MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador without forests in twenty years

Ecuador will lose all its forests within 20 years if deforestation is not halted warned a top official in the Environment Affairs ministry warned Wednesday in Quito.

Alfredo Carrasco said the ministry has determined that the country is losing between 168,000 and 198,000 hectares (420,000 and 495,000 acres) of forests each year and only 48% of the Colorado-sized country's land area currently retains its natural tree canopy.

He told foreign correspondents that the deforestation process has caused the disappearance of almost all the wooded areas in the country's Andean highlands.

Carrasco said that the provinces that have experienced the greatest deforestation are Esmeraldas, on the coast, and Napo, Pastaza, Morona and Zamora, all four of which are in the Amazon region.

He added that the loss of forests was due to the expansion of farming, the building of highways and the indiscriminate cutting of trees, claiming that the latter accounts for between 10 and 15% of deforestation.

"If the country doesn't take a serious and long-term position on forestation and reforestation, in 15 or 20 years we will have serious problems with wood supply" and Ecuador will be forced to import it, Carrasco said.

Carrasco revealed that the Environment Affairs ministry had developed a plan including projects to plant and control forests, as well as declaring a state of emergency. The plan became effective March 7 and includes the reforestation of some 50,000 hectares (125,000 acres) per year and a total reforestation of one million hectares (2.5 million acres) over the next 20 years.

The process includes the incorporation of reforestation into farming practices, as well as the planting of trees to hold soil in zones considered to be "sensitive," such as river basins. The plan anticipates a strong participation of the private sector in the exploitation of wood for commercial purposes.