Some 75% of the global population living outside urban areas are within one kilometre of a forest, according to new research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) that aims to improve our understanding of human-forest interactions. Source: Timberbiz
The publication titled The number of forest- and tree-proximate people – A new methodology and global estimates also states that around 80% of people living outside urban areas are within one kilometre of agricultural lands with trees outside forests.
These are the key figures in the detailed new set of data and analysis of human proximity to trees and forests that was used to inform this year’s FAO State of the World’s Forests report.
“These estimations indicate the relevance of forests and trees to provide ecosystem services and support rural livelihoods,” said Ewald Rametsteiner, Deputy Director of FAO’s Forestry Division. “They should help decision-makers to develop more targeted policies for sustainable landscapes and local economic development.”
Forests cover 3% of the Earth’s surface and provide a wide range of benefits and services. Forests support human livelihoods and health in many ways, including by providing food and fuel, generating ecosystem services, and contributing to livelihoods and culture. In turn, human activities affect forest and tree cover and forest ecology, including through deforestation and degradation, as well as through conservation and restoration.
“Critically, people depend on forests and trees – and they are a key resource to draw on for green recovery and alleviating poverty,” said Rametsteiner.
The research uses a new methodology that combines forest cover, tree cover and human population density data for 2019. The findings estimate that 4.17 billion people lived outside urban areas and within five kilometres of a forest of a minimum size of one hectare, and 3.27 billion people were within one kilometre.
The study explains that 87% of the people living outside urban areas and within five kilometres of a forest are in low and middle-income countries and that quantifying these spatial relationships should help identify those affected by both positive and negative forest changes, the study says.
The maps produced in the study are openly available at FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, and data can be consulted at country level.
The study has also made available all programing code needed to reproduce the analysis in Google Earth Engine, encouraging further analysis and development of this research.
Interested users are encouraged to provide feedback on the data and the method used through the FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform accessing the links below:
Forest-proximate people:
https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dcat/forest-proximate-people
Tree-proximate people:
https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dcat/tree-proximate-people
Google Earth Engine code:
https://bitbucket.org/cioapps/sofo2022/src/master/
Download The number of forest- and tree-proximate people – A new methodology and global estimates here
