What has been the loss in forest cover in tropic and temperate regions so far?
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Answer:
The world's forest resources are still substantial. In 1980, their total area was about 3 600 million hectares. In addition, there were 1 700 million hectares of wooded lands not classified as forests. In all, about 40 percent of the world's land surface is still under some type of tree cover.
But despite the immense size of this resource, there is ample reason for concern. The estimated rate of forest depletion in the tropical zone in the decade 1981 to 1990 was 15.4 million hectares per year, significantly greater than the annual depletion of 11.4 million hectares assessed in the decade 1971 to 1980. In addition, there has been severe forest degradation over a very large area, perhaps even larger than the area of forest depletion.
There are, however, major differences in the rates of forest depletion in different parts of the world. The area of the temperate and boreal forests has now broadly stabilized. It is the tropical f