Just 30 per cent of the land area in Asia and the Pacific is covered by forests, a proportion unchanged from the early 1990s. Afforestation in just a few countries is compensating for the large number of countries where the area remaining under forest is decreasing - sometimes rapidly.

The proportion of the land area of Asia and the Pacific covered by forest is marginally lower than that of North America and Europe (about one third) and much lower than in Latin America and Caribbean, where 46 per cent of land is forested.

Figure 24.1 Change in forest land area as a percentage of total land area in selected Asian and Pacific subregions and country groupings, 1990, 2000 and 2005

As illustrated in figure 24.1 and 24.2, the land area under forests declined in most groups of countries within Asia and the Pacific between 1990 and 2005. The decline was steepest in ASEAN countries, where forests covered 56 per cent of the land area in 1990 but just 47 per cent in 2005.

The land area covered by forests decreased by 16 percentage points in Indonesia, 11 percentage points in the Philippines, 14 percentage points in Cambodia and 10 percentage points in Myanmar (figure 24.2); because of its larger size, the forest acreage loss in Myanmar was actually larger than in Cambodia.

Figure 24.2 Proportion of land area covered by forest selected groups of Asian and Pacific countries, 1990 and 2005

Most deforestation across ASEAN countries is due to illegal logging, bush and forest fires, and conversion of forest land into roads, mines and settlements. Cambodia, for example, suffers from illegal logging and the misuse of forest concessions, despite a moratorium on logging being in place since 2002. The fact that many rural households do not hold land titles exacerbates this situation. Another threat to forest coverage is the population's persisting dependence on fuel wood - over 80 per cent by some estimates.

Viet Nam, on the other hand, is the only country within ASEAN that has turned the trend around as a result of reduced illegal logging and a decline in forest fires. Plantation forests as well as natural forests increased in size, according to the Viet Nam 2005 Millennium Development Goals report. While tree plantations are included in forest land coverage, they do not compensate for the decline in biodiversity when they are created at the cost of natural forests.

Small island developing States have the highest proportion of land under forests in Asia and the Pacific, at 63 per cent in 2005, despite a drop of 5 percentage points between 1990 and 2005. Central Asian countries, on the other hand, have the lowest proportion of land under forests in Asia and the Pacific, at close to 4 per cent, a percentage that has stayed constant over the last 15 years or so.

Low- and high-income economies have a similar share of forest area, at 22 and 24 per cent respectively, while middle-income economies have a share of about 33 per cent of forest area in 2005. Middle-income economies have experienced a slight increase in the share of forest land area between 1990 and 2005, whereas low- and high-income economies have followed a declining trend during the same period.

An important reason why the proportion of the Asia and Pacific land area under forest has remained fairly constant despite declines in most countries is that China expanded its forest land area by 4.4 percentage points between 1990 and 2005 by active afforestation.

Figure 24.3 Forest land area as percentage of total land area in Asian and the Pacific, 1990 and 2005

Protected areas

The proportion of the surface area designated as protected increased everywhere in the world between 1990 and 2005 (figure 24.4). As protected areas are designated through national legislations and policies, the level protection can vary significantly.

Figure 24.4 Proportion of protected areas in the regions of the world, 1990-2005

In Asia and the Pacific, the increase was 3 percentage points, to 11 per cent in 2005. This proportion is similar to that of Africa, 10 per cent, in the same year, but behind the 12 to 18 per cent range of Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Europe.

Also within Asia and the Pacific, the proportion of the surface area designated as protected increased in all countries and groups thereof between 1990 and 2005 (figure 24.5). The protected areas ratio remains low in some of the most vulnerable groups of countries, including least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States. Least developed countries and landlocked developing countries largely overlap with low-income countries; thus, it is not surprising that this characteristic is shared with the latter group as well.

Apart from country-level efforts to maintain environmental resources and biodiversity, multilateral projects, such as the Greater Mekong Subregion Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative, have had an important role of maintaining and expanding protected areas.

Figure 24.5 Proportion of protected areas in selected groups of Asian and Pacific countries, 1995-2005

Figure 24.6 Proportion of protected areas in selected Asian and Pacific countries, 1990 and 2005