[lbo-talk] Forests resurgent

[Somebody Somebody]

It seems like this is an area where the Brits (and most of Europe, apparently) differ with the United States. U.S. forest cover was pretty stable over the course of the 20th century, but has apparently declined over the last decade quite substantially. According to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, satellite data indicates that 6% of U.S. forest cover was lost in just the five year span from 2000 - 2005, which seems extraordinary. Brazil, Russia, and Canada all lost more gross forest cover, but their declines were smaller proportionately, given that those countries have vast expanses of forest. On the other hand, Europe lost little forest cover over the same period.

As for Africa, the authors write: "Africa has the lowest proportional GFCL of 0.4%, reflecting a lower overall use of forests for commercial development... Compared with other more politically and economically stable humid tropical forest regions, Central Africa has a considerably lower rate of GFCL because of less investment in infrastructure and commercial agro-industrial development." 

In other words, Africa could use *more* deforestation, and hopefully will someday get it once some of it's nations enter the take-off phase of industrialization being experienced in much of Asia currently. On the other hand, perhaps the U.S. and Canada could do more to both promote a new wave of industrial and infrastructural expansion and limit loss of forest cover, given the wealth of the nations involved. 

Hansen, M., Stehman, S. and Potapov, P. 2010. Quantification of global gross forest cover loss  PNAS 2010 107 (19) 8650-8655. 

Link: <http://www.pnas.org/content/107/19/8650.full>