We celebrated International Forestry Day on March 21, 2026 and the theme for this year was Forests and Economies! While the entire world is working towards tapping the forests above the ground for their economic uses, the forest surface and soil is receiving a huge quantum of plastics from anthropogenic sources. The forests that were considered pristine terrestrial ecosystems are now a sink for plastics. The forests also gather a lot of plastics from the adjacent urban areas when strong winds blow and lay captured there. An estimate recorded an average of 90 to 210 particles per metre square per day. The forest canopy is also considered to be a safe abode of microplastics that are formed by degradation of plastic. The particle size mimics the dust and gets accumulated on leaf surfaces, especially stomata.

Forest Soil constitutes the top most weathered superficial layer of the Earth’s crust that is composed of five fundamental components – air, water, organic matter, minerals, and microorganisms. It serves as a substratum for primary producers in forest ecosystems and functions as the premises for land-based ecological networks. Forest soils from Amazonian forest in Brazil, Chile and Tropical Rain Forests of South East Asia (Malaysia, India and Indonesia) everywhere plastics and more harmful microplastics are found. Plastic pollution has been seen in forest watersheds and catchment areas. The forests are also a safe haven for lots of biological resources, including wax, latex, resins, mushrooms, herbs, medicinal plants and many other things constituting the minor forest produce coming out of the forest. The minor forest produce serves the tribal populations in many ways. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has assigned 9.4 billion US dollars to the MFP sector. However, the more recent data collected from different parts of the world has found out the honey, mushrooms and medicinal plants collected from the forests are contaminated with microplastics.
The studies have also brought to notice that plastics and microplastics in soil are affecting the soil microorganisms that play an important role in biogeochemical cycling such as that of carbon and nitrogen. It has also been found that microplastics affect the soil properties such as water holding capacity and porosity. The micropores that hold water are clogged by the microplastics. This has further implications on the health of forest micro and macroflora. Though research across the world is focussed on protecting the forests from destruction and lumbering for commercial activities, there is very little research work available on how microplastics are affecting forest health. Hampering of the soil water uptake also affects the nutrient uptake in forest trees leading to deficiency diseases and compromised defence to the infections from pests and pathogens. Therefore, it is important to study the microplastic composition, the quantum of microplastic in the soil in different forest ecosystems and develop some strategies that can help mitigate the harmful effects. It is believed that the solution is also there in the forests. Recently, many novel microorganisms including fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria have been identified from the forest soils that act as bioengineers and degrade the plastic in the soil. However, how these do it is still under investigation.
An interdisciplinary approach using knowledge of chemistry, geology, forestry and microbiology can lead the way and turn the forest ecosystems as economic models and generate an enormous amount of revenue. So, this forest day keeping the forest economics at forefront, let us decide not to contaminate our forest ecosystems with the dangerous plastic.

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