Main content:
Keeping Forests usable
This is the 2007 draft on forests. You will get the newest version here.
Forests are relevant to climate, air quality and water balance, because of their high biodiversity and bioproductivity, and, moreover, they are a direct source for food.
Affected people and foundations of life: 4.6 billion people depend on forests for their water (
2005, 29). Deforestation has risen the risk of malaria in Africa and South America by increasing the habitat suitable for mosquitoes that transmit malaria (MA 2005, 114). The global area of forests has been halved over the past three centuries. In the nineties 12 million hectares of tropical rainforest were lost annually (in Africa 0.7% per year), while in temperate and boreal zones, forest cover expanded by 3 million hectares per year, especially by plantations. (MA 2005, 29, 33.) 18-25% of greenhouse gas emissions each year originate in deforestation. Half of deforestation (6 million hectares a year) occurs in primary forests, which make up 36% of the world's forests. ( 2007, 23.)Targets/goals: to reverse the loss of forest cover worldwide by sustainable forest management (target of
2006, 3).Trend: + The net loss of forests has reduced in the last years to 7.3 million hectares annually (equivalent to the area of Panama; UN 2007, 23; UN 2006, 16). To reach the target of UNFF, net loss has to be reduced to zero.
Measures: Sustainable forestry is to be extended (UN Declaration on Forest Principles 1992,
). Trading of illegally felled timber has to be supervised and restricted. Poverty reduction, soil protection, and access to modern energy can open up alternatives to depletion. Recycling of paper can be expanded, and wasting of paper reduced.Annotations: For numeric names the short scale is used:
1 billion = one thousand million = 109 = 1 000 000 000
Sources
- MA 2005 – Millennium Assessment: Ecosystems and Human Well-being; Synthesis; A Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (Written on behalf of the UN, coordinated by UNEP.) Washington.
- UN 2006: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006. New York, 2006. [Published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs DESA – June 2006.]
- UN 2007 – United Nations: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007. [Published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs DESA – June 2007.]
- UNFF 2006 – United Nations Forum on Forests: Report of the sixth session.
Draft (2007)
Photo credit: © David Anderson, Centre College