UNCCD Releases Land Degradation Assessment Report

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on January 30 circulated a preliminary assessment report of land degradation at the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 17) of UNCCD in Georgetown, Guyana.

While the rate of deforestation has slowed down after 2005, forests continue to shrink.

Highlights

Tree-covered Areas

• The world’s dominant land class is still the tree-covered areas that include natural forests. Tree-covered areas account for 32.4 per cent of total land cover area reported by countries.
• Tree-covered areas have increased in Central and Eastern Europe, the Northern Mediterranean and Asia. Such areas have decreased in Latin American and Caribbean ....