How do forest prevent soil erosion?
The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics. Only a minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crops yields decline and the people must spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forest. Costa Rica loses about 860 million tons of valuable topsoil every year, while the Great Red Island, Madagascar, loses so much soil to erosion (400 tons/ha) that its rivers run blood red, staining the surrounding Indian Ocean. Astronauts have remarked that it looks like Madagascar is bleeding to death, an apt description of a country with grave environmental degradation and an ever-declining agricultural economy which depends on its soils. The rate of increase for soil loss after forest clearing is astonishing; a study in Ivory Coast found that forested slope areas lost 0.03 tons of soil per year per hectare, cultivated slopes annually lost 90 tons per hectare
