F
orests and forest management have changed substantially over the past 25 years. overall, this period has seen a series of positive results. even though, globally, the extent of the world’s forest continues to decline as human populations continue to grow and demand for food and land increases, the rate of net forest loss has been cut by over 50 percent. at the same time, the attention paid to sustainable forest management has never been higher: more land is designated as permanent forest, more measurement, monitoring, reporting, planning and stakeholder involvement is taking place, and the legal framework for sustaining forest management is nearly universal. larger areas are being designated for conservation of biodiversity at the same time as forests are meeting increasing demand for forest products and services.
here was a net loss of some 129 million ha of forest (natural and planted) from 1990 to 2015, representing an annual rate of –0.13 percent and a total area about the size of south africa. still, this should be understood in context: the net annual rate of loss has slowed from –0.18 percent in the 1990s to –0.08 over the last fiveyear period. between 2010 and 2015 there was an annual loss of 7.6 million ha and an annual gain of 4.3 million ha per year, resulting in a net annual decrease in forest area of 3.3 million ha per year.