Satellite Data Suggest Global Forest Loss Moving (All Together Now!) Faster Than Expected
Satellite images suggest tropical forests from the Amazon to the Philippines are disappearing at a far more rapid pace than previously thought, a University of Maryland team of forest researchers say. The annual rate of deforestation from 1990 to 2010 was 62 percent higher than in the previous decade, and higher than previous estimates, according to a study carried out of satellite maps covering 80 percent of the world's tropical forests.
The new study questions the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) assessment, which suggested that the rate of deforestation actually decreased 25 percent from 1990 to 2010.
Until now, "the Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) report of the United Nation's FAO was the only one available source to estimate long term forest change and its trends," said Do-Hyung Kim, lead author of the study that is expected to be published in Geophysical Research Letters. "However, the FAO report has been criticized for inconsistency in its survey methods and the definition of what is a forest. Our result is important in that we are providing a satellite-based alternative for the FRA," he said.
The FAO assessment has been based in large part on self reporting from tropical forest countries, Kim said. In contrast, Kim and his University of Maryland colleagues analyzed 5,444 Landsat images from 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010 to assess how much forest was lost or gained 34 countries, which account for about 80 percent of tropical forest land in the world.
EDIT
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/72878
= new reply since forum marked as read
Amazon? Philippines?
Do-Hyung Who? Does Kim K know he's using her name???
