44. This item, which was added to the agenda, was presented by Mr. C. Racaut (FAO). Document FO:MISC/94/3 reviewed the forestry statistics available on the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries and proposed a mathematical analysis model for these data correlating three parameters (population density, percentage of forest cover and percentage of wet mountain area).
45. Compared with the situation in tropical forests, where the average annual deforestation rate of 0.8 per cent between 1981 and 1990 caused concern world-wide, the situation in some Mediterranean forests - an annual average deforestation rate of the order of 1 per cent - was as worrying, if not more so, but was ignored by the general public.
46. The Committee thanked FAO and the author for this work which highlighted the distressing trend in the forests of the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries covered by the study. It noted the limitations of the statistical data available on each country's forest resources.
47. The Committee noted that it had been given a preview of this document and recommended that the model be refined, the concepts standardized by the ad hoc group that FAO was to establish, and the findings submitted to the countries concerned for review prior to final publication. It stressed the need for each country to know the status of and changes taking place in its forests and hoped that this type of study and appropriate projects would enable national capacities to be strengthened.
