The decline of the Earth’s forest cover, combined with the large increase in world population over the past 60 years, has resulted in a reduction of over 60% in per capita forest area on the planet, from 1.4 hectares (14 acres) in 1960 to 0.5 hectares (five acres) in 2019.
During the last 60 years the global forest area has decreased by 81.7 million hectares or 817 million acres (one hectare equals ten acres), which has led to a reduction of over 60% in global forest area per capita, according to a new international scientific study. Significant chronic loss threatens the future of forest biodiversity and affects the lives of an estimated 1.6 billion people.
The researchers, led by Dr Ronald Stock of the FFPRI Biodiversity, Climate Change and Forestry Research Center in Japan, who published the paper in the Journal of Environmental Research “Environmental Research Letters”analyzed data from 1960 to 2019 and found that during this period global forest losses (437.3 million hectares) far exceeded the total increase in forest area (355.6 million hectares).
THE reducing the Earth’s forest covercombined with the large increase in world population over the previous 60 years, has resulted a reduction of over 60% in per capita forest area on the planet, from 1.4 hectares (14 acres) in 1960 to 0.5 hectares (five acres) in 2019.
The researchers pointed out that “continued forest loss and degradation affect the integrity of forest ecosystems, reducing their ability to generate and provide essential services and conserve biodiversity. It also affects the lives of at least 1.6 billion people, mostly in developing countries, who depend on forests for a variety of reasons.”.
The study also confirmed that the observed changes in the spatiotemporal distribution of global forests supports the forest transition theory, according to which forest losses occur primarily in low-income countries in the tropics, while forest gains occur in higher-income countries in the extratropics.
Estok pointed out that “there is a vital need today to reverse, or at least flatten, the global net forest loss curve, through conservation of remaining forests and restoration of degraded forest landscapes».
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