Forests once covered half of the Earth’s landmass. Now they cover less than one tenth. The UN has declared 2011 the International Year of Forests to better protect the planet’s lungs.
Tree lovers are no starry-eyed fools. Forests regulate the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the climate that shapes our lives.
Forests also provide more than one in six humans with a living as part of a 270 billion dollar-a-year industry. By protecting trees we also protect ourselves.
Unfortunately, most of us are not true tree lovers. We treat trees as products or obstructions to economic progress.
Therefore we destroy 130,000 square kilometers of the world's forests every year, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Conversion to agricultural land, timber production, and urbanization are the main culprits.
Meanwhile more frequent fires and outbreaks of pests and diseases are turning some forests from carbon sinks into sources of carbon emissions. Deforestation now accounts for around 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
And so the United Nations will spend 2011 stressing that forests must be conserved or managed sustainably for future generations, not just slashed and burned for short-term gain.
http://knowledge.allianz.com/?915/agenda-2011-the-year-of-forests
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