7. Deforestation
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that two-hundred thousand hectares of forests and woodlands are cut down each year. In most developing countries, wood is used to cure tobacco leaves, and construct curing barns. More than six-hundred million trees are removed to build curing barns and heat them to dry the tobacco more promptly and proficiently.
In Southern Africa, tobacco curing accounts for twelve percent of the deforestation in the region. Africa is the continent that statistically smokes the least in comparison to other areas of the world.
Malawi, which was cited as the poorest country in the world by the World Bank, makes sixty percent of its foreign earnings due to tobacco. Even though they use five percent of their farming for this crop, they have the fourth fastest deforestation rate in the world. Whilst in 1990 forty-seven percent of its land was tree-covered, now, around thirty percent is left.
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