Latin America-South and Central America plus Mexico but excluding the Caribbean Island countries for our purposes in this paper - includes 906 million ha of forest or 24% of the total global forest cover. About 46% of Latin America's land area is forest. As much to the point for global policy, Latin America as a region experienced and average annual loss from this forest of 3.5 million ha or a country-level average deforestation rate of 0.59% each year from 2015 to 2019.
This final paper in the Special Issue on Latin America summarizes the contributions of the 15 previous and more specialized papers under the themes of 1) defining characteristics of Latin American forestry and its comparison with forestry in other parts of the world, 2) policies that make a difference specifically for Latin America and 3) Latin America's developing forest industry. We observe, in particular, the region's position within Mather's well-known Forest Transition and what this suggests for the future of Latin American forest development and for the important effect of aggregate economic development on forest use, for agriculture's role in deforestation and policies to control it, and for the need for more information about the forest industry and its impact on forest-dependent human communities and on the forest itself. More or better information about each of these themes would lend confidence to our findings. More importantly, it would enable improved market and policy adjustments for the large changes that we anticipate both economic development and global climate change will bring to Latin America's forests and forest sector in the years ahead. Finally, we finish by noting the rapidly growing demands for non-consumptive uses of Latin America's forests and the importance of information about those as well.
