World forests in decline – UN

– The world has lost nearly 100 million hectares of forests in two decades, marking a steady decline though at a slower pace than before, a United Nations agency reported this week.

The proportion of forest to total land area fell from 31.9% in 2000 to 31.2% in 2020, now some 4.1 billion hectares, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FOA).

It marks “a net loss of almost 100 million hectares of the world’s forests”, the FAO said.

Deforestation has hit particularly hard sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, where it has accelerated in the past decade, but also Latin and Central America, where it has nonetheless slowed down.

Forests are being cut down mainly to make way for crops or farm animals, especially in less developed countries.

In southeast Asia, forest now covers 47.8% of the land compared to 49% in 2015. In sub-Saharan Africa, it covers 27.8% compared to 28.7% five years ago.

In Indonesia, it is 50.9%, down from 52.5%. In Malaysia, it is 58.2%, down from 59.2% five years ago.

A country strongly focused on agriculture like the Ivory Coast has seen forests reduced to 8.9% of the total land area from 10.7% in 2015. Kenya, Mali and Rwanda have largely held firm against forest loss.

In Latin and Central America, forest covers only 46.7% of the total land, compared to 47.4% five years ago.

In Brazil, forests declined to 59.4% of the country’s territory in 2020 from 60.3% in 2015. In Haiti, deforestation has continued apace – falling to 12.6% of the total land area from 13.2% in 2015.

In contrast, in many parts of Asia, Europe and North America forest area has increased or stayed the same in the past five years with policies to restore woodland and allow forests to expand naturally.

In China, forests make up 23.3%, up from 22.3% in 2015. In Japan, they account for 68.4%, the same as it was five years ago.