FAO Says Deforestation Slows, But Not Out of Woods Yet
3/7/97
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Deforestation slows, but not out of woods yet-FAO
Copyright 1997 by Reuters
3/7/97
ROME (Reuter) - The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
said Friday that the pace of global deforestation was slowing but
increasing population pressures meant forests would continue to shrink
for the next decade.
David Harcharik, head of FAO's forestry department, told a news
conference ahead of a four-day meeting of experts to assess
sustainable development that natural forests in developing
countries decreased by 33.85 million acres a year in 1990-95.
That compared with an annual fall of 38.3 million acres between 1980
and 1990 -- an improvement of some 12 percent.
But Harcharik, who is also assistant director-general of the Rome-
based agency, said it would be foolish to think the problem was over,
adding sophisticated statistical procedures being developed would
provide a clearer picture of the trend.
He stressed that, globally, natural forests and plantations were still
shrinking by some 27.9 million acres a year.
"We would like to say we should be hopeful, but the area we are
talking about is twice the size of Italy which has been lost in 1990-
95. It's still a very high rate," Harcharik said.
"We are optimistic we are going in the right direction but there is
still a long, long way to go."
Senior forestry officials from around the world will meet at FAO's
headquarters beginning Monday to review progress on sustainable
forestry and assess the impact of a food security plan of action
concluded at FAO's World Food Summit last November.
FAO monitors the global situation and implements some special forestry
programs but is not responsible for forestry management in individual
countries. It will release its second major biannual study on the
state of the world's forests.
Harcharik said that, in the developed world, lower population growth
and higher agricultural development meant pressures on forest land to
be converted for other uses had eased. Total forests grew by some 4.5
million acres a year in 1990-95.
"Therefore...there is going to have to be a decline in the population
rate and an increase in economic development including agricultural
productivity (in the developing world) as has taken place in the
north," he said.
FAO reckons world food production will increase by an annual 1.8
percent until the year 2010, needing 222 million acres of extra
agricultural land -- half of that coming from forests.
"So the trend for the next decade or so will continue to show a
decrease in forests," said Marc Rene de Montalembert, director of
FAO's forestry policy and planning division.
Despite the acute problem of tropical deforestation, Harcharik said
the solution did not lie with developed world consumers avoiding
anything made with tropical wood.
"We should try to help countries better manage their forests," he
said. "If we put in place barriers to trade and disincentives to sales
of some products it creates an incentive to convert these forests to
other more productive uses."