What is the environmental impact of the production of leather?

Real leather is an animal product, more specifically cows hide. As a result when there is a demand for leather more cows will be needed, and thus more land. When you need more land you sometimes need to cut down trees or whole forests to compensate for the cattle/herd. In addition the cattle will eat the grass taking away from valuable erosion protection. But more importantly the trees sometimes cut down to make room for the cattle will cause habitat loss, erosion, and heat control. As well many leather companies will use harmful chemicals to create the leather and thus those chemicals can be dumped in water, polluting it.