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Below is a list of references for factual information mentioned in Map: Our disappearing forests.
"We are destroying the world's precious ancient forests like never
before. An area of natural forest the size of a soccer pitch is cut
down every two seconds."
Estimation based on Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO 2005), Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005 (FAO, Rome, Italy).
One football pitch every two seconds equals an annual loss of natural forests of approximately 100,000 square kilometres. FAO assesses the total annual loss of forest of 130,000 square kilometres of which at least 60,000 square kilometres are losses of primary (ancient) forests.
Greenpeace estimates the real figure to be higher because countries with significant loss of primary forest like Canada, Cameroon, Central African Republic or Democratic Republic of Congo did not report this loss.
"A quarter of the forest lost over the last 10,000 years has been destroyed in the last 30 years."
Adapted from: McNeill, J.R. (2000). Something new under the sun - An environmental history of the twentieth century world. Norton, New York, USA, 421.
"Plant and animal species extinction is 1000 times faster today than it was in prehuman times – and this will increase to 10,000 times faster by 2050."
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC.
"Scientists predict that the Earth is entering the sixth major extinction event in its history."
Thomas, J.A., Telfer, M.G., Roy, D.B., Preston, C.D., Greenwood, J.J.D., Asher, J., Fox, R., Clarke, R.T. & Lawton J.H. 2004. Comparative losses of British butterflies, birds, and plants and the global extinction crisis. Science, 303, 1879-1881.
"Until now, world maps were not accurate or consistent enough to show which forest areas remain intact and which are damaged. It was hard to see which forest areas needed the most urgent protection.
Now Greenpeace has created a new map of the world’s forests, based on high-resolution satellite imagery."
For a detailed list of all results by country, forest region and globally as well as for a list of peer reviewers, please go to www.intactforests.org.
