Page "Deforestation" Paragraph 82

A 2005 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ) estimates that although the Earth's total forest area continues to decrease at about 13 million hectares per year, the global rate of deforestation has recently been slowing.

Still others claim that rainforests are being destroyed at an ever-quickening pace.

The London-based Rainforest Foundation notes that " the UN figure is based on a definition of forest as being an area with as little as 10 % actual tree cover, which would therefore include areas that are actually savannah-like ecosystems and badly damaged forests.

" Other critics of the FAO data point out that they do not distinguish between forest types, and that they are based largely on reporting from forestry departments of individual countries, which do not take into account unofficial activities like illegal logging.