India adding 300,000 hectares of forest every year: FAO report
03 Feb 2011
India is adding 300,000 hectares of forest every year even as the country along with China, Australia, Indonesia and Myanmar account for around 74 per cent of the world's forest cover, according to a UN report.
And there is reason to cheer, for global forest cover is increasing in the `International Year of Forests', according to the 'State of the World's Forests', a biennial report published by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
These five countries have the largest forest cover in the world with China and Australia alone accounting for almost half the forest area of the Asia Pacific region, according to the report.
Asia is leading the global afforestation activity, with a significant contribution, Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO's forestry director said on Wednesday.
"I would highlight India, which still has important population growth. The forests in India are growing at 300,000 hectare per annum," he said.
The Asia Pacific region, which has been losing forests cover at an average 0.7 million hectares a year in the 1990s, seems to have reversed the trend, recording annual growth rates of 1.4 million hectares in the 2000-2010 period.
