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Forests – Facts and Figures
- 8,000 years ago, the Earth was covered by about 6 billion
hectares of forests. Today that has decreased to about 3.5 billion
hectares. Most of this clearing of forests, mainly for agricultural
and development purposes, has occurred in the last 50 years.
- Tropical
forests contain 70% of the world's vascular plants (like trees,
shrubs, grasses, flowers and ferns), 30% of all bird species and
90% of all invertebrates (like insects and spiders).
FAO, 1997.
WRI, UNEP, UNDP & The World Bank, 1998.
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