Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Sustainable development encompasses environmental, social and economic aspects. The goal deals with the losses of natural resources and the impact of the economy on the environment through the use of the environment as provider of materials (e.g. timber and non-timber products and energy resources) and as a provider of sink for pollutants (e.g. emissions of CO2, ozone depleting substances).

Target 9 - Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources

Changes in forest cover

Forests provide a number of functions, which are vital for mankind. These functions include the provision of goods, e.g. timber and non-timber products and the provision of services such as protection against flooding, habitat for bio-diversity, carbon sequestration, watershed protection and soil conservation. Large areas of the world’s forests have been converted to other uses or severely degraded. While substantial areas of productive forest remain, there is now widespread recognition that the resource is not infinite, and that its wise and sustainable use is needed for our survival. Initiatives to promote sustainable forest management have stimulated many countries to implement forest management plans.

Forest area provides an indication of the relative importance of a forest in a country and changes in forest area reflect the demand for land for other competitive uses. In the year 2000, the total forest area amounted to 3.9 billion hectares, of which 47 per cent were in the tropics. During the period 1990-2000, according to FAO, the decrease in tropical forest was 14.2 million hectares a year, 97 per cent of total deforestation. Over the same period, the world lost 4.2 per cent of its natural forests, but it gained 1.8 per cent through natural expansion and establishment of plantations, resulting in the net reduction of 2.4 per cent over the ten-year period. The estimated net loss during the decade was 9.4 million hectares per year, an area about the size of Portugal.

In the past deforestation was directly linked to population growth and shifting cultivation. In the last decade, although demand for agricultural land remains the major driving force leading to deforestation, other factors such as commercial logging, illegal and controlled, and the general level of economic development and urbanization, contributed.

Amount of gross and net changes in forest area, 1990 to 2000 (million hectares per year)

Source: FAO – Forest Resource Assessment 2000

* Deforestation indicates the conversion of forest to other land use or long term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10 per cent threshold.

** Increase in forest area includes afforestation, that is the establishment of forest plantations in non forested areas, and natural expansion of forests into previously non forested areas.