U.N. calls on Asian nations to end deforestation

The United Nations has called on more Asian leaders to agree to a plan to end deforestation by 2020 to slow down the destruction of plants and animals, a top official said on Friday.

About 80 percent of the world's known biodiversity could be found in forests, where about 1.6 billion people also depend for their survival, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive director of U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), told a news conference in Manila.

"The project to stop deforestation by 2020 is feasible, it's doable," Djoghlaf said.

In a meeting in Germany in May, 65 countries committed to support a call by the Worldwide Fund for Nature for a zero net deforestation by 2020, but only two -- Cambodia and Vietnam -- were from Southeast Asia.

For Full Story, click here

Source: Reuters