Forest Area Increases Across Asia, Caribbean

The most recent FAO study has indicated that forest areas have decreased globally, but have increased most significantly in Asia and the Caribbean. The increase in forest area in Asia is largely due to the reforestation and afforestation efforts of China and Vietnam. Forest area in Asia increased by 0.29 per cent; this contrasts with increases of 0.07 per cent in Europe.

In the Caribbean, Cuba and Puerto Rico have largely been responsible for the forest area increases. This is a result of Puerto Rico’s significant reforestation and afforestation programs. However, the annual growth in Puerto Rico’s forests has slowed to 1.68 per cent from rates of almost 5 per cent during the 1990s.

Most NGOs have remained quiet about the figures, which indicate that deforestation rates have slowed considerably since the 1990s.

Greenpeace, however, was more than happy to issue a statement earlier in the week that said Indonesia was losing 1.8 million ha of forest annually – more than 1 million ha than the FAO figures. Greenpeace did qualify that by later stating the figure includes degraded forest. But since there is no standard definition for degraded forest – something the UNFCCC is currently debating – we’re assuming they pulled the figure out of the air.