Healthy People Need Healthy Forests (PDF: 383KB)

by Jonathan Nash

(October 2001) Deforestation worldwide continues at a net rate of 9.4 million hectares a year, posing a serious threat to human communities and natural ecosystems at the outset of the 21st century.

Today, forests cover about 27 percent of the world's land area, compared to roughly 50 percent 10,000 years ago. In Europe and South America, forests extend over roughly half the land, compared to less than one-fourth in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Of the forested land that remains today, 55 percent is found in less developed countries.

During the 1990s, human activities resulted in the gross deforestation of an area roughly the size of Colombia and Ecuador combined (146 million hectares, or 563,709 square miles). During that same time period, 52 million hectares were regained due to reforestation efforts and natural regrowth. Rates of net deforestation (gross deforestation less reforestation, natural regrowth, and plantation growth) were highest in South America and Africa, while high rates of gross deforestation in Asia were offset by expanding forest plantations. In general, the 1990s saw forest cover expand in temperate less developed countries, decline in tropical less developed countries, and remain relatively stable in more developed countries.