Title:  UN: Global Rate of Deforestation Slowing 

Source:  c Environment News Service (ENS) 2000. All Rights Reserved. 

Status:  Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint

Date:  August 8, 20  

 

ROME, Italy, August 8, 2000 (ENS) - Tropical countries continue to

suffer deforestation, but the rate is slowing down the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.

 

Analysis of more than 300 satellite images shows that the rate of

deforestation in tropical countries was at least 10 percent less over

the past 10 years compared with the previous decade.

 

Half the satellite images showed a reduced rate of deforestation, but

20 percent showed an increase, said the FAO study. The results will be

published as part of the FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment

2000, due to be released by the end of the year.

 

The assessment aims to standardize individual countries' data on

forestry resources. It will include information on forest ecology and

the economic potential of forests.

 

"These preliminary results do not mean that the battle against

deforestation is over, and a reduction in deforestation must not be

used as an excuse for unsustainable forest practices," said Hosny El-

Lakany, assistant director general of the FAO Forestry Department.

 

The new information should spur efforts to accommodate sustainable

forest management, El-Lakany predicted.

 

Forests and other wooded lands cover almost one third of the planet,

but between 1990 and 1995, 65.1 million hectares (160 million acres)

of forests were lost in developing countries alone.

 

At the same time, there is increasing recognition that forests may be

the best line of defense against climate change because of their

ability to absorb carbon dioxide, the major heat trapping greenhouse

gas.

 

A reduction in deforestation and uncontrolled forest fires would

increase this capacity of the forests to act as a carbon sink.

 

The global trade in forest products amounted to $135 billion in 1997.

With between 70 and 100 countries unable to meet their current needs

for forest products, this trade is likely to increase, the United

Nations Commission on Sustainable Development says.

 

Principal causes of deforestation are large economic development

programs involving resettlement, agriculture and infrastructure in

Latin America and Asia. Overharvesting of wood, overgrazing, fire,

insects, diseases, storms and air pollution add to forest degradation,

the FAO study shows.