Globally, an area of forest the size of New Zealand was lost in 2016, equal to almost 300,000 km2. Forest cover was removed by people in the rainforest who wished to make more land available for . In , much forest cover was removed to make way for plantations. As forest is lost, so are habitats. Deforestation leads to a loss of as the ecosystems of Earth are further reduced. Furthermore, because forests are the Earth’s , reducing forest cover leads to because there are fewer trees to absorb carbon dioxide.