World Forestry Day

World Forestry Day

By Dr Arvind Kumar

World Forestry Day is celebrated around the world on 21 March each year as people take time to consider the benefits of forests to the community - such as catchment protection, providing habitat for plants, areas for recreation, education and scientific study, and as a source of many products including timber and honey. World Forestry Day also aims to provide opportunities for people to learn how forests can be managed and used sustainably for these many purposes.

According to FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, the world's forest biodiversity is threatened by a high global rate of deforestation and forest degradation as well as a decline in primary forest area. In many countries, however, there is a continued positive trend towards the conservation of forestbiological diversity via dedicated conservation areas. Globally, around 13 million hectares (ha) of forests were converted to other uses (including agriculture) or were lost through natural causes each year between 2000 and 2010. That is down from around 16 million ha per year during the 1990s.

More than one-third of all forests are classified as primary —accounting for 36 percent (1.4 billion ha) of the world's forest area but their area has decreased by more than 40 million ha — at a rate of 0.4 percent annually — over the last ten years. South America accounted for the largest proportion of the loss in primary forests, followed by Africa and Asia. Other threats to forest biodiversity include unsustainable forest management, climate change, forest fires, insect pests and diseases, natural disasters and invasive species — all of which are causing severe damage in some countries. There is urgent need for greater investments in sustainable forest management to better conserve and manage forest biodiversity.