UN Declares 2011 the 'International Year of Forests'

UNITED NATIONS -- Some 380 million years after the first trees grew on Earth, the United Nations today declared 2011 to be the "International Year of Forests," saying that forests and the 1.6 billion people who depend on them for their livelihood need to be protected.

"Each minute that we spend on this planet breathing in and breathing out, about 25 hectares [62 acres] of forests are lost," Joseph Deiss, president of the U.N. General Assembly, said at the global launch of the event. "Ultimately, as history reminds us, in the past, entire civilizations collapse due to deforestation."

There are 1 billion hectares of degraded forest land and half a billion hectares of degraded crop land. Plants and animal species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, according to the U.N., but there have also been some positive developments.

For instance, 5.2 million hectares of forest cover disappeared in the past decade, compared with 8.3 million hectares in the 1990s, which is a 37 percent decline in net global deforestation.

"Greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation account for more than those by the world's entire transportation sector," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a video message.

The most progress in preventing deforestation has been made in Asia and the least in Latin America, according to experts. Within Asia, China is responsible for the afforestation of 3 million hectares out of a total of 5 million hectares in the world.

"We still are in a half-empty glass but there is progress," said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, forestry director at the Food and Agriculture Organization. "The Latin America region is the one that brings this half-empty glass."

The yearlong message the U.N. intends to drive home is that forests and their inhabitants don't work against each other, but are allies.

"If you don't deal with the people's issues then you are unlikely to reach the environmental objectives," said Jan McAlpine, director of the U.N. Forum on Forests.

It is estimated the contribution of forests to 1.6 billion people is equivalent to $130 billion, which is the amount industrialized countries give in development assistance every year.

Forests had almost disappeared in the Shinyanga region of Tanzania, where people were suffering from high levels of poverty, according to Stewart Maginnis, head of the forest management program at International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Maginnis described how recent "restoration approaches" by the government and communities have led to restoration of half a million hectares of forests and 0.15 million hectares of agricultural land.

"Those communities almost doubled the household income they received from the forests," he said.

Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, noted that professionals could also find work in area of forest management and conservation.

"A lot of graduates can be employed at that level," she said, pointing out that the Green Belt Movement, which she started in Africa to conserve trees and improve women's rights, benefited from scientific expertise.

Rwanda is being hailed as country that is forging ahead to repair its lost soil, land and water.

"Ecosystem restoration is not about planting trees only, but it's ensuring that you establish the balance that ought to be between human livelihood and the environment they live in," said Stanislas Kimanzi, the Rwandan minister for environment.

In the landmark agreement on biodiversity signed in Nagoya, Japan, last year, 193 countries committed to restoring 15 percent of degraded ecosystems by 2020. While several nations have yet to come up with a game plan, Rwanda is expected to exceed its target.

The Nagoya agreement also has the target of protecting 17 percent of the world's land surface and 10 percent of the oceans, and preventing the extinction of known threatened species by 2020.

Today, the U.N. opened for signing a treaty that aims to guarantee equitable sharing of genetic resources. It ensures, for instance, that countries with vast genetic resources from plants benefit when that resource is converted into a commercial product that helps the world.

"It is a partnership between the user of biodiversity and the owner of biodiversity," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the head of the U.N. body on biodiversity.

Colombia, Algeria, Brazil and Yemen were the first to sign onto the treaty, which needs 50 ratifications to come into force.