WORLD LOST 420-M HA OF FORESTS IN 30 YEARS: FAO

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported in its latest Global Forest Resources Assessment report (FRA 2020) released on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 and reported by teleSUR that the world is seeing an alarming loss of its forests, with 420-million hectares lost in the last 30 years.

FAO said the total global forest area stands at some 4.06 billion hectares but the figure continues to decrease each day. The top countries for average annual net losses of forest area over the last 10 years are Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Angola, Tanzania, Paraguay, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bolivia, and Mozambique.

However, the rate of forest loss has declined substantially. In the most recent five-year period (2015–2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares, down from 12 million ha in 2010–2015. Also, the area of forest under protection has reached roughly 726 million hectares, nearly 200 million hectares more than in 1990, according to FRA 2020.

Still, there is cause for great concern, according to FAO. Senior Forestry Officer Anssi Pekkarinen, the report’s Coordinator, warned that global targets related to sustainable forest management are at risk. “We need to step up efforts to halt deforestation to unlock the full potential of forests in contributing to sustainable food production, poverty alleviation, food security, biodiversity conservation, and climate change while sustaining the production of all the other goods and services they provide,” he said.