1. Forests currently occupy about 4,000 million hectares, which represent around 31% of the planet’s surface. On the other hand, in the last ten years the average annual disappearance of forests has reached 5.2 million hectares per year.
2. According to UN data, around 1.6 billion people depend on forests to live, since they play a fundamental role in the life of rural communities, supplying, among other resources, wood, food, fodder and medicine. As explained in the document The Future We Want, emerging from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio + 20 : “The wide range of products and services provided by forests create opportunities to tackle many of the world’s most important problems. pressing issues of sustainable development. “
3. Forests offer many beneficial functions that are not always quantified in economic terms: they help mitigate climate change by storing carbon, protect soil from erosion, and help conserve water resources.
4. It is estimated that forests are home to about 80% of terrestrial biodiversity, and in the Amazon basin alone, more than 1,300 species are used for medicinal purposes. However, the deforestation of tropical forests causes the extinction of up to 100 species per day.
5. Thousands of hectares of underwater forests disappear every year, mainly due to pollution , aggressive fishing practices, invasive species and construction on the coast. According to data from Oceana, underwater forests and grasslands are eight times more productive than tropical forests , but their destruction goes unnoticed.
