With growing concern about the impact of deforestation on global warming, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and its partners will be carrying out a global remote sensing survey of the world’s forests. The effort aims to assess and track emissions from deforestation, and to understand the loss of carbon stored in forests and the role of forests in climate change.
“By combining remote sensing technology with field data collection, we improve the quality of both methods. This provides more accurate information on forest trends and new information on the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation,” noted Jan Heino, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry.
FAO has been supporting countries to monitor their forests through initiatives such as the agency’s national forest monitoring and assessment (NFMA) programme, which involves a global network of forest monitoring specialists in 176 countries who share information and experiences, as well as national experts who lead the assessments.
The next Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA), a comprehensive data collection on the state of the world’s forests, will be released in 2010.
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This study shows great strides towards curbing the horrific effects of deforestation. Besides it being bad for the environment, it’s also a major contributor to climate change and global warming. The exreme weathers, drastic drought & flooding, and devasting earthquakes and hurricanes are obviously all a consequence of climate change & global warming. Worst of it all is that climate change also affects our health. Deforestation releases a massive amount of carbon dioxide during the incineration and burning of forest plants when clearing land. Ever wonder why cancer cases are increasing at an alarming rate?
Consider this, the island of Haiti has less than 1% of its forests left and with its ongoing food crisis, this phenomenon is worsening its agricultural sector. In an effort to solve the issues of deforestation in Haiti, non-profit organization Lambi Fund of Haiti and Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai of the Green Belt Movement is partnering to plant 1 million trees over three years on an island where less than 1 percent of its forest remains.