UN: U.S., Europe Deforestation Reversed

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/mar/13/031305459.html

Europe and North America have reversed centuries of deforestation and are showing a net increase in wooded areas, while most developing countries continue to cut down their trees, a U.N. agency said Tuesday.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in its biannual report on the State of the World's Forests that economic prosperity and careful forest management had positive effects.

However, poor or conflict-stricken countries - where clear-cutting and uncontrolled fires are especially severe - still face serious challenges in managing their wooded areas, the agency said.

"Deforestation continues at an unacceptable rate" of about 32 million acres a year, said Wulf Killmann, a forestry expert at the agency. However, he noted in a positive sign that the net loss had decreased over the last decade from 22 million acres to 17 million acres.

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[phantom power]

1. Another example of exporting extraction?

Our wood products are made with wood from those developing countries. Kind of like how we exported our pollution to China, along with our manufacturing.

[jpak]

2. A lot of that wood is not exported to the US

Most of the wood used in the US comes from North America - not Africa, South America or Asia - and the US exports a lot of raw logs and pulp to Japan and China.

[Igel]

3. I heard a while back that deforestation in the US

was reversed. Years ago.

Problem is, if you google all you find are links to articles about how horrible deforestation in the US is ... 'deforestation' defined variously as 'reduction in primary growth' or 'loss of old growth forests'. By that measure, deforestation continues (of course, we'll leave aside controversial claims about forest farming by native Americans ... all those nut trees have to be there by natural means and the early descriptions of the forests have just gotta be wrong).

The best I can find to reconcile the enviro sites with what I heard long ago is a source I can't judge as credible or not:
"Change in Forest Cover: Between 1990 and 2000, United States of America gained an average of 364,600 hectares of forest per year. The amounts to an average annual reforestation rate of 0.12%. Between 2000 and 2005, the rate of forest change decreased by 56.9% to 0.05% per annum. In total, between 1990 and 2005, United States of America gained 1.5% of its forest cover, or around 4,441,000 hectares. United States of America lost -1,086,000 hectares—0—of its primary forest cover during that time. Deforestation rates of primary cover have decreased 1.0% since the close of the 1990s. Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-2005 interval, United States of America lost 0.8% of its forest and woodland habitat." http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/United_States_of_America.htm