Worldwide, there are an estimated 3.9 million hectares (ha) of forests. This represents 30% of the world's land area. Of the world's forests, 95% are natural forests and 5% are planted forests. About 56% of the world's forests are in the tropics and subtropics, and the remaining 44% are in the temperate and boreal zones (1) .

Forests have important environmental, economic, social and cultural roles. Major forests' goods and services include industrial wood, woodfuel, non-wood forest products, soil and water conservation, biological diversity conservation, mitigation of climate change, support to agricultural systems, employment generation, provision of recreational opportunities, and protection of natural and cultural heritage.

About 1.6 billion people in the world rely heavily on forest resources for their livelihood, including 60 million indigenous people living in the rainforests, 350 million people living in, or next to, dense forests, and 1.2 billion people in developing countries using trees on farms to generate food and cash.

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Deforestation continues to be a major threat to the possibilities of forest conservation, the availability of forest goods and services for the livelihoods of the direct forest users and for humankind in general. It is estimated that the forest area worldwide decreased by 9.4 million ha annually during the past decade, representing the difference between the estimated annual rate of deforestation of 14.6 million ha and the estimated annual rate of forest area increase of 5.2 million ha. The main causes of deforestation include conversion of forests to other land uses, unsustainable exploitation of forest products and natural disasters.

These global trends require energetic efforts at local and international level to ensure the sustainability of forest ecosystems, while reconciling the demands of different stakeholders. New forestry initiatives should contribute to a participatory, equitable, decentralized and self-sustaining process of rural development.