Forests cover about 30% of the world’s land area, providing vital habitat for a wide range of flora and fauna. However, deforestation continues at an alarming rate due to human activities like logging, agriculture, and infrastructure development. This raises an important question: how many forests do we have left?
What is a forest?
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent. Forests can be further classified as primary, secondary, planted, and degraded:
- Primary forests are untouched and in their original condition.
- Secondary forests are regenerated forests after significant human or natural disturbance.
- Planted forests are established by planting or seeding.
- Degraded forests have lost their structure, function, species composition, and productivity due to human activities.
Global forest area
According to the FAO’s 2020 Global Forest Resources Assessment, the world has about 4.06 billion hectares of forest. This represents 31% of the total land area. Only about 11% of this forest area consists of primary forests. Here is a breakdown of global forest area by continent:
| Continent | Total forest area (million hectares) |
|---|---|
| Africa | 677 |
| Asia | 611 |
| Europe | 1,016 |
| North and Central America | 704 |
| Oceania | 191 |
| South America | 864 |
The top 5 countries with the largest forest area are Russia, Brazil, Canada, United States, and China. Together, they account for over half of the world’s forests.
Forest loss
Despite making up 31% of total land area, the world’s forest cover is decreasing at an alarming rate. Each year, about 10 million hectares of forest are lost through deforestation. Between 2015-2020, the world lost around 90 million hectares of forest. Here are some key drivers of deforestation:
- Agriculture – Conversion of forests into agricultural land for crops and cattle grazing. Accounts for over 80% of deforestation.
- Logging – Cutting down trees for timber and paper products.
- Infrastructure – Building roads, settlements and other infrastructure.
- Mining – Clearing forests for mining activity.
- Wildfires – Forest wildfires exacerbated by climate change.
- Urbanization – Expansion of cities into forest areas.
Tropical rainforests like the Amazon are especially vulnerable. For example, about 10,000 square kilometers of rainforest was lost in the Amazon biome in 2020 alone. Primary forests are declining rapidly too. There was a 5% decrease in primary forest area worldwide between 2000-2020, equal to over 80 million hectares of loss.
Forest loss by continent
Here is a look at net forest area change between 2015-2020 by continent (in million hectares):
| Continent | Net forest area change (million hectares) |
|---|---|
| Africa | -3.94 |
| Asia | -2.6 |
| Europe | 0.64 |
| North and Central America | -2.6 |
| Oceania | -0.65 |
| South America | -4.85 |
South America and Africa experienced the highest rates of deforestation in the past five years. Asia, North America and Oceania also had significant forest loss.
Conservation efforts
To counter deforestation, many countries and organizations are taking efforts to conserve, sustainably manage and restore forests. These include:
- Establishing protected areas and limiting deforestation in old-growth and primary forests.
- Promoting agroforestry and shade-grown commodities to limit clearing for plantations.
- Implementing certification schemes for sustainably harvested wood products.
- Curbing illegal logging and improving forest governance.
- Supporting indigenous communities to protect their forests.
- Planting trees through reforestation and afforestation projects.
- Improving forest fire prevention and control measures.
- Providing financing to developing countries for forest conservation efforts.
International accords like REDD+ and the New York Declaration on Forests also aim to slow deforestation through global cooperation and action.
REDD+
REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is a UN program that provides incentives for developing countries to preserve existing forests and restore degraded lands. By tying financial incentives to forest protection, REDD+ helps combat drivers of deforestation while delivering benefits like biodiversity conservation and support for forest communities.
New York Declaration on Forests
The New York Declaration on Forests is a voluntary commitment by countries, companies and indigenous communities to halve natural forest loss by 2020, end it by 2030, and restore hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded land. 190 entities have endorsed it so far. The declaration helps catalyze partnerships, finance flows, and policy changes to avoid deforestation globally.
Forest outlook
The FAO estimates that from 2020 to 2030, deforestation will continue across almost 50 million hectares of tropical forests. However, reforestation efforts and natural expansion of forests into abandoned agricultural lands could regenerate over 110 million hectares in the same period. So, the overall outlook till 2030 is a potential net increase in global forest cover if conservation efforts are ramped up. Afforestation and landscape restoration projects also have huge potential for adding tree cover and producing forests.
More ambitious international cooperation and policy action is needed to protect remaining old-growth forests, curb agricultural expansion and logging, and invest in large-scale ecosystem restoration. Partnerships with forest communities and indigenous people will also be key. Technology like satellite monitoring and drones can support these efforts. Overall, a holistic approach is required to steer the world towards the right forest transition.
Conclusion
About 31%, or 4 billion hectares, of the world’s land area is still under forest cover. However, deforestation continues at pace due to human activities, especially in the tropics. The drivers of forest loss must be addressed, and conservation efforts scaled up, to protect remaining forests. While the situation is urgent, the outlook for forests can be turned around through global cooperation and political will. The world’s forest ecosystems, which play vital roles for biodiversity, climate and human well-being, can be preserved and restored if we take the right actions now.