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by Stefania Fumo

ROME, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- While the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, forest loss is also an ongoing emergency that directly affects human survival, said a senior official of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in a recent interview with Xinhua.

A call to focus on forests during a deadly global pandemic with devastating economic consequences may seem contradictory, but the opposite is true, according to FAO Forestry Division Director Mette Wilkie.

"There is a clear tendency to focus on the immediate needs in response to COVID-19: human health, food security, getting people back to work -- this is not surprising and of course these should be the primary concerns," Wilkie said.

However, she added, the pandemic is "providing an opportunity, where the wheels of the economy are turning much slower than normal, to design new pathways" to a sustainable future.

"We must make sure we don't repeat past mistakes, but build back better -- and this means tackling the economic crisis, the climate change crisis and the biodiversity crisis all at the same time," Wilkie explained.

"Focusing on forests helps us do just that," she said, adding that investing in forest restoration now makes sense on many levels because it creates jobs while mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity -- all key actions on the path to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ultimately "societies worldwide will need to be convinced of the global restoration imperative by rational economic argument, compassion for current and future generations, and an emotional connection to nature," Wilkie said.

CHINA HAS REVERSED CENTURIES OF FOREST LOSS

The warning on forest loss also appeared in the latest edition of FAO's quarterly forestry publication Unasylva, which dedicates a chapter to China's successful reforestation efforts.

Titled "Restoring the Earth: the next decade," the new Unasylva edition points to China's successes in reforesting vast tracts of its national territory since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Along with countries such as Costa Rica and Vietnam, China is one of a few countries to have reversed centuries of forest loss in recent decades, increasing its forest cover from 8.6 percent of the national land area in 1949 to 23 percent today.

Overall, between 1978 and 2015 China invested 378.5 billion U.S. dollars in 16 major sustainability programs -- including reforestation -- across more than 600 million hectares, or about 62 percent of China's land area.

Wilkie pointed out that, according to data reported to FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2020), China has been continuously increasing its forest cover -- from 152 million hectares in 1986 to 220 million hectares in 2020.

Much of this expansion has been driven by large-scale eco-forestry projects designed to control erosion and desertification, protect watersheds, reduce sediment in major rivers, and restore animal and plant habitats while increasing crop production and food security.

"China's success in reversing centuries of forest loss shows that large-scale restoration is possible," according to the Unasylva report.

Among the reasons for that success is that "China had the political will at the highest levels -- including a strong, long-term commitment by the government -- plus the expertise and the human and financial resources" as well as a strong local community involvement, Wilkie explained.

"One of the reasons for this strong commitment was the high incidence of sand and dust storms, deteriorating the air quality -- including in large cities such as Beijing," the FAO Forestry Division Head pointed out.

"Combating desertification through tree planting was seen as the solution," Wilkie told Xinhua.

The new Unasylva edition also profiles Northern Kenya's community conservation movement, and includes case studies from Brazil, Cambodia, Madagascar, and Sao Tome and Principe.

Unasylva is FAO's longest-running periodical, existing since 1947. Each issue involves authors from every region of the world and from a variety of academic and research institutions, other UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and civil society. Enditem