Deforestation in Laos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nChina\u2019s heavy planting can disguise the trends elsewhere in the region, however. As the world\u2019s largest processor of wood products, China imports both legally and illegally logged timber, driving deforestation in other countries. Indonesia, where eighty-two percent of the land area was covered by lush forests in the 1960s, has been a prime target. Today less than half of that country is forested, with some 24 million hectares of forest lost between 1990 and 2010. The good news is that the deforestation rate of 1.9 million hectares per year in the 1990s fell to 500,000 hectares per year during the most recent decade.<\/p>\n
Another large driver of deforestation in Indonesia is palm oil production; the country accounts for almost half of the global output of this product. Expansion of oil palm, which is largely planted on lands that have been logged or burned, threatens the remaining forests. To assess this risk and limit the country\u2019s contribution to global warming from land use change, Indonesia instituted a two-year moratorium in May 2011 on new licenses to convert primary forests to oil palm or other uses. The temporary ban is meant to provide time for the government to devise a way to double palm oil production by 2020 from 2009 levels while protecting its forests. The effectiveness of this ban remains to be seen, considering the ambitiousness of the production goal and the government\u2019s ongoing struggle to limit illegal logging.<\/p>\n
Mexico is another country where the government is taking on deforestation. In the 1990s Mexico had the seventh highest rate of deforestation in the world. Recent efforts to curb deforestation and encourage plantations halved the rate of forest loss from 400,000 hectares of forest per year in the 1990s to 200,000 hectares per year in the 2000s. In Mexico and Central America combined, annual deforestation losses have shrunk from 700,000 hectares to 400,000 hectares.<\/p>\n
Across the globe, Australia moved in the opposite direction, switching from a net forest gain in the 1990s to a net forest loss in the following decade. Australia\u2019s persistent drought from 2002 to 2010 was double trouble for its forests: the drought restricted forest regrowth while simultaneously increasing fire risk. Wildfires, stoked by extended drought and high temperatures, burned millions of hectares of forest in Australia. Just one megafire on February 7, 2009, now known as \u201cBlack Saturday,\u201d burned over 400,000 hectares\u2014an area the size of the state of Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
Wildfires, in conjunction with insect outbreaks, have also altered Canada\u2019s forests. Around the turn of the 21st century, these disturbances released large amounts of carbon to the atmosphere, possibly transforming Canada\u2019s boreal forests from a carbon sink pulling carbon dioxide from the air and storing it, to a carbon source. Carbon dioxide traps heat within the earth\u2019s atmosphere, so whether Canada\u2019s 310 million hectares of forests\u2014the third most of any country\u2014is a carbon source or sink can have large implications for future climate change.<\/p>\n
The United States added a net 7.7 million hectares of trees between 1990 and 2010, around 380,000 hectares per year. Although the United States has experienced impressive forest regeneration within its own borders, it still contributes to deforestation as an importer of forest products\u2014some $20 billion worth in 2011. The case in Europe is similar, where 2011 imports of forest products totaled $110 billion. Led by Spain, Italy, France, Norway, and Sweden, this region added a net 16 million hectares of forested area from 1990 to 2010.<\/p>\n
Not all trees, nor all forests, are alike. Trees added in industrial countries in temperate zones, with different ecological attributes, cannot replace the bounty of biodiversity lost in tropical forests of developing countries. Global forest protection is a global effort.<\/p>\n
Protection requires more than labeling an area of forest as off-limits to logging. By reducing consumption of paper and wood products, recycling paper, reclaiming wood, legally sourcing wood from sustainable plantations, finding substitutes for firewood, and stabilizing population by accelerating the shift to smaller families, our generation can help protect forests for future ones.<\/p>\n
Data and additional resources at www.earth-policy.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nImage credits: <\/strong>Patrick|Choi<\/a> via photo pin<\/a> cc<\/a>; fredalix – \u0e2d\u0e32\u0e25\u0e34\u0e01\u0e2a\u0e4c<\/a> via photo pin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forests provide many important goods, such as timber and paper. They also supply essential services\u2014for example, they filter water, control water runoff, protect soil, regulate climate, cycle and store nutrients, and provide habitat for countless animal species and space for recreation. Human demand for their products, though, keeps them in a state of decline globally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":14820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[18,1072,3566,2101,258,3151,2787],"yoast_head":"\n
World Forest Area Still Declining<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n