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World forest coverage has almost stablized, and is increasing in wealthier countries. Presumably, it will finish turning around in the next decade or so as developing countries become less poor.

Wood that is grown, cut, and then used in a way that resists decomposition contributes as a non-negligible carbon sink.



Have you got a source for this? My understand is that it may have slowed, but we are yet to reverse hectares lost per year.


That's what I mean by "almost stabilized". Global forest coverage is still decreasing, but at a rate that is clearly slowing. And since we see that coverage increases in rich countries, we tentatively conclude that the rate of global decrease will not equilibriate at some negative value, but rather will continue flattening and then turn upward as poor countries become rich. Furthermore, the low point of this process is not particularly bad; it forms a trough that bottoms out at ~4% decrease compared to current levels.

This is the best I could find:

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.FRST.ZS/countries...




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