Protecting the world's forests

This excerpt of a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations provides projections on fuelwood and roundwood production, and offers some pragmatic solutions that are needed to protect the world’s forests, which are essential for the livelihoods of many people.

- 

Forests covered about 4,1 billion hectares, or 31%, of the world’s land surface in 2020. Fifty-four percent of the world’s forests is in only five countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, the US and China (in descending order, by area). Ten countries account for two-thirds of the global forest area, and also including Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Peru, and India.

An estimated 420 million hectares of forest were converted to other land uses between 1990 and 2020. The rate of deforestation declined over the period, from 15,8 million hectares per year in 1990 to 2000 to 10,2 million hectares per year from 2015 to 2020.

The annual rates of deforestation from 2015 to 2020 were 4,41 million hectares in Africa, 2,95 million hectares in South America, and 2,24 million hectares in Asia. The Forest Resources Assessment’s 2020 remote sensing survey confirmed the declining trend in global deforestation. Change in forest area over time is due to two factors: deforestation, and the expansion of forests in areas previously under other land uses.

Globally, the net rate of change in forest area, which is the difference between forest expansion and deforestation, is estimated at -4,7 million hectares per year (2010 to 2020).

This was significantly lower than in the two previous decades (-7,8 million hectares per year in 1990 to 2000, and -5,2 million hectares per year in 2000 to 2010).

Preliminary data indicate a significant reduction in the rate of forest-area loss for some countries that previously ranked among the top 10 for this parameter. (Table 1 shows the top 10 countries for annual net gain in forest area from 2010 to 2020.)

GLOBAL PRODUCTION AND TRADE

Forest product production and trade statistics have focused historically on wood-based goods, which are the main products derived from forests for which established markets exist.