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Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

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Topic: Global Forest Resources Assessment Report - 2020

Why in News?

• Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 has been released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
• It provides essential information for understanding the extent of forest resources, their condition, management and uses.

Global Findings

• The world has lost 178 million ha of forest since 1990, which is an area about the size of Libya.
• The top 10 countries that have recorded the maximum average annual net gains in forest area during 2010-2020 are China, Australia, India, Chile, Vietnam, Turkey, the United States, France, Italy and Romania.
• The Asian continent reported the highest net gain in forest area in 2010-2020. It recorded 1.17 million hectares (ha) per year net increase in forests in the last decade.
• South Asia sub-region reported net forest losses during 1990-2020. But, this decline would have been much higher without the net gain in India’s forest during this period.
• Africa has the largest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010-2020, at 3.9 million hectares, followed by South America, at 2.6 million hectares.
• Since 1990 an estimated 420 million ha of forest has been lost worldwide through deforestation, conversion of forest to other land use such as agriculture. However, the rate of forest loss has declined substantially.
• In the most recent five-year period (2015-2020), the annual rate of deforestation was estimated at 10 million hectares, down from 12 million hectares in 2010-2015 and 16 million hectares in 1990-2000.

Data for India

• India has ranked third among the top 10 countries that have gained in forest areas in the last decade
• India accounts for two per cent of total global forest area.
• India reported 0.38 per cent annual gain in forest, or 266,000 ha of forest increase every year at an average. The FRA 2020 has credited the government’s Joint Forest Management programme for the significant increase in community-managed forest areas in the Asian continent.
• India has been taking up massive afforestation and plantation schemes. During 201020, the rate of increase in naturally regenerating forest was just 0.38 per cent.
• Globally, 12.5 million people were employed in the forestry sector. Out of this, India accounted for 6.23 million, or nearly 50 per cent.

Threat to Forests

• Forests face many disturbances that can adversely affect their health and vitality and reduce their ability to provide a full range of goods and ecosystem services.
• About 98 million ha of forest were affected by fire in 2015; this was mainly in the tropical domain, where fire burned about 4 percent of the total forest area in that year.
• More than two-thirds of the total forest area affected was in Africa and South America.
• Insects, diseases and severe weather events damaged about 40 million ha of forests in 2015, mainly in the temperate and boreal domain.

FAO and FRA

• FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security.
• FRA is the mechanism for collecting data on two forest-related indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which the United Nations General Assembly adopted in 2015. Specifically, data submitted to FRA contribute to reporting on SDG indicator 15.1.1 (forest area as a proportion of total land area in 2015) and indicator 15.2.1 (progress towards sustainable forest management).
• Forests are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda.