Forest loss higher in Latin America in the 1990-2005 period says FAO new survey
Sergio Abranches, from Durban
A new, satellite-based survey released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows the changes in the world’s forests. The survey indicates that forest land use declined between 1990 and 2005. The highest rate of forest conversion to other land uses in both periods was in South America, followed by Africa.
The total forest area in 2005 was 3.69 billion hectares, which is 30 percent of the global land area. There was a net reduction in the global forest area between 1990 and 2005 of 72.9 million hectares.
“Just over half the world’s forests are in tropical or subtropical climatic domains”, the report shows. The world’s forests are distributed unevenly with just under half the world’s forests in the tropical domain (44% of total area), about one third in boreal (34%) and smaller amounts in temperate (13%) and subtropical (9%) domains.
“Worldwide, the gross reduction in forest land use caused by deforestation and natural disasters (14.2 million hectares per year between 1990 and 2000 and 15.2 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2005) was partially offset by gains in forest area through afforestation and natural forest expansion (10.1 million hectares per year between 1990 and 2000 and 8.8 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2005). This resulted in net losses of 72.9 million hectares of forests over 15 years between 1990 and 2005.”
The annual net conversion from forest land use to other land uses averaged
4.9 million hectares per year over the 15-year period. The rate of net forest loss increased from 4.1 to 6.4 million hectares per year between 1990 to 2000 and 2000 to 2005, respectively.
There were important regional differences in the rate of change in forest area. The highest rate of forest conversion in both periods was in South America, followed by Africa. Asia was the only region to show net gains in forest area in both periods consistent with the extensive planting that has been reported by several countries to be larger in area than the regional losses in area of natural forests.
Tags: Africa, Asia, COP17, deforestation, REDD, South America, tropical forest, UNFCCC