The local level is where deforestation has the most immediate effect.

With forest loss, the local community loses the system that performed
valuable but often under-appreciated services like ensuring the regular
flow of clean water and protecting the community from flood and
drought. The forest acts as a sort of sponge, soaking up rainfall brought
by tropical storms while anchoring soils and releasing water at regular
intervals. This regulating feature of tropical rainforests can help
moderate destructive flood and drought cycles that can occur when
forests

are

cleared.

When forest cover is lost, runoff rapidly flows into streams, elevating
river levels and subjecting downstream villages, cities, and agricultural
fields to flooding, especially during the rainy season. During the dry
season, such areas downstream of deforestation can be prone to monthslong droughts which interrupt river navigation, wreak havoc on crops,
and

disrupt

industrial

operations.

Situated on steep slopes, montane and watershed forests are especially

important in ensuring water flow and inhibiting erosion, yet during the
1980s, montane forests suffered
the highest deforestation rate of
tropical

forests.

(That

trend

changed in the late 1990s and

2000s,

when

upland

forests

recovered, while lowland areas

bore the brunt of deforestation,
largely

due

to

agricultural

expansion).

Additionally, the forest adds to

local

humidity

transpiration
which

(the

plants

through
process

release

Aerial view of erosion in western

Madagascar

by

water

through their leaves), and thus adds to local rainfall. For example, 50-80
percent of the moisture in the central and western Amazon remains in

the ecosystem water cycle. In the water cycle, moisture is transpired and
evaporated into the atmosphere, forming rain clouds before being
precipitated as rain back onto the forest. When the forests are cut down,
less moisture is evapotranspired into the atmosphere resulting in the
formation of fewer rain clouds. Subsequently there is a decline in
rainfall, subjecting the area to drought. If rains stop falling, within a few
years the area can become arid with the strong tropical sun baking down
on the scrub-land. Today Madagascar is largely a red, treeless desert
from generations of forest clearing with fire. River flows decline and
smaller amounts of quality water reach cities and agricultural lands. The
declining rainfall in interior West African countries has in part been
attributed to excessive clearing of the coastal rainforests. Similarly, new
research in Australia suggests that if it were not for human influences
specifically widespread agricultural firesthe dry outback might be a
wetter, more hospitable place than it is today. The effect of vegetation
change from forests that favor rainfall to grassland and bush can impact
precipitation

patterns.

Colombia,

once

second

in

the

world

with freshwater reserves, has fallen to 24th due to its extensive

deforestation over the past 30 years. Excessive deforestation around the

Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, combined with the dry conditions
created by el Nio, triggered strict water rationing in 1998, and for the
first

time

the

city

had

to

import

water.

There is serious concern that widespread deforestation could lead to a

significant decline in rainfall and trigger a positive-feedback process of
increasing desiccation for neighboring forest cover; reducing its
moisture stocks and its vegetation would then further the desiccation
effect for the region. Eventually the effect could extend outside the
region, affecting important agricultural zones and other watersheds. At
the 1998 global climate treaty
conference in Buenos Aires, Britain, citing a disturbing study at the
Institute of Ecology in Edinburgh, suggested the Amazon rainforest
could be lost in 50 years due to shifts in rainfall patterns induced by
global

warming

and

land

conversion.

The newly desiccated forest becomes prone to devastating fires. Such

fires materialized in 1997 and 1998 in conjunction with the dry

conditions created by el Nio. Millions of acres burned as fires swept
through Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Central America, Florida, and
other places. The Woods Hole Research Center warned that more than
400,000 square kilometers of Brazilian Amazon were highly vulnerable
to fire in 1998. That extent grew in 2005 and 2010 when the Amazon
was hit by even worse droughts.