Governments will meet at the United Nations next week to discuss further measures to stop deforestation, which is estimated to occur at a rate of 9.4 million hectares a year, dpa reported In the early 1990s, the U.N. estimated that 14.6 million hectares of forests were lost each year until steps were taken by governments to stop the trend and regain annually 5.2 million hectares that were not felled. But advocates are determined to further reduce the rate, and will focus on the issue at the U.N. Forum on Forests at U.N. headquarters in New York from May 16 to 27. "Most of the losses occur in the tropics, while in the non-tropic regions forests are expanding either naturally or as a result of a forestation programme," the U.N. said in a study released in advance of the meeting. The study said at least 1.6 billion people of the world population of 6.5 billion depend on varying degrees on forests for their livelihoods. The study calls on governments to renew pledges to combat deforestation, restore forest functions at the landscape level, rehabilitate degraded lands and improve the livelihoods of poor people living in and around forests around the world. ---SP 2333 Local Time 2033 GMT
