In the world, forests continue to decrease and the population to increase, with a trend that in 60 years has led to a 60% reduction in wooded areas for each inhabitant: from 1.4 hectares of forest per person in 1960 to just 0, 5 hectares in 2019. This is indicated by the estimates of international research coordinated by the Japanese Institute for Research on Forests and Forest Products and published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
In recent decades, the most developed part of the world has seen an increase, at times even decided, in wooded areas - in Italy, for example, they have grown by 18% in just 10 years - yet at a global level green areas are continuously growing. reduction.
Trying to take stock of what is happening on a planetary level is this new international study, which has collected data relating to the last 60 years.
The research has verified that, in the face of a forest growth of 355 million hectares, there has been a destruction of 437 million hectares.
A total loss of 81 million hectares, about 3 times the entire surface of Italy.
Perhaps one of the most alarming data comes from the combination of the data with those relating to the increase in the world population, which in the same period has increased from 3 billion people to almost 8. Consequently, over 60 years we observe a decrease in forest area per capita of more than 60%, from 1.4 hectares of forest available per person in 1960 to just 0.5 hectares in 2019. "The continuing loss and degradation of forests affects the integrity of forest ecosystems, reducing their ability to generate and provide essential services and support biodiversity ", explain the authors of the research, adding:" It also impacts the lives of at least 1.6 billion people around the world, mainly in developing countries of development,which depend on forests for various purposes ".
The destruction of forests occurs mainly in the poorest countries in tropical regions, "but - underlines Ronald Estoque, of the Research Institute on Forests and Forest Products and responsible for the study - the role of the more developed nations in this loss of forests must also be studied further. With the strengthening of forest conservation in more developed countries, forest loss is shifted to less developed countries. "
