104. Conservation. It’s a growing thing

We’re not the only ones who love natural forests – or who leave them alone. There are others working hard to preserve forested areas around the world and conservation’s on the up. As of 2005, 11% of the world’s forests were earmarked for conservation in the interests of biological diversity - an increase of around 96 million hectares since 1990. A big green hug goes to North, South and Central America as they’re the ones with the most areas of forest set aside for conservation.

There are plenty of other reasons to keep the world’s forests in good shape. A further 300 million hectares of forests will be preserved to help soil and water conservation. And forests will be working hard elsewhere to prevent avalanches, slow coastal erosion and stabilise sand dunes. Trees might not look busy, but they are.

 

• Within Australia, 16% or 23 million hectares of native forest is formally protected in nature conservation reserves.

 

• Over 70% of known old-growth forests are now in areas classified as nature conservation reserves.

 

• Between 2003 and 2008 the area of rainforest classified as formal nature conservation reserves increased 22% (from 33% to 55%) and the area of mangroves increased 5% (from 13% to 18%).
  
  

  Source:	Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, ‘Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005 – 15 Key Findings’, 2005
  	Montreal Process Implementation Group for Australia (2008), 'Australia's State of the Forests Report 2008', Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra.   Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 'Australian Forest Profile', 2005