
Asner and his co-authors Tom Rudel of Rutgers University, Mitch Aide from University of Puerto Rico, Ruth DeFries of Columbia University, and Ruth Emerson from Carnegie compiled their estimates using data from satellite observations, published field surveys, and a sampling of Google Earth™ images. They highlight that roughly 1.4% of the world's tropical humid forests was deforested between 2000 and 2005, and that as of 2005 more than half of the forests contained 50% or less tree cover.
"Selective logging is more difficult to recognize and quantify than outright deforestation, so there have been few estimates of its impact," says Asner. "But we found that around 28% of humid tropical forests are undergoing some level of timber harvesting."….
NASA Astronaut Photography of Earth - Display Record ISS015-E-15057, Amazon Basin, Brazil. Showing river, tributaries, rainforest, jungle. From International Space Station (Expedition 15).
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