What Value Added from World Heritage Forests (draft)

Why a Special World Heritage Focus on Forests? Forest ecosystems hold the vast majority of the world's terrestrial species. Ironically, these same ecosystems are under the greatest chronic pressure from human activities. The most important threat comes from permanent conversion to non-forest uses – typically agriculture. The FAO (2005A) calculates that since 1990, an average of neary 12.3 million hectares of tropical and subtropical forest cover alone was lost each year. Paradoxically, while the total surface area of remaining forests is steadily reduced, these same shrinking forests are counted upon to supply a rapidly increasing demand for forest-derived products, both timber and non-timber (table 1).