The Burkinabe government estimates that the country loses just under 110,000 ha of forest cover every year. Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Burkina Faso include agricultural expansion, overgrazing of livestock, bush fires, and demand for fuelwood and charcoal. Among other factors, poor forest governance and population growth in rural areas underlie these drivers.
Togo is a country with a low forest cover (just 7% of total land area in 2010) coupled with one of the world’s highest proportion of forest loss relative to forest area. In this small country situated on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, trees are at the center of the landscape in all rural areas. Deforestation and forest degradation, driven primarily by slash-and-burn agriculture and charcoal production, therefore present major development challenges for the country.
Sudan is a mostly arid country, dominated by the agricultural sector which includes cropping, livestock, forestry and fishing, and related processing activities. Conversion of natural forests to cropland and pastures as well as fuel wood production are the country’s leading drivers of deforestation and have contributed to the loss of almost 600,000 ha of forests per year in recent decades.
Just over 5% of Pakistan’s total land area is covered by forests and planted trees, and every year, the country loses about 27,000 ha of these forests. Pakistan now faces the threat of accelerated deforestation and forest degradation driven primarily by its rising population and associated wood demands, and weak governance of land and forest tenure.
Nigeria is home to a wide range of ecological habitats, from tropical rainforests to drylands. Tropical rainforests in the Southeastern part of the country are one of the world’s 25 most important biodiversity hotspots. Nigeria’s forest cover (currently estimated to be around 9.6 million ha) has dramatically declined in recent decades, driven primarily by agricultural development, fuelwood demand, uncontrolled forest harvesting and urbanization.
Bhutan is a small, mountainous, landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas. The country’s total forest area has expanded slowly over the past 15 years, with forest cover making up just over 70% of the country’s land area. With the country’s goal to harness ambitious levels of hydropower by 2020, development activities are expected to result in reduced forest cover.
Between 1980 and 2010, Belize lost one fifth of its forest cover to deforestation. Several drivers have contributed to this forest loss, including agricultural expansion, illegal and unsustainable logging and forest fires. Population growth and the expansion of rural and urban housing have also placed pressure on Belize’s forest lands.
The highest historical rates of deforestation in Nepal are found in the country’s Terai Arc Landscape along the foothills of the Himalayas in the southernmost part of Nepal. The Terai region is home to 20% of Nepal’s forests, and deforestation and forest degradation in this region have been driven primarily by illegal logging, fuelwood extraction, cattle ranching and overgrazing, agricultural expansion, forest fires, and infrastructure development.
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.