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Forests
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introduction
Half of the forests that originally covered 46% of the Earth's land surface are gone. Only one-fifth of the Earth's original forests remain pristine and undisturbed.
In North America, 56% of the coastal temperate rainforests, once extending from California to Alaska, have been destroyed.
Latin American Forests are being lost at alarming rates. The rate of forest loss in Mexico is estimated at 600,000 to 2.5 million acres per year. The lush forests that blanketed half of Panama at mid-century may cover only 10% of the country by the year 2000.
Natural Resources Defense Council (? / RAN)
Forests cover about a quarter of the world's land surface, excluding Greenland and Antarctica. Global forest cover has been reduced by 20 percent since pre-agricultural times, and possibly as much as 50 percent. Forest area has increased slightly since 1980 in industrial countries, but has declined by almost 10 percent in developing countries. Tropical deforestation probably exceeds 130,000 square kilometers a year. Less than 40 percent of forests globally are relatively undisturbed by human action.
World Resources Institute
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