A new report from the UN a couple of weeks ago shows a glimmer of good news on the deforestation front:

The last decade saw forests being lost or converted at a rate of 13 million hectares per year, compared to 16 million hectares in the 1990s.

However, new forests were being planted to the tune of more than seven million hectares per year; so the net rate of loss since the year 2000 has been 5.2 million hectares per year, compared to 8.3 million in the 1990s.

Keep in mind that this still represents a massive loss of forest every year – just less than it was before.  Given that one has to stop losing before you can start gaining, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Read more »