The table illustrates the area of forests in various parts of the world in three different years. The table depicts this information in terms of millions of hectares.
Overall, forested land declined over the years, with Europe and Asia being the only exception to this trend. While Africa and South America lost forests relatively quickly, North America and Oceania only lost a small margin of their forests, and in a much slower rate.
Across the years, the area of forests experienced a steady and constant decline in a majority of places. However, in Asia, the area of forests fluctuated slightly. In 1990, Asia had 576 million hectares of forests, which fell to 570 million hectares in 2000. It then proceeded to increase again and reach its peak in 2005, at 584 million hectares. Similarly, Europe also did not follow this trend, as it increased in forested land over the years. Europe had 989 million hectares in 1990, which grew to 998 million hectares in 2000, and then rose up 1001 million hectares in 2005.
Across this time span, South America experienced the fastest reduction in forests. South America lost 42 million hectares between 1990 and 2000, then decreased by another 22 million hectares from 2000 to 2005. Africa followed closely behind as the second fastest, with 749 million hectares in 1990, which significantly decreased to 709 and 691 million hectares in the years 2000 and 2005, respectively. Conversely, North America and Oceania only experienced a minimal decline, losing 3 and 2 million hectares across the years, respectively.