An ambitious tree planting programme in Asia has slowed the deforestation in the last decade, says a report document of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It also says that the net loss of forest area slowed down to 5.2 million a year between 2000 and 2010 from 8.3 million in the 1990s, which is still an area the size of Costa Rica.

The report also points out that 32 million acres of forest a year were converted to other uses or lost through natural causes in the past decade, down from more than 39 million a year in the previous 10 years.

The report lauded Asia effort in the reforestation effort. It says that the Asian continent expanded its forest area by a total of close to 2.2 million hectares a year. The UN report praised efforts by India, China and Vietnam which added 4 million hectares a year of fresh woodland.

Some of the other key findings of the report:
    * The national parks and other legally-protected areas have risen to 13 percent, an increase of 94 million hectares since 1990.
    * A lower deforestation rate has helped in bringing down the high level of carbon emissions from forests caused by deforestation.
    * Around 4 billion hectares or 31 percent of the world’s total land area is covered by forest, which store some 289 gigatonnes of carbon -- more than all the carbon in the atmosphere -- but this decreased by 0.5 gigatonnes a year during 2000-2010.
    * Indonesia has taken several measures in the last decade to stop deforestation, which is now paying dividends. It reduced deforestation to 0.5 million hectares a year between 2000 and 2010, versus 1.9 million a year during the previous decade.
    * Brazil also lowered its own figure to 2.6 million from 2.9 million hectares. But South America remains culprit. It still had the highest regional level of net deforestation at 4 million hectares a year, followed by Africa with 3.4 million hectares.
    * The forest area remained stable in North America, while in Europe it continued to expand, although at a slower rate than previously.

However, the FAO has word of caution for tree planting programmes in China, India and Vietnam - it says it would end by 2020. The UN body has urged governments in these countries to quickly put in place more measures to slow deforestation.