Forests have been one of the most significant biomes in earth history. They were the original source of the fossil fuels that we now burn as coal, oil and gas, while the tropical forests of the Amazon, West Africa and tropical Asia support the richest biodiversity on earth. Forests help to reduce or prevent soil erosion and protect water resources. The Amazon forest appears to have a role in the circulation of earth's atmosphere. Since the rise of farming some 8 to 10,000 years ago, forests have been cleared for farmland and pasture throughout the northern hemisphere. And within the last few decades millions of acres of tropical forests have suffered the same fate as result of timber extraction or clearance for the plantation of tropical crops such as tea, coffee, cocoa or oil palms.
Native New Zealand has shared the same fate. 85% of New Zealand was forested before the arrival of human beings. With the arrival of human beings, New Zealand's forest cover has shrunk to 23% of land cover.
However, the Economist, a well respected international magazine, recently published an interesting and heartening article on forests. According to the Economist the relative decline in forest destruction that has flattened in the past few years and there are signs that countries around the world are restoring forests (as in northern hemisphere countries such as Canada, the US, Sweden, Norway and Finland, or reducing the wholesale destruction of forests (http://www.economist.com/node/17093495?story_id=17093495&fsrc=scn/tw/te/rss/pe ).
