Forest Fires and Logging have Destroyed Trees, Plants, Rare Species in
Brazil
10/8/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Forest Fires and Logging have Destroyed Trees, Plants, Rare
Species in Brazil
Source: The Associated Press
Date: 10/8/97
Copyright 1997: Associated Press This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright 1997: ABCNews and Starwave Corporation
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in
any form.
L O N D O N, Oct. 8 - Much of the world's
original forests has been destroyed, and some
countries will have no natural forests in 50
years if the current rate of destruction
continues, says an environmental group.
A new study by the World Wide Fund for
Nature also singled out Brazil as the nation
with the highest annual rate of forest loss in
the world.
A record number of fires have been
reported in the Brazilian Amazon this year,
and new roads to open up the Amazon to logging
and development have decimated innumerable
trees, plants and rare species.
The report does not take into account the
widespread damage done to forests in
Indonesia, where fires set to clear land have
been raging out of control for weeks,
producing a thick, smoky haze over much of
Southeast Asia.
According to the study, only 7.5 billion
acres of forests of the 20 billion acres that
existed 8,000 years ago remain today.
Rapid Annual Destruction
Tropical forests are being destroyed at a rate
of 42 million acres per year, and similar
losses occur across the temperate and northern
forests of Canada, Europe, Russia and the
United States, the study found.
"We have always suspected that forest
loss was high-but now we have proof of the
extent of forest already lost," said Francis
Sullivan, director of the fund's Forests for
Life campaign.
"The frightening thing is that the pace
of forest destruction has accelerated
dramatically over the past five years and
continues to rise."
Forest Management Urged
The fund is urging governments to agree to its
plan to establish an international network of
protected forest areas to include 10 percent
of each of the world's major forest types by
2000.
During the United Nations' Earth Summit
in June, the fund and the World Bank announced
the plan, which would bring 247 million acres
of northern forests and 247 million acres of
tropical rain forests under "sustainable
management" by 2005.
The Europeans, Canadians and others have
called for an international treaty to
introduce new standards in the timber trade
and other changes.
The United States opposes the idea-as do
many environmentalists, who would prefer to
first see existing agreements better enforced
to slow global deforestation.
In conjunction with the World
Conservation Monitoring Center, the fund
studied forest cover and forest protection in
Africa, the Asia Pacific region, Europe, Latin
America, North America and Russia.
Some Will Lose Forests
If current rates of deforestation continue,
there will be virtually no natural forests
left in countries such as Costa Rica,
Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand in 50 years,
the study found.
"As more and more countries run out of
their own natural forests . the people who
depend on them will come under greater
threat," said Sullivan.
The study showed that the Asia Pacific
region already has lost 88 percent of its
original forest cover and only 5 percent of
the remaining forest area is protected. The
study also predicted only 10 percent of the
region's original forests will be left within
25 years.