Source: UN News: Saturday, 25 October 2025 00:01 AM
Forests, rich in dense greenery, trees and wildlife, are the lungs of the earth and a source of livelihood for many communities. Despite this, from the year 1990 till now, about 50 crore hectares of forests i.e. equivalent to about 75 crore football fields, have been destroyed. But on the other hand there is some good news also. of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ,F.A.O.According to ), deforestation has declined in every region of the world over the past decade. Deforestation refers to the destruction of forests or the conversion of forest land to other uses such as urban use or wasteland. Tweet URL
For the last decade, about 1.09 crore hectares of forests are being destroyed every year in the world. This rate is better than the annual deforestation of 13.6 million hectares in the previous decade and 17.6 million hectares in the decade before that. How are forests monitored? This promising trend is reflected in FAO’s latest forest assessment report released on Tuesday. The report is published every five years. The report presents a comprehensive analysis of global and regional forest trends, using data collected from remote sensing – an advanced process using imaging and satellites, and information provided by countries. The United Nations, through international agreements such as the Paris Agreement focused on combating climate change, promotes a collective approach to environmental protection. Assessments, such as FAO’s Forest Report, monitor whether countries are complying with the UN treaties and frameworks they have signed. The agency’s Director-General, Qu Dongyu, has said that the data produced by these assessments serve a number of purposes, “from informing the global community about the state of forests and changes in them, to providing information about forests and the benefits they provide.” To support decisions, policies and investments related to ecosystem services.”How are forests conserved? According to this estimate, one fifth of the world’s forests are in legally established protected areas – an additional 251 million hectares of protected forest since 1990. Asia has the highest share of all regions, with 26 percent forest cover. More than half of the forests are managed outside conservation mandates. This means that the land is being used either for wood, fiber and bioenergy production, or for soil and water protection and biodiversity conservation – or for tourism, among other uses. In Europe, 94 percent of forests are managed. If forests are managed, who owns them? As of 2020, 71 percent of the world’s forests are publicly owned. In North and Central America, tribal or indigenous peoples and local communities owned 41.6 million hectares of forests. UN News/Daniel Dickinson Fires, pests, diseasesFAO linked the increased risk of wildfires and pests to climate change in 2024. Fires remain a common threat and affect an average of 261 million hectares of land annually, about half of which is forested. Due to pests, diseases, and severe weather events in 2020, An additional 41 million hectares of forest area was lost. A special pavilion at the UN climate conference COP30 in Brazil in November will promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, while contributing to efforts to monitor and protect forests.
