what is the scale of deforestation?

• there are 63 countries with a tropical rainforest within their borders
• few, if any, early records were kept of the original extent of tropical rainforest
• the UN food and agriculture organization estimates that about half the world's tropical rainforest has now been cleared
• during the first decade of the 21st century, rates of deforestation increased in all three continents: asia, africa and south america
• in indonesia, the rate of deforestation between 2005 and 2010 was double the rate between 2000 and 2005
• in peru, the rate almost doubled
• however, the rate of deforestation has decreased in 7 countries
• this happened in brazil where the rate of deforestation has fallen to a record low and it is estimated that about half of brazils remaining rainforest now has some sort of protected status
• the bad news is that 20% of the amazons rainforest has been cleared since 1970: an area of 761,000 square kilometers