Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) released

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has been monitoring the world’s forests at 5 to 10 year intervals since 1946. The Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA) are now produced every five years in an attempt to provide a consistent approach to describing the world’s forests and how they are changing.

By gathering data from 234 countries and territories, FRA 2015 provides an up-to-date report on 88% of the world’s forests.The top-line results are unsettling; From 1990 to 2015 there was a net loss of 129 million hectares of forest: a total area about the size of Texas, California, and Louisiana combined.

At the same time, there is hope. The rate of forest area loss is declining and the indicators reveal positive progress in sustainable forest management. Restore the Earth uses global standards to guide our work in reversing environmental degradation and to maximize the shared value of restorations. However, important challenges remain.

Read the synthesis document.