World Forests (WWF)
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WWF News Releases
94 PER CENT OF WORLD'S FORESTS UNPROTECTED
GENEVA, Switzerland -- Only 6 percent of the 3,300 million hectares of forests
left in the world today are formally protected, according to new data released
on Monday by WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature as delegates from 53 countries meet
in Geneva to discuss ways of halting forest destruction at the third session of
the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF).
The information gathered in the WWF World Forests Map, a digital overview of
the Earth's remaining forest cover produced with data from over 80 countries,
shows that only a very small fraction of the world's remaining forests has been
set aside for conservation within protected areas such as National Parks and
Nature Reserves.
"In many cases, the solutions to forest problems are obvious but governments
are refusing to act. What we need is a dramatic increase in the number of
legally protected forest areas as well as the controlled use of forests which
fall outside the protective boundary," said Francis Sullivan, Leader of WWF's
Forests for Life Campaign. "This issue must be the central theme of IPF if we
are to stop the continuing degradation of the world's remaining forests."
To identify forests under threat around the world, WWF -- in collaboration with
the UK-based World Conservation Monitoring Centre -- gathered national and
international forest data covering the last 20 years. The subsequent
integration of the information gathered allowed the resulting set of GIS
(Geographic Information Systems) maps to be accurate at an scale of 1:1,000,000.
The data analyzed shows that, for example, in the Brazilian Amazon there has
been a 34 percent increase in deforestation since 1992; an area equivalent to
the size of Belgium has been lost. Also, countries like Cambodia, Russia and
Cameroon, where large areas of forest still remain (many of them exploited by
commercial loggers), have yet to establish representative networks of protected
areas to ensure adequate protection for all their different types of forest.
"We now know that levels of forest protection are far below the internationally
accepted minimum of 10 percent of the world's forests. With this new map, we
can blow away the smokescreen which has hidden the truth about the state of the
world's forests for so long," said Mr. Sullivan. "At last, people can look and
see for themselves how few forests are protected and understand the need for
urgent action."
WWF is making available to the public a simplified version of the World Forests
Map over the Internet. This can be seen on the WWF Global Network Website (at
http://www.panda.org)
<*> Electronic and 35 mm colour slide reproductions of the World Forests
Map are available.
<*> 35 mm colour slide reproductions of national maps are also available
for the following 38 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bhutan,
Brazil, Cameroon, Canada (2 maps), Denmark East Africa, Ecuador,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia (3
maps), Italy, Japan, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia (2 maps), Nepal, New
Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Russian Federation (3 maps), South
Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United
States of America (3 maps), Venezuela, Vietnam and Zambia.
<*> The World Conservation Monitoring Centre is providing support to the
WWF Forest Programme in monitoring the conservation of the world's
forests. This work is part of the WWF "Forests for Life" Campaign. An
operational monitoring system is now being developed to monitor,
compile and distribute updated information on forests, protected areas
and other forest conservation measures.
Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature
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