Countries With the Highest Deforestation Rates Deforestation is considered to be a significant problem in various parts of the planet when it comes to preventing changes in the climate and also conserving biodiversity. As a matter of fact, some nations are cutting trees at alarming rates. However, it might not be known to you which particular countries come with the highest deforestation rates at present. Below, we have mentioned those countries:
Honduras
Historically many parts of this country were covered by trees with 50% of the land not covered by forests. At present, approximately 52% of that is remaining with only around 16% present in a frontier forest state. Honduras witnessed a 37% decline in forest cover between 1990 and 2005.
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Nigeria
Trees are used to cover approximately 50% of the land in this country. At present approximately 90% of those trees have been cut, and less than 1% is existing as frontier forests. 36% of the country’s trees have been removed by Nigeria during the last 20 years.
The Philippines
Before, all the islands which constituted the Philippines were forested. However, at present, approximately 35% of those trees remain although around 28% remain in the form of frontier forest.
Benin
Benin did not begin initially with lots of forest cover (in fact, only approximately 16% of the total land was forested), and about 31% of the deforestation rate was enough to destroy a large portion of what is remaining right now. At present, only 4% of the original forests exist while none is in a frontier forest condition.
Ghana
At one particular stage, forests used to cover approximately two-thirds of this country; at present, below 10% of that remains and nothing as frontier forest. Since 1990, the rate of decline has been 28% and there is no possibility for the remaining forest to exist for a long time in the future without effective forestry practices.
Indonesia
The case of Indonesia is quite strange. Forests used to cover Indonesia historically just like the Southeast Asian countries, and at present, only 65% of the forest remains. However, it is perceived as a significant decline in forest cover over the last 20 years which does not show any indication of letting up. Moreover, Indonesia happens to be a large country, and you will come across local conditions which become reduced in the stats. For instance, more logs had been felled on Borneo between 1985 and 2000 as compared to all of Africa and South America combined.
Nepal
At present, approximately 22% of the original forest cover remains in Nepal, and none of them can be considered to be a frontier forest. In fact, a decline rate of 25% was witnessed during the past 20 years.
North Korea
Even though almost the whole of North Korea had been forested at one particular time, today approximately 61% of the trees have been cut down. There has been a decline of approximately 25% since 1990.
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Haiti
Since 1990, approximately 22% decline in forest cover has been witnessed in Liberia, Haiti, and Ecuador. Originally, forests used to cover vast portions of Ecuador; however, approximately 70% of those trees remain at present.
Ecuador
Regarding Haiti, the bad news is that there has been a decline of approximately 22% in forest cover during the last 2 decades. Moreover, the worst news happens to be the fact that approximately 99.2% of the total forest area of this country has already been cleared.
