Geneva - The Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 examines the current status and recent trends covering the extent, condition, uses and values of forests and other wooded land, with the aim of assessing all benefits from forest resources.

Key findings include:

• Forests cover 31 % of total land area (4 billion hectares)
  
  
  
  


• Deforestation rate is dropping (from 16 million hectares cleared per year, down to 13 million hectares per year) but is still alarmingly high
  
  
  
  


• South America and Africa have the highest rates of net forest loss; however large-scale tree planting in some countries (like China) is reducing net forest loss significantly – with planted forests now accounting for 7% of total forest area
  
  
  
  


• Forests role as a vast store of carbon is clearly acknowledged (estimated at 289 gigatonnes of carbon)
  
  
  
  


• The significant role of forest’s ecosystems services (like water, wildlife habitat, erosion control, non timber forest products) is acknowledged but their real “value” remains underestimated
  
  
  
  


• 30% of the world’s forests (1.2 billion hectares) are primarily used for commercial wood and non-wood production and after a decrease in wood removals in the 1990s, annual removals have begun to increase – to 3.4 billion m2 annually, equivalent to 0.7% of total growing stock
  
  
  
  


• 80% of the worlds’ forests are publically owned and some progress in improving forest governance in some developing countries is evident
  
  
  
  


• More than 1.6 billion hectares of forests have some form of active management plan

The findings of this work and other important assessments and surveys underpin the activities of the WBCSD’s Sustainable Forest Products Industry project. The driving force behind the project is to find ways to sustainably manage forests to meet the needs of six billion people now – nine billion by 2050 – for wood and paper products, renewable and greenhouse neutral energy, ecosystem services and healthy livelihoods.

Deforestation and permanent loss of forest cover are significant global and personal concerns. Yet forest governance processes and policies are fragmented and not focused on the underlying causes: conversion to agriculture, population growth, poverty and urbanization. Stakeholder relations historically have been fragile, and fierce competition from non-wood substitute products and from other land uses such as agriculture often exploits the industry’s perceived weak sustainability performance.

Thus, the sustainable development challenge lies in balancing the expanding demand for forestry goods and services with enhancing ecological, landscape and social values, and building stakeholder confidence in the sustainable forest products industry.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization worked closely with countries and specialists in the design and implementation of 2010 Assessment - through regular contact, expert consultations, training for national correspondents and ten regional and subregional workshops. More than 900 contributors were involved, including 178 officially nominated national correspondents and their teams. The outcome is better data, a transparent reporting process and enhanced national capacity in developing countries for data analysis and reporting.

Information has been collated from 233 countries and territories for four points in time: 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010. The results are presented according to the seven thematic elements of sustainable forest management.

The main report will be released in October 2010 and will form the basis of forward forest policy analysis by organizations in the UN system, including The World Bank, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity, World Trade Organization, the UN Environment Programme and the UN Development Programme.

See www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/ for more information about the 2010 assessment