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Economic prosperity and careful forest management had positive effects, according to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization.
Though the U.N. agency confirms on Tuesday that the United States and much of Europe have managed to reverse years of deforestation, showing a net increase in wooded areas, most of the developing countries are said to continue cutting down their trees.
With the poor or conflict-stricken countries still facing serious challenges in managing their wooded areas, clear-cutting and uncontrolled fires are adding to the severity. Killmann, a forestry expert at the agency said,
Deforestation continues at an unacceptable rate.
The cutting down of trees is about 32 million acres a year, though the net loss is found to have decreased over the last decade from 22 million acres to 17 million acres.
In the 1990s, there is an annual increase in forest area of 0.12 and 0.05 percent from 2000 to 2005 in the United States. This increase is accompanied by deforestation in Mexico, reporting a 0.52 percent decrease in the 1990s and a 0.40 percent in wooded areas’ decrease from 2000 to 2005.
There was no change in Canada’s forest area during those periods.
According to the report, the net increase in Europe was due to efforts made in Spain and Italy, which is followed by Bulgaria, France, Portugal and Greece.