Asia-Pacific region pays high price for loss of forests and grasslands

Asia-Pacific nations are failing to halt the loss of natural forests and grasslands, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said yesterday.

It is robbing people of their livelihoods and worsening desertification and climate change.

Forests and grasslands make up 58% of the region’s land mass, but each year 2m hectares (20,000 square kms) are degraded and rendered useless, Patrick Durst, an FAO senior forestry officer told a food conference in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.