Deforestation
World deforestation rate slows down - outside Africa

afrol.com, 24 January - The global rate of net forest loss has slowed to 9 million hectares per year, according to the latest global forest assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Africa, however, continues on its fast track of deforestation, with no signs of a slowing down.

The FAO assessment shows a rate 20 percent lower than the global figure previously reported in 1995. Forests are disappearing most rapidly in Africa and Latin America, whereas in Asia, the reduction of natural forests is largely compensated by new plantation forests. In Europe and North America the forest area is increasing, according to the FAO survey. Overall, the world contains around 6000 square meters of forest for each person, which is reducing by 12 square meters every year. 

During the 1990s, the world forest cover decreased by an annual 0,2 percent. In Africa, on the other hand, the annual decrease was 0,8 percent, making it the continent with the highest deforestation rate globally. Second to Africa came South America, with a deforestation of 0,4 percent, half of the African. 

The African continent however operates with very differing deforestation numbers. While worst off country Burundi has had an annual deforestation rate of incredible 9,0% in the 1990s, seven countries experience aforestation, among them most North African nations, The Gambia, Swaziland and Cape Verde (having its forested area increasing 9,3% each year). Se also table below.

The five countries experiencing an extremely high deforestation rate, Burundi (-9,0%), Comoros (-4,3%), Rwanda (-3,9%), Niger (-3,7%) and Togo (-3,4%) are all suffering from internal conflict or extreme poverty. Thus, also Sierra Leone (-2,9%) can be found in the top-seven list. The countries known for their rich tropical forests and an aggressive timber industry, such as Cameroon (-0,9%) and Congo Kinshasa (-0,4%), are found much lower on the list, indicating that poverty and conflicts is the worst enemy of resource management.

The African sunshine stories, like the Sahelian countries Cape Verde and The Gambia experiencing an aforestation, also clearly demonstrate that a sound forest policy can show results. In Cape Verde, the forested area has increased from 35,000 ha in 1990 to 85,000 ha in 2000 through a massive aforestation effort. New forests planted in these countries positively affect micro climate and the local resource situation, but are of low value for biodiversity, once more underlining that stopping deforestation is preferable to start aforestation.

While the global deforestation rate is slowing down due to plantations, the cutting of virgin forest, important for biodiversity, however continues at the same rate. Due to the new climate gasses regulations, it has actually become good business to cut virgin forests and plant tree monocultures as so-called carbon sinks. The plantations replacing the virgin forests count as reduced climate gas emissions.

Deforestation rate in African countries 1990-2000 (annual change in %)
1.	Burundi	-9,0%
2.	Comoros	-4,3%
3.	Rwanda	-3,9%
4.	Niger	-3,7%
5.	Togo	-3,4%
6.	Côte d'Ivoire	-3,1%
7.	Seychelles, Sierra Leone	-2,9%
8.	Mauretania	-2,7%
9.	Nigeria	-2,6%
10	Malawi, Zambia	-2,4%
11	Benin	-2,3%
12	Liberia, Uganda	-2,0%
13	Ghana	-1,7%
14	Zimbabwe	-1,5%
15	Sudan	-1,4%
16	Somalia	-1,0%
17	Botwsana, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Namibia	-0,9%
18	Ethiopia	-0,8%
19	Mali, Senegal	-0,7%
20	Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius	-0,6%
21	Guinea, Kenya	-0,5%
22	Congo Kinshasa	-0,4%
23	Eritrea	-0,3%
24	Angola, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Tanzania	-0,2%
25	Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, South Africa	-0,1%
26	Djibouti, Lesotho, Sao Tome, Seychelles, Western Sahara	0,0%
27	Tunisia	+0,2%
28	The Gambia	+1,0%
29	Swaziland	+1,2%
30	Algeria	+1,3%
31	Libya	+1,4%
32	Egypt	+3,4%
33	Cape Verde	+9,3%
N.A.	Gabon, Morocco	?
Based on data from FAO (2001)

The current FAO survey is the latest in global forest assessments spanning a 50-year period and the first of its kind to be implemented using a uniform global definition of forest. "The findings reveal a diverse picture, where some countries still have very high levels of deforestation (mainly conversion of forests to other land uses) while others show significant increases in forest cover through plantations or natural re-growth," the UN agency concludes. African countries are usually found maintaining very high levels of deforestation. 

- These differences, according to FAO Director General Dr. Jacques Diouf, "cannot be explained by population pressure on forests alone. Rather they are apparently the results of economic developments at large, and national forest or land use policies. Therefore, forestry surveys should address, on a sustainable basis, further development of the forestry sector which constitutes a backbone of world food security." 

Commenting on the new global assessment on forests, Dr. Hosny El-Lakany, Assistant Director General (Forestry Department), said: "Although remote sensing has increased the information about forests in general, field surveys remain the main source of knowledge about forest dynamics and forest change. FAO is now addressing the need for improved quality and relevance in forestry information in new proposals for future forest assessments to be discussed at COFO in March". 

These new global figures have been published on the FAO Forestry Web site and will be officially presented in FAO's State of the World's Forests 2001 due to be released on the occasion of the forthcoming session of FAO Committee on Forestry, in Rome on 12 March. The Committee on Forestry (COFO) is FAO's leading forum for international discussions on forest policy and technical issues, and it will be attended by more than 100 FAO member countries. 

Source: Based on FAO and afrol archives

 

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