/* Gathered from
The Australian and heavily trimmed down. Economic prosperity has benefits for the environment! !gasp! Who'da thunk it! */
November 15, 2006
Many of the world's forests appear to be making a comeback, and some are more thickly forested now than they were nearly 200 years ago, a new study has found.
The US and China have had the greatest gain in forests over the past 15 years, while Brazil and Indonesia have lost the most.
The scientists considered how big the trees were - how many of them were large enough to be considered timber, also known as growing stock. They also considered how thickly they grew and how much atmospheric carbon was tied up in them. Trees, especially young trees, absorb carbon dioxide. In addition, the scientists took into account the amount of organic material, known as biomass, present in the forest.
By this standard, the researchers found that from 1990 to 2005, despite widespread concerns about deforestation, the number of timber-size trees increased in 22 of the 50 countries with the most forest.
In the US, the transition from deforestation to reforestation took place first in the northeastern state of Connecticut in the early 1900s. Some states, including Texas, made the change only in 2002.
Other countries made the transition much earlier: Denmark's shift came in 1810, France's in the 1830s, Switzerland's in the 1860s, Portugal's by 1870, Scotland's in the 1920s and European Russia's in the 1930s.
Dr Sedjo said the transition often came when countries began to prosper, and were better able to implement policies to preserve forested land. Almost every country with a per capita gross domestic product over $4600 had moved to reforestation, the study found.
