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Forests – Facts and Figures
- 8,000 years ago, the Earth was covered by almost 15 billion acres
of forests. Today that has decreased to around 8 billion acres. 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).
- Making enough
paper for just one day’s edition of some newspapers can
use up to 3,600 plantation softwood trees. When you think how
many newspapers
are published around the world every day, that’s a lot
of forest needed! That’s why paper mills are using more
recycled fiber and more plantations are being established.
FAO, 1997.
WRI, UNEP, UNDP & The World Bank, 1998.
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