Dense forests can serve as hideouts for insurgent groups or can be as a vital source of revenue for warring parties to sustain conflict. Known cases of forests as sites of rebel camps include Colombia where left-wing guerrillas have camps deep in the Amazonian forest and in mountainous forest areas.

Some of the most serious deforestation occurs when there are various commodity booms at the domestic and international levels. At such times farmers and large agribusiness enterprises clear forest areas to plant more profitable market crops such as sugar cane and soya beans. At the present time, the production of soya beans is reaching record levels, with world soya bean production in 2006 reaching about 222 million tonnes. Brazil is ...

The amount of deforestation in the Amazon region is increasing at an alarming rate. This graphic compares the amount of deforested areas in the Amazon region to region in Norway in order to show how much is being destroyed.

Water has long been associated with conflicts between neighbouring countries. This graphic shows how water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is used in Iraq, and that neighbouring Syria and Turkey influence the flow of this water. The graphic shows the locations of main dams, swamps and horticulture in the region. It also shows five of the major ways in which land is used in the region: forest and grazing land; rain-fed agriculture (grains, ve...

The Western part of the Eurasian continent, has some of the most populated and fertile parts of the World. Central Europe is densely populated, with few remaining fragments of undisturbed habitat, except for the mountain ranges. In the north - Scandinavia and Northern Russia, there is the taiga belt, with vast expanses of confierous forest, and further north, there is tundra and glaciers. Central Asia and Caucasus is a diverse region, with desert...

The Western part of the Eurasian continent, has some of the most populated and fertile parts of the World. Central Europe is densely populated, with few remaining fragments of undisturbed habitat, except for the mountain ranges. In the north - Scandinavia and Northern Russia, there is the taiga belt, with vast expanses of confierous forest, and further north, there is tundra and glaciers. Central Asia and Caucasus is a diverse region, with desert...

The information on the state of biodiversity from 22 Central and Eastern European and former Soviet countries was assembled on the occasion of the 5th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nairobi May 15-26, 2000. It is a collaborative effort of the ENRIN national focal points of UNEP-GRID. This graphic shows land use in Eastern European countries, specifically forest and woodlands.

The information on the state of biodiversity from 22 Central and Eastern European and former Soviet countries was assembled on the occasion of the 5th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nairobi May 15-26, 2000. It is a collaborative effort of the ENRIN national focal points of UNEP-GRID.

The information on the state of biodiversity from 22 Central and Eastern European and former Soviet countries was assembled on the occasion of the 5th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nairobi May 15-26, 2000. It is a collaborative effort of the ENRIN national focal points of UNEP-GRID. This graphic shows forest extent in Europe and Central Asia.

Multiple stresses make most of Africa highly vulnerable to environmental changes, and climate change is likely to increase this vulnerability. This graphic shows which of the regions of Africa (North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Islands) are most vulnerable to specific impacts of climate change. These impacts include desertification, sea level rise, reduced freshwater availability,...

Multiple stresses make most of Africa highly vulnerable to environmental changes, and climate change is likely to increase this vulnerability. This graphic shows which of the regions of Africa (North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Islands) are most vulnerable to specific impacts of climate change. These impacts include desertification, sea level rise, reduced freshwater availability,...

This graphic shows the location of the arctic tree line. Boreal forest occurs only to the south of the tree line (the dark green line on the graphic). The Arctic area, as defined by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), is limited by the orange line on the graphic.

This graphic shows the location of the arctic tree line. Boreal forest occurs only to the south of the tree line (the dark green line on the graphic). The Arctic area, as defined by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), is limited by the orange line on the graphic.

The impact of infrastructure development on reindeer potentially threatens the cultural traditions of the Barents region indigenous people and their chosen way of life. The probability of impact on wildlife, vegetation and ecosystems is related to distance to different types of infrastructure. The distance zones of impact are lowest in forest and highest in open tundra. The extent of the zones are based upon several hundred field studies from int...

Deforestation is well known for aggravating erosion. Bare soil has no protection against heavy rain, washing away immediately. On hillsides, it readily turns into mudslides leaving people very little time to seek refuge and cutting deep ravines into the earth. And where deforested land was turned into cultivated fields, the soil is likely to be overused and exploited through intensive use of fertiliser.

The graphic shows the protected areas of Albania, the proposed areas for protection and areas with endangered species. Albania is well known for its high diversity of ecosystems and habitats. Within its territory there are maritime ecosystems, coastal zones, lakes, rivers, evergreen and broadleaf bushes, broadleaf forests, pine forests, alpine and sub-alpine pastures and meadows, and high mountain ecosystems. It is rich in forest and pasture reso...

Forestry provides more than 8% of the GDP in some of the poorest countries. In most of the developing country production is consumed domestically, but for some countries forestry contributes significantly to total exports like in Liberia and the Central African Republic.

Glaciers and ice caps form around the world where snow deposited during the cold/humid season does not entirely melt during warm/dry times. This seasonal snow gradually becomes denser and transforms into perennial firn (rounded, well-bonded snow that is older than one year) and finally, after the air passages connecting the grains are closed off, into ice. The ice from such accumulation areas then flows under the influence of its own weight and t...

The Western part of the Eurasian continent, has some of the most populated and fertile parts of the World. Central Europe is densely populated, with few remaining fragments of undisturbed habitat, except for the mountain ranges. In the north - Scandinavia and Northern Russia, there is the taiga belt, with vast expanses of confierous forest, and further north, there is tundra and glaciers. Central Asia and Caucasus is a diverse region, with desert...

Deforestation is a key global environmental indicator. Many regions of the world are affected by deforestation: namely in South America (Brazil), Central Africa (Congo), Southeast Asia (Indonesia) and Eastern Europe.