Asia leading the way in reforestation
Posted by DavidM in Climate change | 23 February 2011
We hear lots of bad news about the continued destruction of rainforests and other green areas around the world. The world's forests are estimated to be shrinking by 52,000km2 every year. That's a huge area that will take a long time - if ever - to be replaced.
Amongst all this bad news, I saw a positive story today. Catching up The Week I saw a short story about Asia's efforts at reforestation leading the world. China and India in partcular have boasted a small net gain in forest cover over the last decade, overtaking Europe as the biggest percentage increase.
According to the State of the World's Forests report by the UN's Food and Agriculture organisation, China increased it's forests by 30,000km2 as part of a tree-planting initiative started in the 1980s.
I haven't seen any details on the quality of the forest, and of course planting trees is only the start of a forest eco-system. Though this reforestation will take time to become the sustainable carbon-sinks we are losing elsewhere, it is at least movement in the right direction and an example to the rest of the world that two of the fastest developing natiions are also the best at reforestation.
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