Earth's life-enhancing rain forests being eroded

Forests cover about 25 per cent of the Earth's land surface and seven per cent of the Earth's surface is covered by rain forests. People benefit from forests as they provide timber and food, as well as precious medicines. Forests also act as a green 'lung' to purify the air on Earth.

Unfortunately, only six per cent of the world's forests are currently protected while the other 94 per cent are at risk of being degraded. It is estimated that nearly 20 million hectares of forest disappear every year but only about a million hectares is replanted. The rate of deforestation is much faster than reforestation and our forests are disappearing.

Within the next 25 years, only 10 per cent of Asia's original forests will be left.

Tropical forests disappear at the rate of nearly one per cent a year - with the annual rate of deforestation in Brazil having increased to 34 per cent since 1992.

At current rates of deforestation, there will be virtually no natural forests left in countries such as Costa Rica, Malaysia, Pakistan and Thailand in less than 50 years.

Examples of human-driven deforestation are fires, logging, clearance for cattle ranching and air pollution.

If the forests go: There will be no plant roots to hold the soil and water, leading to floods and soil erosion. As water is no longer held by for ests, the area will become a desert.