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STORY: FAO / FOREST REPORT
TRT: 2:29
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: JULY 2020, ROME, ITALY /FILE
2017 - COLOMBIA
1. Aerial shot, forest and cultivated fields
2017 – ZAMBIA
2. Aerial shot, forest
2012 - VIET NAM
3. Aerial shot, forest with clouds
JULY 2020, ROME, ITALY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Anssi Pekkarinen, Senior Forestry Officer, FAO:
"Of course, a report like this has a number of new findings. Let me highlight three of them. First of all, the forest area loss and the deforestation are slowing down which is a great news. But we are still losing 4.7 million hectares per forest. Most of that loss happens in Sub-Saharan Africa and in South America, but also in South Eastern Asia we still lose about 1 million hectares of forest every year. The second is that the area of forest found within legal established protected areas is increasing, in fact it has now reached 18 per cent. This is good news because that means that the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, protecting 17 per cent of terrestrial ecosystems, has been met for forests. And finally, the area of forest under the sustainable management plans is increasing.”
2015 - VIET NAM
5. Aerial shot, forest area with cut trees
6. Aerial shot, area with cut trees
2017 – ZAMBIA
7. Various shots, slash and burn/shifting agriculture field in the Solwezi national forest
8. Pan left, slash and burn/shifting agriculture field in the Solwezi national forest
9. Med shot, burnt out tree stumps in Solwezi national forest
10. Close up, burnt out tree stumps in Solwezi national forest
JULY 2020, ROME, ITALY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Anssi Pekkarinen, Senior Forestry Officer, FAO:
"The Global Forest Resources Assessment is the most comprehensive assessment of forest resources, their management and uses that exists. It is currently the only one that covers more than 60 different variables all together. So, the Global Forest Resources Assessment is the reference against which all the other forest resource information is being compared and it is the reference also that is being used to support many international processes, for example the Convention on Biological Diversity, conventions on climate change and so on and so forth."
2017 – LOWER ZAMBEZI NATIONAL PARK, ZAMBIA
12. Close up, butterfly on a plant
13. Med shot, bird walking on the ground
14. Med shot, waterbuck
15. Wide shot, maribou stalks
The world has lost 178 million hectares of forest since 1990, according to a forestry assessment launched today by the Food and Agriculture Organization in an innovative and easy-to-use digital format.
The most comprehensive forestry assessment to date, the Global Forest Resources Assessment report (FRA 2020) is available for public viewing and its first-ever online interactive dissemination platform contain detailed regional and global analyses for 236 countries and territories.
Users can now consult a comparable and consistent set of more than 60 forest indicators across countries and regions and download the requested data in a non-proprietary digital format. Monitoring of change over time is also possible in parameters such as forest area, management, ownership and use.
“First of all, the forest area loss and the deforestation are slowing down which is a great news,” said Anssi Pekkarinen, FAO’s Senior Forestry Officer “But we are still losing 4.7 million hectares per forest.”
Most of the forest loss happens in Sub-Saharan Africa and in South America, with South Eastern Asia losing about one million hectares of forest every year.
Good news is, Pekkarjnen said “the area of forest found within legal established protected areas is increasing, in fact it has now reached 18 per cent,” which is in line with the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, protecting 17 per cent of terrestrial ecosystems.
Millions of people around the world depend on forests for their food security and livelihoods. Protecting forests is also key to conserving natural resources, as they harbour most of the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity and help mitigate climate change impacts. According to the recently published the State of the World's Forests (SOFO) report, forests contain 60,000 different tree species, 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species, and 68 percent of the Earth's mammal species.
Therefore, it is crucial to turn the tide on deforestation and the loss of biodiversity which can be done by conserving and sustainably managing forests and trees within an integrated landscape approach - addressing forestry and food security challenges together. Reliable and comprehensive information on forests and other land-uses plays a vital role in this process, FAO said.
In addition, the FRA 2020 data are used by FAO to estimate carbon emissions and removals from forests, by country and at a global level. For instance, the new FRA-based estimates indicate that global emissions from forest loss decreased by about one-third since 1990. Figures on carbon emissions and removals, based on the FRA data, are made available through the FAO statistics database FAOSTAT.
Forests are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda. They have immense potential to support sustainable development pathways.
The FRA 2020 key findings:
• The world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares, which is about 31 percent of the total land area. Europe, including Russian Federation, accounts for 25 percent of the world's forest area, followed by South America (21 percent), North and Central America (19 percent), Africa (16 percent), Asia (15 percent) and Oceania (5 percent).
• The global forest area continues to decrease, and the world has lost 178 million hectares of forest since 1990. However, the rate of net forest loss decreased substantially over the period 1990-2020 due to a reduction in deforestation in some countries, plus increases in forest area in others through afforestation and natural expansion of forests.
• Africa has the largest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010-2020, at 3.9 million hectares, followed by South America, at 2.6 million hectares. The highest net gain of forest area in 2010-2020 was found in Asia.
• Since 1990 an estimated 420 million ha of forest has been lost worldwide through deforestation, conversion of forest to other land use such as agriculture. However, the rate of forest loss has declined substantially. In the most recent five-year period (2015-2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares, down from 12 million hectares in 2010-2015 and 16 million hectares in 1990-2000.
• The area of forest in protected areas has increased by 191 million ha since 1990, and has now reached an estimated 726 million ha (18 percent of the total forest area of reporting countries). In addition, the area of forest under management plans is increasing in all regions - globally, it has increased by 233 million ha since 2000, reaching slightly over two billion hectares in 2020.
• Top ten countries worldwide for average annual net losses of forest area between 2010 and 2020 are: Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Angola, United Republic of Tanzania, Paraguay, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Mozambique.
• Top ten countries for average annual net gains in forest area in the same period are: China, Australia, India, Chile, Viet Nam, Turkey, United States of America, France, Italy, Romania.
