Deforestation

Combating deforestation and forest degradation

Forest area cleared (thousands of hectares)

The deforestation, the growth of human populations, needing more land.

Furthermore, deforestation is often linked with a failure to recognize the full value of forests.

Human activities which affect the right to a healthy environment also take the form of deforestation which over the centuries has led to substantial forest losses and environmental degradation.

The challenges of the alarming rate of deforestation and forest degradation remain serious.

Underlying causes of deforestation are complex and varied.

Globally, the loss of forests has mainly occurred in tropical and sub tropical regions, caused by the logging of hardwoods, clearance of forests for agriculture and collection of firewood.

Conversely, deforestation can contribute to land degradation and desertification.

In recent historic times, about 96 percent of the Coast Redwood forest was cut down, especially in a series of bursts of intense liquidation logging, clear cutting that took place in the 1970s through the early 1990s.

Despite the alarming rate of deforestation, new strategies have been implemented and are emerging to address this critical matter and to further our understanding of the underlying driving forces.

This encourages unsustainable practices, hampers financing for sustainable forest management and contributes to deforestation.

Another global consequence of deforestation is loss of biological diversity.

Measures taken to combat deforestation and forest degradation include the development and implementation of national forest programmes (and similar frameworks), management guidelines, financial encouragement, removal of perverse incentives for deforestation and public information campaigns.

The alarming rate of deforestation continues to warrant international attention and there is a need to renew the pledge to combat deforestation, restoring the forest functions in degraded landscapes and improve the livelihoods of poor people living in and around forests worldwide.

However, the alarming rate of deforestation continues to warrant international attention and there is a need to renew the pledge to combat deforestation and restore forest functions (such as production, protection and conservation) at the landscape level, by rehabilitating degraded lands with, inter alia, forest plantations, and to improve the livelihoods of poor people living in and around forests worldwide as a priority.

Also, there is evidence that combating deforestation stems the spread of harmful pathogens.

Large quantities of land, forest and farms are being cut and turned into charcoal.

The wide scale use of fuelwood in Africa is contributing to deforestation and soil erosion.

They're disappearing because some timber companies go in with clear cutting.

Despite substantial progress in the formulation and implementation of national forest policies, deforestation and forest degradation continue at an alarming rate.

Palm oil production is the leading cause of deforestation in Indonesia.

Deforestation in the Panama Canal basin is a matter of particular concern.

Approximately 40 per cent of the basin apos s 326,000 hectares have been deforested.

15. Africa has suffered the worst deforestation with its forest cover reduced to only 8 per cent of the total land area of the African continent.

Industrial logging has played an important role in the destruction of primary rain forests in Central Africa and South east Asia.

In order to reverse this trend, it will therefore be necessary to increase forest management and reafforestation and to control the most important factors contributing to forest loss (excessive tree felling, unsuitable planting practices and forest fires among others).

In many countries, causes of deforestation are related to more fundamental issues such as poverty.

Furthermore, it is reported that indigenous peoples are forced to work on clearing forest areas to prepare them for oil and gas exploration and transportation.

In addition, there should be emphasis on another key area of concern for the sector, besides deforestation and forest degradation, namely, the lack of recognition of indigenous peoples and communities that live in and depend on forests.

While forest biodiversity continues to decline as a result of deforestation, forest degradation and associated fragmentation of forest habitats, strong efforts are now being made to reverse this trend by restoring the forest functions in degraded forest landscapes.

Scenes of forest destruction, forest harvesting and forest fragmentation, thereby making that intact tapestry of the canopy unable to function in the marvelous ways that it has when it is not disturbed by humans.

Ngaido, T., McCarthy, N. and Di Gregorio, M., Workshop Summary Paper , International Conference on Policy and Institutional Options for Management of Rangelands in Dry Areas.

Despite some positive trends, there remains a need for continued action to combat deforestation and forest degradation in many countries.

Some point out, however, that deforestation and forest degradation continue to occur and that an effective legally binding agreement will improve international governance of forests.

We have the means already in our hands, through a structure, through a mechanism, called REDD Plus a scheme for the reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Address underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, including the need for the readjustment of financial flows and the reduction of consumption.

While deforestation and unsustainable management practices can lead to increased water pollution, sustainable forest management in watersheds can help to protect supplies of freshwater.

As a follow up to these regional and global events, 14 national workshops, to address the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, were organized in all continents.

On the other hand, inappropriate allocation of roles and responsibilities in forest management can result in negative impacts on people's livelihoods and contribute to deforestation and forest degradation.

In the last years of 1980's the annual deforestation rate was estimated at 0.8 and deforestation covered 120ha, whereas reforestation was only of about 4,000 ha year.

In the forest they're cutting trees again.

In Belize, for example, 17 logging concessions were recently granted by the Government to a foreign company to cut timber in forests where Maya people have always lived and relied on the forest for their subsistence.

In Sudan, between 1962 and 1980, fuelwood consumption contributed to 92 per cent of the 34,000 square kilometres of deforested areas.