Uganda’s forest cover has declined from 35% to 15% over the past 100 years, with an estimated forest cover loss of 88,000 ha per year. Increasing agricultural activities and weak forest governance are putting pressure on forest resources and forest lands. Other drivers of deforestation in Uganda include charcoal production, firewood harvesting, livestock grazing, timber production, and human settlement and urbanization.
Mozambique is one the few sub-Saharan countries with a significant portion of natural forest covering 51% of its territory (40.6 million hectares). However, deforestation and forest degradation have been increasing in recent years, due to several direct drivers of deforestation including small-scale agriculture, charcoal production, timber exploitation and illegal logging.
Tanzania is endowed with 35.3 million ha of rich forest resources including woodlands, coastal forests, mangrove swamps, tropical rainforest and grassland savannas. These resources are however threatened by shifting cultivation, wildfires, illegal logging, mining and fuel wood extraction, as well as the more recent introduction of large-scale bio-fuel farming.
Forests are virtually everywhere in Suriname, covering 95% of the country’s total land area. While Suriname has a relatively low rate of deforestation, timber production has dramatically increased in recent years. Together with active mining and agriculture sectors, Suriname is now at an early stage of the forest transition curve, with deforestation and related emissions expected to rise in the coming years.
Peru has approximately 73 million ha of forests, of which almost 69 million hectares or 94% of total land area are found in the country’s Amazon region. On a global scale, Peru’s extensive forests rank ninth in the world in terms of forest cover, fourth in terms of tropical forests, and second among the Amazonian countries. Although Peru has extensive forests, they contribute little to the national economy. Forest management has been historically been weak, resulting in inadequate forestry budgets and the conversion of the forests into focal points of social conflict.
Madagascar is one of eight largest biodiversity hotspots in the world, and is considered a priority conservation area due to a disconcerting number of species threatened with extinction. Despite major biodiversity conservation efforts, ecosystems in the country’s eastern forest are so fragmented and degraded that many native large animal species have been lost. Madagascar’s direct drivers of deforestation include small-scale agriculture, energy production, artisanal and illegal mining, forest harvesting, and livestock practices.
The area of highest priority for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Nicaragua is its Caribbean Coast that contains 80% (3.2 million ha) of Nicaragua’s total forest area, and is home to the country’s Bosawas Biosphere Reserve and Indio Maiz Biological Reserve. The Caribbean Coast has been a major source of deforestation and forest degradation in Nicaragua, driven primarily by extensive livestock and agricultural production, forest fires, firewood collection and logging.
Liberia’s forests are extremely rich in biodiversity and are recognized as a global conservation hotspot. The country has approximately 6.6 million ha of lowland tropical forests that form part of the remaining Upper Guinea forests of West Africa.
Some of the most important forest cover areas in Indonesia lie in the country’s East Kalimantan Province. This region has just under 7 million ha of tropical forests which are home to a wealth of globally significant biodiversity, and that support numerous indigenous and other local communities. More than 10% of East Kalimantan’s remaining forest cover was lost over the past decade, due primarily to the expansion of oil palm plantations, timber plantations, and mining.
Ghana’s cocoa forest landscape has one of the highest deforestation rates in Africa, at 3.2% per year. Forest degradation and deforestation across this agro-forest mosaic, which covers 5.9 million ha of Ghana’s High Forest Zone, is being driven by continued cocoa farm expansion and other types of agriculture, coupled with a recent up-surge in illegal mining and logging. View Country Profile.