Forest is an area that is overgrown with dense trees and various types of plants. Forests are usually located in large areas in different parts of the world. Forests have the primary function of being a habitat for flora and fauna, producing oxygen and also as an absorber of carbon dioxide.
The vastness of the forest ecosystem makes the forest have many benefits. Forests can also have bad effects if we don’t conserve them, such as forest fires because someone throws away cigarette butts and so on. Besides being beneficial as one of the most important aspects of the Earth’s biosphere, forests also have a variety of benefits for human life, including:
Forest benefits for climatologists
The first benefit of forests is as a climate regulator. Forests have a variety of significant benefits, one of which is that it can stabilize and regulate the existing climate, both micro and macro. Therefore, the existence of the forest is very important for the continuity of human life.
An unstable world climate can occur if industrial lands displace forested areas. This can cause a lot of natural disasters and changes in the changing seasons.
As the Lungs of the World
Forest is a vast area that is the habitat of thousands or even millions of plant species that are very useful for life on earth. Plants that grow in forests can absorb carbon dioxide produced from breathing activities of animals or humans or other carbon produced by the earth itself.
Plants in the forest can also absorb carbon from industrial exhaust gases, which carbon is the most dangerous gas carbon for life on earth. Plants in the forest will produce oxygen after absorbing carbon dioxide, which oxygen is also very beneficial for living things to breathe.
Forest Benefits for Ecologists
Preventing Flood Erosion
Forests can prevent floods that will hit because the roots of plants that grow in the forest can absorb soil water high enough so that that plant roots can hold back the water’s rate. Also, forest ecosystems that have dense plant roots can prevent erosion of soil erosion when it rains, so natural disasters such as landslides can be prevented as early as possible.
Maintaining Soil Fertility
In the forest, there are many plants which, when the leaves fall, it will rot and decompose so that it will turn into topsoil that can be used as fertilizer that can help increase soil fertility. That is what can fertilize the soil, and fertile land is often used as an area to plant certain trees that have economic or aesthetic value.
As Region To Preserve Biodiversity
The many benefits of the forest are not only used for humans but also are useful for the preservation of flora and fauna. It should be that flora and fauna get a decent place to house and breed so that the forest and earth ecosystems can be maintained properly and balanced. It has become an obligation for everyone to protect the forest from damage.
Also read: THE BENEFIT Of CROSS-NATURE RUNNING FOR MIND, BODY, AND SOUL
The Benefits of Forests as a Hydraulic
The forest ecosystem is a very appropriate area to collect rainwater and make it a place for groundwater reserves because forests can absorb water well when compared to land or empty land where there is no vegetation on it.
Therefore, to prevent natural disasters such as floods and landslides and also prevent drought, the thing that must be done is to plant land or vacant land with many plants and treat them well, so that the roots of these plants can grow firmly and can help save water reserves soil.
Prevent Saltwater Instrumentation
Saltwater intrusion is a process where saltwater enters freshwater land and pollutes freshwater so that freshwater reserves are running low. This usually happens frequently in coastal ecosystems.
Things that need to be done if the saltwater intrusion process occurs is to promote the preservation of mangrove forests where mangrove forests can help prevent the process of saltwater intrusion from minimizing and even preventing freshwater pollution by saltwater.
Regulator of Groundwater Management
Ecosystems are significant for farmworkers because forests are areas of soil fertility and regulators of groundwater management. If the forest is damaged, especially in the upper reaches, the water demand will be disrupted.
This condition is very common, it can be seen from the number of agricultural areas that experience drought each dry season, and when the rainy season arrives, farmers’ crops will be submerged. This is due to the reduced groundwater reserves that function to support the agricultural irrigation system.
This can also affect the productivity of agricultural land, which results in the economic slowdown of farmers. So it takes a serious commitment from all walks of life to begin to maintain the continuity of the forest ecosystem, starting from upstream to downstream so that the forest can return to function as it should, namely as a regulator of the groundwater system.
Forest Benefits for The Economy
Sale of Forest Products
The energy that forests have is not only beneficial for hydraulic but is also useful for the community’s economy. Indonesia, as one of the countries with the title of the largest forest in the world, utilizes forest products as an economical source for the benefit of the people of Indonesia. One of them is by relying on the results of the forest ecosystem.
Forests have a variety of staples that can be used, one of which is wood. Wood is usually used as a basis for making paper and also building materials. Besides that, the energy possessed by the forest can be used as a clothing material. Not only that, but forest products can also be used as national consumption and also imported for the national interest.
Foreign Exchange Earner
Forest products can also be used to contribute to a large foreign exchange for a country because forests have abundant wealth. Foreign exchange is an international payment instrument in the form of valuable goods that have been approved by each country. Foreign exchange can be in the form of gold, securities, foreign exchange, or goods that have been approved internationally.
Foreign exchange can function as the cost of developing a country or as payment of external debt installments. One of the mainstays of a country to get a foreign exchange is export activities. A country’s foreign exchange income will be even higher if a lot of goods or services are exported.
Indonesia relies on several forest products to be exported, such as honey, spices, cinnamon, ginger, and, most of all is the result of oil palm, which is usually found in forest’s production.