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p. 4 of 57 BACK | NEXT I. The Changing Environment Economic Transformation State of the Environment in the Region Land and Forests Water Resources Air Quality Urban Population Counting the Toll Looking Ahead II. Driving Forces of Change III. Options and Opportunities IV. Toward Policy Integration V. Call to Action

Asian Environment Outlook 2001 : I. The Changing Environment : State of the Environment in the Region

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Land and Forests

By 1985, countries in the region had already lost 70-90 percent of their original wildlife habitat to agriculture, infrastructure development, deforestation, and land degradation (MacKinnon and MacKinnon 1986). The most severe losses have been in Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. The region is home to 22 percent of the world’s threatened plant species (IUCN and IIED 1993). This undoubtedly is a conservative estimate because the Asia and Pacific region remains largely unstudied compared to many other regions. The Philippines and Viet Nam have lost about 70 and 50 percent of their mangrove forests, respectively, and 75 percent of Asia’s marine protected areas are considered to be under high potential threat from coastal development (WRI 1998). Tropical forests are of particular concern because of high rates of species richness and endemism. Wilson (1998) estimates that roughly 40 percent of the land that can support closed tropical forests is now devoid of forest cover, primarily as a result of human actions. Forest cover is declining at a rate of approximately 1 percent per year.

Pressure on the land in Asia is the most severe in the world. Particularly affected are the region’s rural poor who are dependent on agriculture and its ancillary activities. Many countries in the region already face an acute shortage of productive land resources that can support its growing population. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in 1990, approximately 850 million hectare (ha) had some degree of land degradation, representing more than 28 percent of the region’s land area. There are 350 million ha of degraded land in India, Pakistan, and PRC, most of which are grasslands (UNEP 1999). About 1,320 million people or 39 percent of the region’s population, live in areas prone to drought and desertification (UNEP 1997).

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