The report said the 13 million hectares (32 million acres) annually lost to deforestation is equivalent to 0.18 percent of the world's forests.

The Rome-based United Nations agency found that "new planting and natural expansion of existing forests" was slowing down the overall deforestation rate.

However, remedial efforts are still unable to keep pace with rapid deforestation; only about half of what is destroyed is replanted.

Between 2000 and 2005 the annual net loss of forest area was an area equal to the size of Sierra Leone or Panama, some 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) per year.

The rate fell from an estimated 8.9 million hectares (22 million acres) per year between 1990 and 2000, the report said.

South America suffered the largest net loss of forests between 2000 and 2005 at around 4.3 million hectares per year, followed by Africa, which lost four million hectares annually, the report found.

The report, the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005, is the most comprehensive assessment ever made of the world's forestry resources, covering 229 countries over the past five years.

"It shows that while good progress is being made in many places, unfortunately forest resources are still being lost or degraded at an alarmingly high rate," said FAO forestry specialist Hosny El-Lakany.

One cause for alarm is the finding that so-called "primary forests" -- those undisturbed by human activity -- are being lost or modified at a rate of six million hectares a year through either deforestation or logging.

Primary forests currently account for 36 percent of the globe's total forest area.

Forests are important because they act as vital "carbon sinks", which absorb industrially produced carbon from the atmosphere, and for conserving soil and water, cultural diversity and supplying wood products.

Some 30 percent of the world's land area -- nearly four billion hectares (9.9 billion acres) -- is currently covered by forest, although only 10 countries account for two-thirds of all forest area, according to the report.

The top 10 are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Peru, the Russian Federation and the United States.

The report found that new forests are being planted at increasing rates around the world, though plantations still account for less than five percent of all forested area.

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