Deforestation

Combating deforestation and forest degradation

Forests have deteriorated, due to illegal harvesting and encroachment for agriculture and settlement.13

The illegal exploitation of Somali forests has had a tremendous negative environmental impact.

Forest area cleared (thousands of hectares)

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.

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.

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.

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

Workshop on Rehabilitation of Logged over Forest in Asia Pacific Region sub project III jointly orgariized by Japan

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.

4. The Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture had adopted measures to prohibit the felling of woodlands, require 20 per cent of surface area to be planted with new woodlands, regulate the campaign against forest fires and prohibit the hunting of wild birds.

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

(f) Illegal logging and associated trade in forest products

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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).

Underlying causes of deforestation are complex and varied.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

It observes that the regeneration fellings (300 hectares) in the Angeli area constitute 0.8 per cent and the thinning logging operations (200 hectares) constitute 0.5 per cent of the forest, administered by the Muotkatunturi Herdsmen's Committee.

Eighteen percent of our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide is the result of deforestation.

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.

Conversely, deforestation can contribute to land degradation and desertification.

Another global consequence of deforestation is loss of biological diversity.

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.

There may be scope to improve revenue collection by raising fees and royalties from timber harvesting and other uses of the forest.

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.

And a recent World Bank funded study concluded that if the new current forest harvesting rate is allowed to continue by way of new concessions and illegal logging, Cambodian forests will be essentially depleted within five years.

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.

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

And they're doing a pretty good job there in the forest, working all the byproduct of their industry with OSB and particle board and so forth and so on but it does no good to be responsible at the point of harvest in the forest if consumers are wasting the harvest at the point of consumption, and that's what's happening.

And he's brought the internet and satellite technology to the forest both so that people themselves could monitor the deforestation, but also that he could speak from the forest to the rest of the world.

Each Party included in Annex I shall report, in accordance with Article 7, on how harvesting or forest disturbance that is followed by the re establishment of a forest is distinguished from deforestation.

Article 1 of the Covenant

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