![]() Plantation forests are one method of reforestation/ afforestation that has become increasingly popular since the 1990s. This pattern is due to the regeneration abilities of forests, as well as a conscious global effort to reduce deforestation. In the 1990s the world was losing 7.8 million ha of area per year, but in the 2000s this rate slowed to 5.2 million ha, and in the 2010s it shrank even further (down to 4.7 million). Since 1990, the world has lost 178 million ha of forest (an area roughly the size of Libya).įorest Cover Remediation Tactics Īlthough global forest area is decreasing, the rate at which we are losing trees has slowed. Since the onset of agriculture (about 12,000 years ago), the number of trees worldwide has dropped by 46%. However, forest cover is severely threatened by deforestation, as a direct consequence of agriculture, grazing, and mining. Maintaining the size, continuity, and biodiversity of the world's forests is crucial for human health and prosperity. Tropical forests especially act as one of the world's largest carbon sinks, accumulating atmospheric carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and thus mitigating climate change. ![]() The World Health Organization has compiled a list of ecological goods and services that depend on forests and without which humans could not survive, including: flood and drought mitigation, water purification, erosion control, and disease reduction. Tropical rainforests and boreal coniferous forests are the least fragmented, whereas subtropical dry forest and temperate oceanic forests are among the most fragmented.Įcological Impacts Benefits of Forest Cover The remaining 20% is located in more than 34 million patches across the world with the vast majority being less than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) in size. Roughly 80% of the world's forest area is found in patches larger than 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres). Almost half of global forest cover (49%) is relatively continuous, while 9% is found in fragments with little to no connectivity. The temperate/subtropical zone, located between the tropical and the boreal, contains 25%. The boreal zone, which includes Russia and the Arctic, contains the second largest amount of forest (33%). Most of the world's forest cover (45%) is found in the tropics, which is defined by high temperature and humidity. There are four types of forest biomes: tropical, temperate, subtropical, and boreal. ![]() Variation in Forest Ecosystems įorests are found throughout the world on a spatial scale determined by temperature and precipitation. The small African nation of Gabon, while only containing 0.58% of the world's forest cover, has the largest forest-to-land ratio of any country (91.3%). The other four countries all house more than 100 million hectares of forest each. Russia has the largest forest area in the world, at 815 million hectares (a fifth of global forest cover). More than half (54%) of the world's forests are found in only five countries ( Brazil, Canada, China, Russia and the United States). More than one-third of the world's forest cover is primary forest: naturally regenerated forests with native species and no visible indication of human activity. Global Patterns Forest Cover By The Numbers Īccording to the FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, the world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares (10.0 billion acres), which is 31% of the total land area. ![]() Forests provide many ecosystem services that humans and animals cannot survive without, but anthropogenic actions and climate change are threatening global forest cover in potentially irreversible ways. Nearly a third of the world's land surface is covered with forest, with closed-canopy forest accounting for 4 - 5 billion hectares of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/ square miles). Forest cover is the amount of forest that covers a particular area of land. ![]()
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