http://www.boston.com/dailynews/233/world/U_N_Forest_conservation_effort:.shtml

U.N.: Forest conservation efforts should concentrate on just 15 countries

By Associated Press, 8/21/2001 01:17

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) Efforts to save the world's most important forests should be concentrated in just 15 countries, the U.N. Environment Program says.

More than 80 percent of the remaining closed forests, which includes virgin, old growth and naturally regenerated woodlands, are located in the United States and 14 other countries, according to a satellite based-survey that included research by UNEP, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Governments and international organizations should focus their efforts in these areas because it ''it is unlikely that all forests can be protected,'' UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer said.

''Short of a miraculous transformation in the attitude of people and governments, the Earth's remaining closed canopy forests and their associated biodiversity are destined to disappear in the coming decades,'' Toepfer said in a statement. ''It would be better to focus conservation priorities on those target areas that have the best prospects for continued existence.''

The survey estimates that the 15 countries Russia, Canada, Brazil, the United States, Congo, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, India, Australia and Papua New Guinea are home to 5.6 billion acres of closed forest.

The majority of these forests are sparsely populated, which improves the chances of conservation efforts succeeding, the statement said.

Toepfer said the forests play a vital role in reducing the impact of climate change by absorbing harmful carbon gases, adding that they are also home to some of the world's most endangered species.

On the Net:

www.na.unep.net/publications/closedforest.pdf

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001