U.N. Report Suggests Slowed Forest Losses

A comprehensive survey of the world's forests, released last week by the United Nations (U.N.), suggests that global rates of forest loss decreased in the 1990s. But the ink was barely dry on the report before the World Resources Institute (WRI), a think tank in Washington, D.C., disputed that conclusion. “We need good news about the world's forests,” says Dirk Bryant, who directs WRI's forest program. “But this is definitely not it.”