Our earth has 4.06 billion hectars of forests as estimated by the Global Forest Resources Assessment of 2020. Only 1.11 billion hectars are primary forests or so called native forest which is largely undisturbed by humans.

It is also estimated that about 420 million hectars of forest have been lost due to human deforestation since 1990. The rate of deforestation has slowed down from 7.8 millon hectars per year during the 1990s to the year of 2000 to todays 4.7 million hectars per year.

Here is a list from the Global Forest Resources Assessment that overviews the loss of forests in different continents:

3.9 million hectares: Africa’s annual rate of net forest area loss during the past decade (2010 to 2020), the highest of any continent. The continent’s rate of loss has been steadily increasing since 1990.

2.6 million hectares: South America’s annual rate of net forest area loss during the same decade. This rate of loss, however, has declined to nearly half of what it was in the decade prior (2000 to 2010). '

1.2 million hectares: Asia’s annual rate of net forest area gain during the past decade, the highest of any continent, but a decrease from the annual rate of 2.4 million hectares during the decade prior.

0.4 million hectares: Oceania’s annual rate of forest area gain during the past decade, up from a rate of 0.2 million in loss in the decade prior.

0.3 million hectares: Europe’s annual rate of forest area gain during the past decade, down from 1.2 million in gain in the decade prior.

0.1 million hectares: North and Central America’s annual rate of forest area loss during the past decade, down from 0.2 million in gain in the decade prior.

Some important facts:

Adding to this we now have 131 million planted hectars of forest on earth.

22 % of all our forests are privatly owned. The rest is own by our national states all over the world. 5 % of forests still has an unknown ownership. 18 % of forests are located in protected areas in the world.

Over 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is over 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres are lost every year!

More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and the destruction of rainforest in the Amazon continues. It is now estimated that the Amazon rainforest is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to stop this from happening, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years.

These facts come from the UN report on global forests.

Source:

https://news.globallandscapesforum.org/44355/4-06-billion-remaining-hectares-and-other-new-numbers-on-forests-but-what-do-they-mean/

http://csc.columbusstate.edu/summers/Outreach/RainSticks/fRainforestFacts.htm

https://rain-tree.com/facts.htm

2021-08-06