JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, March 29 (UPI) -- Planting programs in China is slowing the rate of deforestation but the global rate is still high, a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said.
The FAO in its 2010 report on the rate of deforestation shows a steady decline each year during the past decade, though the rate "is still alarmingly high."
The "Global Forest Resources Assessment" showed around 13 million hectares of forest were lost to other uses or natural causes since 2000. During the 1990s, that figure was closer to 16 million hectares, the report said.
South America and the rest of Africa had the highest rate of deforestation for the assessment's reporting period with 7.4 million hectares lost.
Brazil and Indonesia reversed course from the 1990s and slowed their rate of deforestation "significantly." Asia showed a net gain of around 2.2 million hectares annually, the report said.
Programs to replant trees in China, Vietnam, India and the United States have added more than 7 million hectares of forest each year.
Forests store nearly 290 gigatons of carbon in their biomass and cover more than 30 percent of the world's land area.
The report reviewed forest information from 233 countries and areas.
