Some good news today about the state of the world’s forests, it really seems that the messages about deforestation and the impact on natural habitats and carbon missions is at last poised to stem the tide of ruinous behaviour. Not as encouraging is the fact that their is still huge room for improvement particularly in tropical regions which as you know have been under the greatest stress in recent years.

According to a new report the global management of forests has improved significantly versus the same measurements taken five years ago according to a survey by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO). Regional and national legislation as seen the continued growth of sustainable management plans to better support forested regions by around 50% over that measured time period. Concerning however is the fact that more than 90% of tropical forest still lacks in suitable protection measurements. Globally the most encouraging improvements have been seen within Africa.

The study is quite comprehensive as the ITTO represents 60 member nations who collectively account for about 90% of the global trade in timber. The origins of the ITTO trace all the way back to 1976 when the body was formed following a United Nations study about the state of the global timber trade, from those early days the organisation which promotes conservation and sustainable management of our forests has grown rapidly over the following decades. The data in the report included information from 33 of the largest timber producing nations including Brazil and Indonesia.

Duncan Poore, one of the report’s authors explained:

“The top line is that the area under sustainable forest management has gone up from 36 to 53 million hectares in five years. That’s a substantial improvement, but there’s still a long way to go. Forests scheduled by ITTO members as permanent forest cover 760m hectares – so what’s under sustainable management is less than 10%, which is disappointing.”

The greatest progress in terms of forest protection was noted primarily in South America and Africa with great improvements shown in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela in the former plus important strides in Cameroon, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In all I feel that one really must consider what a small percentage of the total forested area had any protection whatsoever a generation ago to understand just how much progress has been made. Brazil, as ever, remains in the spotlight partly due to its remarkable plight and immense forests and while the report seems positive there have been recent concerns over a new growth in the deforestation within the Amazon basin according to new satellite images.
The report clarifies that the future holds continuing concern as more pressure mounts on forest clearance for both the raw materials to be harboured an the insatiable need to develop land for our growing population. Therefore the need for continued advances in sustainable management practices will be crucial if we are to protect the existing forests in the years to come.

Learn more about the ITTO by following this link.