Use of the module will also be piloted in Kenya and Uganda, as well as Cambodia, Myanmar and the respective government institutions in 2020-2021," said FAO in a new report titled The State of the World's Forests 2020, released in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).
FAO warns that deforestation and forest degradation continue to take place at alarming rates, contributing significantly to ongoing loss of biodiversity.
Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest degradation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity.
"Agricultural expansion continues to be one of the main drivers of deforestation, while the resilience of human food systems and their capacity to adapt to future change depends on that very biodiversity," read the report, "Degradation and loss of forests, disrupting nature's balance, have increased the risk and exposure of people to zoonotic diseases like the one we're currently facing in the Covid-19,"warns FAO Director-General, Qu Dongyu, in a summary titled, Understanding and keeping track of the state of our world's forests has never been so important.
"A recent study estimated that there are some 1.7 billion to 1.8 billion hectares of potential forest land defined as land that could sustain more than 10 per cent tree cover in areas that were previously degraded, dominated by sparse vegetation, grasslands and degraded bare soils.
