This card was illustrated and edited by our good friend Eleni Oeconomopoulou. |
Did you know?
• Forests cover 31% of total land area.
• Forests provide a home to more than 300 million people worldwide.
• Forests are home to more than 80% of terrestrial biodiversity.
• The livelihoods of 1.6 billion people depend on forests.
• Tropical rainforests produce 40% of Earth's oxygen
• More than a quarter of modern medicines, worth an estimated $108 billion a year, originate from tropical forest plants.
However, irrational land use practices, logging and management, along with climate change, fires and natural disasters are the most common reasons for the destruction of 13 million hectares of forest annually, an area equal to the size of Portugal! (data from unep)
In Greece, forests cover 26.5% of the surface of the country, while 23.9% of the territory is covered by low density woodlands. This natural wealth is facing many dangers, as the catastrophic fires and the subsequent encroachment that gradually replace our forests with urban, suburban and tourist areas (data from WWF). A recent action towards saving the forests is the compilation of forest maps and posting on the internet the first on three areas of Attica (Marathon, Penteli, N. Penteli).
The International Year of Forests 2011, aims to raise awareness on sustainable management and sustainable development, so as to take action on forests with the change in lifestyle and the adoption of a model of "green" economics and development for the benefit of present and future generations.
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