AROUND 11 MILLION HECTARES OF FOREST DISAPPEAR EVERY YEAR

ROME, SEPTEMBER 15 /SRNA – RIA Novosti/ – Over the past decade, an average of nearly 11 million hectares of forest have disappeared globally each year, while deforestation and degradation have threatened biodiversity and access to food, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation /FAO/ said.

Forests and trees play a vital role in ensuring food security and proper nutrition. More than five billion people worldwide depend to some extent on forests for their livelihoods, while around 1.8 billion use wood for food preparation. The FAO notes that more than 50,000 species of wild animals and plants are used for food, medicine and other purposes, with at least 10,000 species being used directly as food. In some forest-dependent communities, forest products provide as much as 80 percent of daily protein intake. Forest watersheds provide drinking water to more than 85 percent of the world’s major cities and support agriculture, livestock farming and fisheries through water regulation, soil protection, pollination and biodiversity conservation.