Forest plantations making up for the loss
Rome /Larnaka, Cyprus - While many countries in the region have increased their forest area during the period 2000-2005, heavy grazing, wood, clearing of forests for agriculture, and urban development are depleting forest resources in the already forest-scarce Near East, according to FAO.

Grazing land is often poorly managed and overburdened with livestock, leading to the disappearance of vegetation cover in heavily grazed areas, especially where nomadic herders have settled, FAO said today at a regional forestry meeting (5-8 June) in Larnaka, Cyprus.
With fluctuations in the supply and price of oil, many rural communities have once again resorted to biomass and wood as sources of fuel, pushing the use of forest and tree resources to the maximum. The region produces and consumes about 90 million cubic metres of fuelwood each year. Wood and non-wood forest products support the livelihoods of millions of people in the region, according to FAO.
In addition, because much agricultural land is being lost to urban expansion and rapid population growth, forest and grazing lands are being cleared for agriculture.
Sudan and Afghanistan, in particular, are rapidly losing forest area. War-affected people are making their way back to their original lands after the conflict and clearing forest lands for agricultural expansion and for provision of building materials and fuel.
These conditions contribute to widespread soil degradation and accelerated desertification in the Near East, the world's driest region, with exceptionally low forest cover at one fifth the world average. Eighty percent of the countries in the Near East have less than 10 percent forest cover.
Forests and woodlands in the region are important for the many environmental services that they perform including arresting desertification and land degradation, protection of watersheds, conservation of biological diversity and recreational uses.

"Forests and forest products are still largely neglected in policy- and decision-making processes in the region, said Hassan Abdel Nour, an FAO forestry expert for the Near East. "Policy-makers in these countries should start seriously addressing forest degradation to avoid losing even more of their forests."
Forest plantations
Planted forests remain an important means of meeting needs for forest products and services and halting or reversing the process of desertification.
Many countries in the region are planting trees, and forest area has increased in 13 countries in the last 15 years, mainly due to forest plantations.
"Forest plantations cannot possibly replace the loss of natural forests, but this is a step forward," said Abdel Nour.
The Near East Forestry Commission meets every two years and is part of a global network of regional forestry commissions which together feed ideas and suggestions to the FAO Committee on Forestry, scheduled to meet in March 2007.