Thursday, 24 June 2010 07:59

Mexico shows progress in combating deforestation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a multilateral agency said today included 81 governments, 51 organizations and the European Commission. According to Group on Earth Observations (Group on Earth Observations, GEO in English), among the dozen countries that monitors environmental, Mexico is among the most active in reducing emissions. GEO Secretary General, agreed that the project takes its first steps, but that their data is used "for reforestation policies."

The loss of forests in Mexico represents 14% of emissions, according to the Organization of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the country lost 316 000 green acres in 2007.



President Felipe Calderon has quantified the annual average at 350,000 hectares lost on account of illegal logging, fires and forest land use for agriculture.



According to the National Forestry Commission (Conafor), 47.7% of the soils of Mexico, nearly half the country are damaged.



The environmental authorities have launched an ambitious reforestation goal, criticized by Greenpeace because they believe that, despite the planting of millions of trees, survives only ten percent of them.



Mexico has 65 million hectares of forests covering an area of 1.98 million square kilometers in the living about 103 million people.



The Mexican environment is home to more than 64,000 animal and plant species, 10 percent of the world total.



GEO 2008 emissions monitored from Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Mexico, Tanzania, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia, Brazil and Indonesia. It is precisely these two last ones out worse off in terms of increased area of forest lost.



Rum said the governing body does not watch European countries, since these, being attached to the Kyoto Protocol, are obliged to make their own measurements, although the trend of reforestation rate is higher.