Thousands Of Trees Around The World Threatened By Extinction

The researchers discovered that about 9,600 types of trees all around the world are at risk of extinction. Scientists blamed deforestation and global warming as the cause of the extinction.

The Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), which is London-based, found that there are about 60,065 species of trees in the world. The organization has used data from 500 various botanical organization all around the world. They found that thousands of trees are threatened by extinction including the 300 species, which were already critically endangered. They also discovered that there are only six Karomia gigas trees remaining in Tanzania, according to News Week.

The goal of this research is to determine which countries or places need conservation efforts. The BGCI secretary general, Dr. Paul Smith, said that getting location information about which countries these trees grown could give them insights for conservation purposes.

Among the 60,065 species of trees in the world, about 58 percent were found in South America. These include 8,715 species in Brazil; 5,776 in Colombia and 5,142 in Indonesia. The U.K. has just about 84 different tree species. Meanwhile, Australia has 2,584 species of trees and Madagascar with 2,991, according to Geographical.

A tree is described as a woody plant with a single stem that could grow to at least two meters in height. If in case it is multi-stemmed, it must have at least one vertical stem with 5 centimeters in diameter at breast height, in accordance to the IUCN's Global Tree Specialist Group.

The BGCI's research indicated that at least one in five trees is threatened by extinction. There will be more studies to be conducted, aiming to identify the remaining un-assessed tree species including the Global Tree Assessment project. It aims to implement conservation action and accomplish this by 2020.

The researchers attributed weather events, human activity and deforestation as the causes of extinction. It is reported by the Ecological Society of Australia that climate change causing heat waves triggered the killing of trees all around the globe in 2015.