Text III – items 41 to 46
Every year forests four times the size of Switzerland are
lost because of clearing and degradation. In the 1980s, an
average of 38 million acres of tropical forest were destroyed
each year, those trends have shown no signs of decreasing in the
1990s. Subsistence farming, unsustainable logging, unsound
development of large-scale industrial projects, and national
policies that distort markets and subsidize forest conversion to
other uses are causing deforestation worldwide, from Cambodia
to Colombia, from Cameroon to Western Canada and the
Western United States.
The loss of forests has major implications for the
world. Forests are home to 70 percent of all land-living animals
and plants. They replenish the Earth’s atmosphere and provide
the planet with fresh air by storing carbon and producing
oxygen. They help filter pollution out of the water and protect
against flooding, mudslides and erosion. Forests provide timber,
medicines, food, and jobs.
The United States has an enormous stake in the
sustainable management of the world’s forests. We are a major
forest products importer and exporter. Our growing
pharmaceutical and food processing industries have a vested
interest in protecting the source materials for new medicines,
pharmaceuticals, and food additives. Forests and their ability to
absorb carbon dioxide lower the rate of global climate change.
The President of the United States has committed to
the goal of achieving sustainable management of our forests by
the year 2004. And the State Department and other agencies
have been working closely with our global partners to slow
deforestation around the world.
Document from the US State Department (with adaptations).