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Photo credits: FAO
Larch trees in the Atansubel Forest, Mongolia.
FAO study provides most detailed overview to date of trees, forests and land use in the world’s drylands
A new FAO report helps fill a major knowledge gap about the presence and extent of forests and trees in the world’s drylands, where the food security and livelihoods of millions of people are already at risk and increasingly threatened by climate change.
The study, published today Preliminary findings The full report, to be published later this year, shows that tree density varies widely across nearly a third of the world’s 6.1 billion hectares of drylands – an area more than twice the size of Africa. Nearly 18% of this is covered in forests.
An estimated two billion people live in drylands worldwide, 90 percent of whom live in developing countries. Recent studies have shown the need to restore water and soil in these areas to combat the effects of drought, desertification and land degradation.
In particular, water availability in drylands is expected to decline further due to climate change and land use change. Poor people living in remote rural areas will be most vulnerable to food shortages, coupled with violence and social unrest, which have already seen forced migration in drylands of Africa and Western Asia.
Until now, little statistical knowledge has been available on dryland trees, particularly those growing outside forests, despite their critical importance to humans and the environment.
Leaves and fruits are a source of food for people and fodder for animals; wood provides fuel for cooking and heating and a source of income for poor families; trees protect soil, crops and animals from the sun and wind, and forests are often rich in biodiversity.
New data and technology enable large-scale studies in record time
As the first-ever land use assessment of the world’s drylands based on statistical sampling, the FAO study provides a baseline for monitoring changes in dryland forests, tree cover (density) and land use. It offers a valuable tool for governments, donors and other sustainable development stakeholders to guide policy development and target investments.
The FAO study used publicly available satellite imagery from Google Earth Engine, Bing Maps and other sources to extract information from more than 200,000 sample plots, each measuring approximately 0.5 hectares. The sampling error for the total area of all dryland forests is estimated to be approximately +/- 1%.
The satellite images were interpreted using Collect Earth, a tool from the Open Foris suite of free and open-source software developed by FAO’s Forestry Department to make it easier for experts around the world to collect, analyse, report and share data.
Read the full article: FAO
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