The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has released its 2005 Global Forest Resources Assessment, a regular report on the status world's forest resources. Overall, FAO concludes that net deforestation rates have fallen since the 1990-2000 period, but some 13 million hectares of the world’s forests are still lost each year, including 6 million hectares of primary forests. Primary forests - forests with no visible signs of past or present human activities - are considered the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet.

Industrial logging, clearing and forest conversion for agriculture, fuelwood collection by rural poor, and forest fires are considered the leading causes of deforestation.

South America
Large tracts of the Amazon rainforest are being cleared for cattle ranches and soybean plantation. It has suffered the largest net loss of forests between 2000 and 2005 of around 4.3 million hectares per year. Scientists are concerned that forest loss could escalate in the Amazon due to increasingly dry conditions. This year the Amazon suffered the most severe drought on record, leaving rivers dry and communities stranded. Tens of thousands of fires burned.

Africa Africa suffered the second largest net loss in forests with 4.0 million hectares cleared annually. Nigeria and Sudan were the two largest losers of natural forest during the 2000-2005 period, largely due to subsistence activities. At 11.1%, Nigeria's annual deforestation rate of natural forest is the highest in the world and puts it on pace to lose virtually all of its primary forest within a few years. Malawi, currently in the midst of a severe drought and famine, has the world's fourth highest deforestation rate.

FAO figures also show Africa is more dependent on bushmeat - wild animals captured as food - than other tropical regions. Bushmeat availability has increased with the construction of logging roads in the rainforest and a number of well-known species including gorillas, chimpanzees, and monkeys are considered at highest risk. There is growing concern among health experts that bushmeat consumption may be linked to the outbreak of unusual tropical diseases including the Ebola virus and Marburg, which broke out earlier this year in Angola. Primates are known to be carriers of these diseases.

Central America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia lead deforestation rates
The regions with the highest tropical deforestation rate were Central America - which lost 1.3% or 285,000 hectares of its forests each year - and tropical Asia.

Tropical Asia - Tropical Asia including the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam - lost about 1% of its forests each year

According to FAO, Vietnam lost a staggering 51% of its primary forests between 2000 and 2005, while Cambodia lost 29% of its primary forests between 2000 and 2005 [Cambodia's figures were revised by the FAO after this article was published. Original data showed Cambodia's primary forest cover declining to 122,000 hectares in 2005 from 356,000 hectares in 2000. The new FAO data says Cambodia's current primary forest cover stands at 322,000 hectares]. Illegal logging, combined with rapid development, is blamed for much of Cambodia's forest loss.

Plantations offsetting natural forest
Due to a significant increase in plantation forests, forest cover has generally been expanding in North America, Europe and China while diminishing in the tropics.

The United States
The United States has the seventh largest annual loss of primary forests in the world, according to FAO. In the 2000-2005 period, the United States lost an average of 831 square miles (215,200 hectares, 2,152 square kilometers or 531,771 acres) of such lands which are sometimes termed "old-growth forests."