Report: Illegal Logging Down in Asia-Pacific

[geovalin]

BRUNEI DARUSSALAM - More than 3.32 million hectares of forest were lost in the Asia-Pacific region between 1990 and 2010, but an additional five million hectares of forest have been created since 2010, according to officials at a rainforest summit in Brunei. At the 2nd Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit yesterday, government officials and NGO experts convened to discuss rainforests in Asia and efforts to sustain them against the copious amount of deforestation seen in recent years.
 

Dato Seri Setia Haji Ali bin Haji Apong, the Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism for Brunei, said deforestation and the degradation of the region’s forest cover was an important challenge many countries have to face. But things are looking up, according to the 2015 Global Forest Resource Assessment. The report found that of the 723 million hectares of forest cover in the Asia-Pacific region, representing 18 percent of the entire world’s forests, more than 20 million hectares had been created since 2000.
 

Mr. Haji Ali said the growth in forest cover was a positive development for the region and showed that the increase in protected areas was having an effect on deforestation. “However, despite the increase in the region’s forests, [we] still noted that deforestation and forest degradation remain an important challenge in many countries,” Mr. Haji Ali said.

 

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