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The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) estimates that the accelerating rate of deforestation which has taken place over the last century has contributed to reducing the abundance of forest species by more than 30 per cent. The rate of species loss in forest regions is considerably faster than in other ecosystems. Between now and 2050, it is projected that there will be a further 38 per cent loss in abundance of forest species (UN...

Rising temperatures force many living organisms to migrate to cooler areas, while new organisms arrive. Such movements involve all species, including plants. Some species will seek higher altitudes, others will move further polewards. In temperate regions, plant and tree species can migrate naturally by 25 to 40 kilometres a century. However if, for example, there was a 3°C increase in temperature over a hundred year period in a partic...

Southeast Asia, containing the world’s third largest tropical forests, is experiencing deforestation rates higher than almost anywhere else on Earth. The region’s forests and animals living in the forest are endangered by defragmentation and conversion to agriculture or other land uses, such as oil palm plantations and logging.

2050. Global climate change has already contributed to rising temperatures in the Amazon which, when combined with deforestation, have led to a cycle of lower precipitation and a greater frequency of droughts. Researchers at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research say that the Amazon could reach a tipping point – the point at which deforestation and climate change combine to trigger self-sustaining desertification – in 50-60 yea...

Forest fragmentation can jeopardize the long-term health and vitality of the forest ecosystem. Forest fragmentation can also result in species loss as the size of a forest becomes too small to support a viable population of a certain plant or animal species, or if migratory routes and corridors cease to exist.

Animals living in the forest are also at risk from poaching and bush-meat hunting. Intelligence gathering, regular mo - n itoring and strict enforcement are effective ways of curtailing both illegal logging and poaching activities in forests. The participation of local communities in these activities can facilitate implementation of laws and regulations and secure sustainability. Customs enforcement also plays a critical role in contro...

Even though forests are often very important to households, there is surprisingly little knowledge on the actual level of household forest income and the role of such income in maintaining livelihoods. The evidence regarding the role of forests in allowing households to move out of poverty is scant and mixed; there are examples indicating that income from forests allows households to accumulate assets and escape poverty. However, by wa...

Conversion to agriculture, including the recent expansion in the area devoted to oil palm plantations, continues to be the main cause of forest loss in Southeast Asia.

835 ha of forest disappear every hour, the equivalent of 1140 football pitches.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) there are at present just under 4 billion hectares of forest in the world, covering in all about 30 per cent of the world’s land area (FAO 2006a).

Carbon stocks in land based ecosystems are distributed irregularly between tropical and northern latitudes but are mostly concentrated in forest ecosystems and wetlands. Recent research suggests tropical forests play an even more important role in absorbing carbon than previously thought, taking up 1 Gt of carbon every year, or about 40 per cent of the total for land based absorption (Britton et al. 2007).

The net change in forest area (loss and gain) describes the sum of all changes in forest area over a specific period of time (including reductions due to deforestation and disasters, and increases due to afforestation and expansion of forests during the period).