Editing Deforestation (section)

===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.