Just 25 countries hold almost all of the world's undisturbed forests. More than half of that forest is in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia and the U.S. And only 22 percent of forestland worldwide is protected.
世界上仅25个国家拥有几乎所有的原始森林。而大部分的原始森林分布在澳大利亚、加拿大、新西兰、俄罗斯和美国。但全球受保护的林地却只占22%。
Those figures are from a new analysis in the journal Conservation Letters.
上述数据来自《保护信刊》的一项新研究中。
So what could be done to save the 13 million plus square kilometers of untouched forests? After all, they're home to more than half of the world's plants and animals and provide necessities like clean air and clean water for us humans. But they’re under serious threat, whether from logging, mining or farming. Such land use change is why only 3 percent of the forest that existed in the past still remains in the temperate parts of the globe.
那么,该如何拯救这1300万平方公里的原始森林呢?毕竟,它是世界上半数以上的植物和动物的栖息地,它还为人类提供了诸如新鲜空气、洁净水之类的生活必须品。但现在,无论在伐木、采矿,还是在农业上,他们都遭受着严重的威胁。土地利用的改变是全球温带区现存原始森林仅3%的原因。
One suggestion for preservation is to make forests a part of international environmental negotiations, like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has tried to do. The goods and services forests provide should be incorporated into economic assessments as well, not just the value of their board feet of lumber. And the world's governments should avoid further forest losses, to slow climate change and the current rate of extinction.
保护原始森林的其中一个措施是将其列入国际环境磋商中,像《联合国气候变化框架公约》尝试的一样。森林提供的产品和服务也应纳入经济评估中,而不仅仅评估其每英尺木材的价值。世界各国政府应防止森林遭受进一步的破坏,减缓气候变化和当前物种的消失速率。
And here's another thought: forests that are owned by the communities that actually live in them tend not to be cut down. So local ownership could help forests survive.
另一个措施是:不得砍伐社区林木。社区林木所有者应保护好它们。