UN says Dominican forests, food security improve

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic is among the 22countries that maintained or increased their forest area and improved foodsecurity from 1990 to 2015, with only four other Latin American countries included,the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN said Wednesday.

In its report "The State of the World’s Forests2016" the FAO lists Chile, Costa Rica, Fiji, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana,Guyana, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, DominicanRepublic, Iran, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Uzbekistanand Vietnam as the countries that advanced in forest cover.

The document stresses that forests and trees lead to sustainableagriculture. Stable soils and climate, and regulated water flows provide shadeand shelter and a habitat for pollinators and natural predators of agriculturalpests.

The report notes however that agriculture is still the mainfactor of deforestation worldwide and agro, forestry and land use policies oftenaren’t harmonized. "Integrated land planning of use is the key tobalancing land uses, which must be supported by appropriate measures to promotesustainable policies on forestry and agriculture."