It is incredibly difficult to sum up the importance of forests in a few words.
Just think of how forests have affected your life today: Have you had your breakfast? Read a newspaper? Switched on a light? Travelled to work in a bus or car? Signed a cheque? Made a shopping list? Got a parking ticket? Blown your nose into a tissue?
Forest products are used in our daily lives All these and many more activities directly or indirectly involve forests. Some are easy to figure out - fruits, paper and wood from trees, and so on; others are more difficult - by-products that go into the manufacture of other everyday items like medicines, detergents, etc.
Habitats for biodiversity and livelihood for humans
But looking at it beyond our narrow, human, not to mention urban, perspective, forests provide habitats to diverse animal species, and they also form the source of livelihood for many different human settlements as well as for governments.
They offer watershed protection, timber and non-timber products, and various recreational options. They prevent soil erosion, help in maintaining the water cycle, check global warming by using carbon dioxide in photosynthesis.
Yet we are losing them
When we take away the forest, it is not just the trees that go. The entire ecosystem begins to come apart, with dire consequences for all of us.Thus, it is quite scary that over the past 50 years, about half the world's original forest cover has been lost, the most significant cause for that being humans beings' unsystematic use of its resources.
It brings to mind Francis Bacon's words about there being enough for everyone's need, but not for anyone's greed.