Rate of global forest loss halved: UN report

The rate of net forest loss has been cut by more 50 percent, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says

DURBAN (SOUTH AFRICA)  - The rate at which the world is losing its forests has been halved, but an area of woodland the size of South Africa has still been lost since 1990, a major UN report said Monday.

"Even though, globally, the extent of the world's forest continues to decline... the rate of net forest loss has been cut by over 50 percent," said the report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.