From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdeforestationde‧for‧es‧ta‧tion /diːˌfɒrəˈsteɪʃən $ -ˌfɔː-, -ˌfɑː-/ noun [uncountable] TAFthe cutting or burning down of all the trees in an area the deforestation of the tropics —deforest /diːˈfɒrɪst $ -ˈfɔː-, -ˈfɑː-/ verb [transitive]
Examples from the Corpus
deforestation• Some parts of tropical America have seen over 70% deforestation.• Deforestation has been shown to cause floods and drought.• Like most of the forest species, it is threatened by deforestation and hunting.• In addition high usage of wood for fuel is a major cause of deforestation accounting for 75% of 1983 energy consumption.• It also provides for increased penalties for dumping oil at sea, and for fortnightly satellite monitoring of deforestation.• As the pace of deforestation picked up, the area of land covered by dense forest declined considerably.• Further large-scale deforestation is occurring in response to government-sanctioned development projects, many of which involve cash cropping and ranching.• Of particular importance is the effect that deforestation has on tropical soils.• Overgrazing by sheep and goats contributed to the deforestation.• The authors also predict an increase in violent storms, fires, landslides and avalanches in the Alpine region as well as widespread deforestation.• The land is severely eroded as a result of widespread deforestation and intensive farming. 