The UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) is holding a four-day meeting starting today that will consider whether strengthening existing environmental and timber treaties and agreements or establishing a new global pact on forests is the smarter option to reducing deforestation and protecting biodiversity. At least 70 specialists are taking part.

Forests continue to disappear at an alarmingly swift pace. Brazil estimates that an average of 40 square kilometres of the Amazon rainforest, Earth’s largest, were destroyed each day last year, while the UN has previously calculated that an area larger than Venezuela was lost during the 1990s.

In a statement released on the eve of the meeting, the Forum said the protection of forests is important not only for direct environmental reasons, but because forests play a valuable role in reducing poverty and improving food security and access to affordable energy.

The Forum was set up in 2000 to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of the world's forest, and is a subsidiary of the UN Economic and Social Council. The recommendations made at this week's meeting will be discussed at a final session in New York next May.