On the occasion of the International Day of Forests, FAO released new data confirming that forests continue to decline globally, with the biggest losses of tropical forests occurring in South America and Africa. Improving information on forest resources is a key factor in halting illegal deforestation and forest degradation, said FAO on the International Day of Forests (IDF), celebrated by the United Nations today. According to the updated survey, the area of forest cover decreased by some 5.3 million ha/year, corresponding, over the period 1990-2010, to a net loss equivalent of nearly 4 times the size of Italy or the size of Colombia.

The world's forests are distributed unevenly with just under half the world's forests in the tropical domain (45 percent of total forest area), about one third in boreal (31 percent) and smaller amounts in temperate (16 percent) and subtropical (8 percent) domains.