The world's forests are critical for human livelihoods. Increasingly they are being recognised for the wide range of products and essential ecosystem services they provide. Accurate and up-to-date information on the extent of the world's forests, and the way they are changing, has never been more important.

This report is the first of its kind to present systematic estimates of global forest land use and change. These globally consistent, statistically reliable results are based on data generated by Landsat satellite imagery for the years 1990, 2000 and 2005, and represent key findings from FAO's 2010 Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2010) Remote Sensing Survey. It shows that annual global forest area losses were greater in 2000-2005 than in 1990-2000, highlights regional differences in forest loss and gain, and demonstrates that forest loss was highest in the tropics.

The report is the result of many years of planning and three years of detailed work by staff at FAO and the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), with inputs from technical experts from more than 100 countries. This partnership and the text of this report constitute a significant step in ensuring that future decisions on forests are based on reliable information.