FORESTS are dwindling much more slowly than they were 10 years ago, the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organization told Forestry officials from around the world
in Rome this week. But critics say the FAO’s numbers are misleading.
The FAO has assessed the world’s forests every 10 years since 1950 and its
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, published this week, suggests that the
rate of total global forest loss has slowed since 1990, from 11 million to 9
million hectares a year.
But Emily Matthews of the World Resources Institute, a think tank based in
Washington DC, disputes the figures. The…
