Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
By 2008, deforestation in Africa was estimated to be occurring at twice the world average rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). [5] [6] [7] Some sources claim that deforestation has already wiped out roughly 90% of West Africa's original forests. [8] [9] Today, deforestation is accelerating in Central Africa. [10]
In contrast, most forest degradation – two-thirds of it – occurs in temperate countries. Centuries ago it was mainly temperate regions that were driving global deforestation [we take a look at this longer history of deforestation in a related article]. They cut down their forests and replaced it with agricultural land long ago.
In 2005, Nigeria had the highest rate of deforestation in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). [6] Deforestation in Nigeria is caused by logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of wood for fuel. According to the gfy, deforestation has wiped out nearly 90% of Africa's forest.
Forests currently cover around 45% of the country’s total land area, but deforestation is an increasingly pressing issue, resulting in forests disappearing quickly. The rate of deforestation in the country accelerated to 327,000 ha per year (1.9%) during the years 2000 and 2010 and is also currently the highest in Southern Africa. [2]
Changes in forest area (like deforestation) may follow a pattern suggested by the forest transition (FT) theory, [9] whereby at early stages in its development a country is characterized by high forest cover and low deforestation rates (HFLD countries). [10] Then deforestation rates accelerate (HFHD, high forest cover – high deforestation ...
Apart from Northern Africa, East African countries show the second highest decline rates of conservation forests in the continent. In a forest resource assessment of Ethiopia, Reusing found that within 17 years (1973–1990) high-forest cover decreased from 54,410 to 45,055 km² or from 4.72 to 3.96% of the land area. [ 5 ]
With annual forest loss of 0.3% during the 2000s, [5] the region had the lowest deforestation rate of any major tropical forest zone. [6] From 2015 to 2019, the rate of deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo doubled. [7] In 2021, deforestation of the Congolese rainforest increased by 5%. [8]
During the last two decades of the 21st century, Kenya's rate of deforestation has remained consistent. The first decade of the century experienced 2,914.55 hectares in a primary forest lost and 19,401 hectares lost in tree cover while the second decade of the century has experienced a total of 2,099.74 hectares lost in primary forest and 17,167 hectares lost in tree cover.