—A.D. 1500)|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2007.10594587|journal=Landscape History|volume=29|issue=1|pages=17–33|doi=10.1080/01433768.2007.10594587|issn=0143-3768|s2cid=130658356}}</ref> The large-scale building of wooden sailing ships by European (coastal) naval owners since the 15th century for exploration, [[Colonialism|colonisation]], [[History of slavery|slave trade]], and other trade on the high seas, consumed many forest resources and became responsible for the introduction of numerous [[bubonic plague]] outbreaks in the 14th century. [[Piracy]] also contributed to the over harvesting of forests, as in Spain. This led to a weakening of the domestic economy after Columbus' discovery of America, as the economy became dependent on colonial activities (plundering, mining, cattle, plantations, trade, etc.){{cn|date=June 2024}}

The massive use of [[charcoal]] on an industrial scale in [[Early Modern Europe]] was a new type of consumption of western forests.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Knapp|first1=Hannes|last2=Nelle|first2=Oliver|last3=Kirleis|first3=Wiebke|date=2015-04-24|title=Charcoal usage in medieval and modern times in the Harz Mountains Area, Central Germany: Wood selection and fast overexploitation of the woodlands|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618215000774|journal=Quaternary International|volume=366|pages=51–69|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2015.01.053|bibcode=2015QuInt.366...51K|issn=1040-6182}}</ref> Each of Nelson's [[Royal Navy]] war ships at Trafalgar (1805) required 6,000 mature oaks for its construction.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} In France, [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert|Colbert]] planted [[oak]] forests to supply the French navy in the future. When the oak plantations matured in the mid-19th century, the masts were no longer required because shipping had changed.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-19 |title=Make Wine Not War: The Story of Napoleon and France's Oak Forests |url=http://clustercrush.com/make-wine-not-war-the-story-of-napoleon-and-frances-oak-forests/ |access-date=2024-07-08 |website=Cluster Crush |language=en-US}}</ref>

Efforts to stop or slow deforestation have been attempted for many centuries because it has long been known that deforestation can cause environmental damage sufficient in some cases to cause societies to collapse. In [[Tonga]], paramount rulers developed policies designed to prevent conflicts between short-term gains from converting forest to farmland and long-term problems forest loss would cause,<ref>Diamond, Jared ''Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed''; Viking Press 2004, pp. 301–302 {{ISBN|0-14-311700-9}}.</ref> while during the 17th and 18th centuries in [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa]], Japan,<ref>Diamond, Jared ''Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed''; Viking Press 2004, pp. 320–331 {{ISBN|0-14-311700-9}}.</ref> the shōguns developed a highly sophisticated system of long-term planning to stop and even reverse deforestation of the preceding centuries through substituting timber by other products and more efficient use of land that had been farmed for many centuries. 

In 16th-century Germany, landowners also developed [[silviculture]] to deal with the problem of deforestation. However, these policies tend to be limited to environments with ''good rainfall'', ''no dry season'' and ''very young [[soil]]s'' (through [[volcano|volcanism]] or [[glaciation]]). This is because on older and less fertile soils trees grow too slowly for silviculture to be economic, whilst in areas with a strong dry season there is always a risk of forest fires destroying a tree crop before it matures.

=== 19th and 20th centuries ===
[[File:Burma024.jpg|thumb|Deforestation in Burma (now [[Myanmar]]) ''circa'' 1920, during the [[British rule in Burma|British colonial era]]]]{{See also|Deforestation by continent}}

==== Steamboats ====
In the 19th century, the introduction of [[steamboat]]s in the [[United States]] was the cause of deforestation of banks of major rivers, such as the [[Mississippi River]], with increased and more severe flooding one of the environmental results. The steamboat crews cut wood daily from the riverbanks to fuel the steam engines. Between [[St. Louis]] and the confluence with the [[Ohio River]] to the south, the Mississippi became broader and shallower and changed its channel laterally. Attempts to improve navigation by the use of [[Snagboat|snag pullers]] often resulted in crews' [[clearing (geography)|clearing]] large trees 100 to {{convert|200|ft|m}} back from the banks. Several French colonial towns of the [[Illinois Country]], such as [[Kaskaskia, Illinois|Kaskaskia]], [[Cahokia, Illinois|Cahokia]] and St. Philippe, [[Illinois]], were flooded and abandoned in the late 19th century, with a loss to the cultural record of their [[archeology]].<ref>Norris, F. Terry (1997) [https://books.google.com/books?id=HwH3kdOgvfAC&pg=PA73 "Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley"], in ''Common Fields: an environmental history of St. Louis'', Andrew Hurley, ed., St. Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Press, pp. 73–89. {{ISBN|978-1-883982-15-7}}.</ref>