Study hopeful for world's forests

I found this report to be absolutely remarkable, and very hopeful:

When the technique was applied to data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Global Forest Assessment report, the researchers found that forest stocks had actually expanded over the past 15 years in 22 of the world's 50 most forested nations. They also showed increases in biomass and carbon storage capacity in about half of the 50 countries. But the data also revealed that forest area and biomass was still in decline in Brazil and Indonesia, home to some of the world's most important rainforests.

It is hard to imagine that this could be true. The next step is to start expanding forests worldwide. I never imagined that forests could be expanded again, until humans have been removed from the planet. But if we can stabilize forest losses, then perhaps we can start to move forward someday.

It is very interesting to me that this study measured timber volumes, biomass and captured carbon - not just land areas covered by trees. Is it possible that relatively local interventions, such as tree-planting within cities, are having a significant global impact?

Link: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Study hopeful for world's forests.