Now forests are of invaluable importance
to our environment and to the well-being,
they give us clean water to drink , air to
breathe , shade food to humans , animals and
plants in short forests are Central to
biodiversity in the fight against
climate change. but they are in critical
danger according to a 2022 report by the
United Nations food and agriculture
organization , forests cover almost a
third or 31 % of the global land area.
spanning some 4 billion hectares. now to
give you some perspective here, that is
close to the combined surface area of
Canada, Russia and the United States and
all 27 members of the European Union.
according to the organization more than
one-third of the forests are primary
Forest . basically these are
naturally regenerated forests of native
species . where there are no visible
indications of human activity and the
ecological process are not significantly
Disturbed . while only seven percent of
the world’s forests have been planted by
humans , moving on for us especially
rainforests are critical for biodivercity.
four-fifths of the world’s amphibian
species live in forests , as do three
quarters of bird species , 68 mammal
species , in many of the sixty thousand
kinds of trees found on Earth. while
three quarters of the fungi species,
two-thirds of the plant species , in
nearly half of the animal species
considered vulnerable endangered or
extinct are found in forests.
moreover forests typically act as carbon
sinks absorbing more carbon from the
atmosphere than the image . they contain
662 billion tons of carbon more than
half of all of the carbon found in soil
and vegetation. despite such benefits
deforestation and climate change have
had some impact on its function.
according to the UN body , even though the
rate of deforestation has slowed down, it
continues to occur at an alarming rate.
the organization says 10 million
hectares of forests were wiped out each
year between 2015 and 2020 . moreover the
losses were not compensated by
replanting a natural Forest expansion.
which is estimated at 5 million hectares
per year. the organization also warns
that they could start emitting carbon
rather than absorbing it if
deforestation is not halted. so there’s
an urgent need here of replanting in
better Forest management if we have to
save our planet.
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