From about the mid-1800s, around 1852, the planet has experienced an unprecedented rate of change of destruction of forests worldwide.E.O. Wilson, 2002, The Future of Life, Vintage ISBN 0-679-76811-4 Forests in Europe are adversely affected by acid rain and very large areas of Siberia have been harvested since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the last two decades, Afghanistan has lost over 70% of its forests throughout the country. However, it is in the world's great tropical rainforests where the destruction is most pronounced at the current time and where clearcutting is having an adverse effect on biodiversity and contributing to the ongoing Holocene mass extinction.

About half of the mature tropical forests, between 7.5 million to 8 million square kilometres (2.9 million to 3 million sq mi) of the original 15 million to 16 million square kilometres (5.8 million to 6.2 million sq mi) that until, 1947

Many tropical countries, including Mexico, Brazil, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Laos, Nigeria, Congo, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and the Cote d'lvoire have lost large areas of their rainforest. Rainforests 50 years ago covered 14% of the worlds land surface, they now only cover 6%. 90% of the forests of the Philippine archipelago have been cut. In 1960 Central America still had 4/5 of its original forest; now it is left with only 2/5. Madagascar has lost 95% of its rainforests. Brazil has lost 90-95% of its Mata Atlântica forest. Half of the Brazilian state of Rondonia's 243,000 km² have been destroyed or severely degraded in recent years. As of 2007, less than 1% of Haiti's forests remain. Between 1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost 81% of its old-growth forests. Several countries, notably the Brazil, have declared their deforestation a national emergency.

Impact on the environment

Deforestation is a contributor to global warming,Philip M. Fearnside1 and William F. Laurance, TROPICAL DEFORESTATION AND GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSIONS, Ecological Applications, Volume 14, Issue 4 (August 2004) pp. 982–986 The worlds rain forests are widely believed by laymen to contribute a significant amount of world's oxygen although it is now accepted by scientists that rainforests contribute little net oxygen to the atmosphere and deforestation will have no effect whatsoever on atmospheric oxygen levels.Broeker, Wallace S. (2006). "Breathing easy: Et tu, O₂." Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.1/broecker.htm.. However, the incineration and burning of forest plants in order to clear land releases tonnes of CO₂ which contributes to global warming.