95 percent of world's tropical forests unprotected

All but a fraction of the world's tropical forests remain unprotected, despite a significant increase in their environmentally friendly use over the past two decades, according to a wide-reaching international report released Thursday.

Photo: 95 percent of world's tropical forests unprotected

The study of tropical forest management by the International Tropical Timber Organization, or ITTO, investigated 814 million hectares (2 billion acres)  two-thirds of the world's tropical forests in 33 countries.

All of these tropical forests studied have been designated by the governments and landowners overseeing them for "sustainable management," meaning they have agreed to completely protect them as conservation areas, or to allow timber harvesting and other economic activities only if they don't destroy the forests.

However, "the most extensive survey ever" found that less than 5 percent of these forests were managed in a sustainable way last year, the group said.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 31 million hectares (76 million acres) were designated for sustainable management, but only 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres) were protected in 2005.

In Asia and the Pacific, where 55 million hectares (135 million acres) were earmarked for sustainable management, only 14.3 million hectares (35 million acres) were managed that way, while in Africa, only 4.3 million (10 million acres) of 10 million hectares (24 million acres) were being protected.

The ITTO, a Yokohama, Japan-based intergovernmental organization with 59 members representing most of the world's tropical forests, was formed under the auspices of the United Nations in 1986 amid global concern about disappearing tropical forests.

Its mission is to promote forest management that retains the "inherent values" of the forest "while revenues are earned, people employed and communities sustained by the production of timber and other forest products and services," the report said, adding, "It hasn't always worked."

"Some countries have already lost a significant part of their natural forest heritage and now have relatively little forest and large areas of degraded, unstable and unproductive land," the study said.

On a positive note, the report notes that the nearly 5 percent of the land that is being managed correctly marks a drastic increase since the group first surveyed the forests: at least 36 million hectares (87 million acres) in 2005, compared to less than 1 million hectares (2.4 million acres) in 1988, reports AP.

O.Ch.