Vital GEO Graphics

However, these services have been reduced by the decline in total forest area and by continued forest degra- dation, especially in production and multipurpose forests. Despite the fact that more and more forest areas are being designated for conservation and protection, the unsustainable harvesting of forest products is putting these areas under severe pressure jeopardizing valuable ecosystem serv- ices. For example, the rate of decline in fixed carbon has been greater than the rate of decline in forest area. Between 1990 and 2005 the global forest area shrank at an annual rate of about 0.2 per cent: there were losses in areas of primary forest while there were gains in areas of planted and semi-natural forest.

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Declines in carbon in living biomass and in extent of forest

100 1990 = 100

Source: FAO 2006a

99

98

97

Extent of forest Carbon in living biomass

96

95

94

2000

2005

1990

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Trade, growth and the environment

Source: UNEP 2005b In recent years, Chile has been considered one of the most economically competitive countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Rapid growth in Chile’s production and export of forest products is based on the expansion and management of exotic species in newly planted forests over the past 30 years. To do so, the traditional land-use practices in small-scale logging of native forests, livestock raising and agricultural cultivation have been replaced

by large-scale timber production. Many endangered tree and shrub species have been affected by this growth of planted forest, which has also led to a dramatic reduction of landscape diversity as well as goods-and-services from forests. The two images, taken in 1975 (left) and 2001 (right), show clear reductions in forested land on the one hand (red arrows), and new forest areas on the other (yellow arrows).

Credit: UNEP 2005b

32 V I TAL GEO GRAPH I CS