Sarawak
Forest, Borneo, Malaysia
Ten hectares of the world’s forests are destroyed every minute, amounting
to 4.9 million hectares a year. Between 1990 and 2005, 72.9 million hectares
of forest vanished. Forests cover a total surface area of 3.69 billion
hectares, or 30% of the Earth’s land mass.
These are the latest figures published by the FAO on 30 November 2011, which also reveal that the rate of net loss of forested land is speeding up, rising from 4.1 million hectares between 1990 and 2000 to 6.4 million hectares between 2000 and 2005.
These are the latest figures published by the FAO on 30 November 2011, which also reveal that the rate of net loss of forested land is speeding up, rising from 4.1 million hectares between 1990 and 2000 to 6.4 million hectares between 2000 and 2005.
Forests and humid areas help to collect and store water, reducing floods in periods of heavy rain and keeping water reserves topped up during the driest seasons.
Some forests depend on underground water sources for their survival and rely on humid areas to replenish them.
There are no clear borders between the two ecosystems: many forests are located within humid areas and spring up along water courses.
Forests play an important role in water management, and control soil erosion and pollution; poor management of forests and humid areas therefore has negative repercussions on water quality and biodiversity.
Forests also play a very important role in mitigating climate change as they absorb tonnes of carbon dioxide and release large amounts of oxygen during photosynthesis. Each tree produces an average of 20-30 litres of oxygen a day.
Decreasing the rate of deforestation and creating new forests thus helps to reduce the high level of carbon emissions caused by the very processes of deforestation and forest degradation.
More details:
http://www.unece.org/forests/welcome.html
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Image Terra MODIS, courtesy of Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC, acquired on 16 January 2010.
Sarawak Forest is the setting for some of the fictional adventures of Sandokan, a character created by Italian author Emilio Salgari. Confirmation that forests, especially those in tropical areas such as Indonesia and Malaysia, are cloud factories is given by the observation difficulties faced by optical satellites, which are unable to penetrate continuously cloudy skies.
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image: Sarawak Forest, Borneo, Malaysia
Image Terra MODIS, courtesy of Jacques Descloitres,
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC, acquired on 16January 2010.
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