Global Forest Resources Assessment is a report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The FRA 2020 has examined the status of, and trends in, more than 60 forest-related variables in 236 countries and territories in the period 1990–2020.
According to recent report estimates Africa had the largest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010–2020, at 3.9 mha, followed by South America, at 2.6 mha.
On the other hand, Asia had the highest net gain of forest area in 2010–2020, followed by Oceania and Europe.
The largest proportion of the world’s forests were tropical (45 per cent), followed by boreal, temperate and subtropical.
More than 54 per cent of the world’s forests were in only five countries the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China.
The highest per cent of plantation forests were in South America while the lowest were in Europe.
The highlights of the report are as follows
Forest area has declined all across the world in the past three decades.
The world lost 178 mha of forest since 1990, an area the size of Libya.
The rate of forest loss has also declined due to the growth of sustainable management.
The rate of forest loss in 2015-2020 declined to an estimated 10 million hectares (mha), down from 12 million hectares (mha) in 2010-2015.
The area of naturally regenerating forests worldwide decreased since 1990, but the area of planted forests increased by 123 mha.
The world’s total forest area was 4.06 billion hectares (bha), which was 31 per cent of the total land area, This area was equivalent to 0.52 ha per person.
