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The importance of forests. Forests have always had great importance to people. Prehistoric people got their food mainly by hunting and by gathering wild plants. Many of these people lived in the forest and were a natural part of it. With the development of civilization, people settled in cities. But they still went to the forest to get timber and to hunt. Today, people depend on forests more than ever, especially for their (1) economic value, (2) environmental value, and (3) enjoyment value. The science of forestry is concerned with increasing and preserving these values by careful management of forestland.
Deforestation is The permanent removal of forest cover and conversion of the land to other uses. According to the land use definition used by FAO and accepted by most governments, forest land that has been harvested, even clear-cut, is not regarded as deforested because, in principle, trees may regrow or be replanted. Deforestation is recorded only when the land is permanently converted to non-forest use. However, the remote sensing imagery used in this report to determine land cover (the presence or absence of forest) over time does not make such a distinction and clear-cut land has been recorded as non-forest or deforested land. |
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