why are forest important for humanbeings
Answers
. We depend on forests for our survival, from the air we breathe to the wood we use. Besides providing habitats for animals and livelihoods for humans, forests also offer watershed protection, prevent soil erosion and mitigate climate change.Because trees absorb carbon dioxide and turn it into wood, where the carbon stays bound up for hundreds or even thousands of years, living forests are an important part of the earth's climate system. Growing trees soak up CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks, roots, leaves, and forest soils.
The benefits provided by forest ecosystems include: goods such as timber, food, fuel and bioproducts. ecological functions such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling, water and air purification, and maintenance of wildlife habitat. social and cultural benefits such as recreation, traditional resource uses
Forests supply the humans and the animals with oxygen and help to maintain the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide, they help to prevent floods and maintain the water table, the trees present in forests bind the soil particles together and prevent soil erosion, and thus maintain the fertility of the soil. They also absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis. They absorb moisture from the soil and release it into the air through transpiration, which increases the amount of water vapour in the air and helps in cloud formation, which results in increase of rainfall. The increased amount of water vapour also helps in cooling the surrounding air. They also provide shelter and food to the people of different tribes which live in forests. They provide the humans with many useful forest products like timber, latex, wood pulp, spices, oils, gum, turpentine and medicinal plants (eg- neem, tulsi, rosy periwinkle etc).