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UNITED NATIONS

  • 27/02/2001
  • FAO

UNITED NATIONS Around 30 per cent of pesticides marketed in developing countries do not meet internationally accepted quality standards, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO). These pesticides have an estimated market value of us $900 million annually.

"The labeling often fails to provide data on the active ingredient, application, date of manufacture and safe handling of the chemical,' said the UN agencies. FAO and WHO said that the problem of poor-quality pesticides was particularly widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, where quality control was generally weak.

The rate of global deforestation is slowing, but huge forest areas are still disappearing every year, reports the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Globally, the current rate of net forest loss amounts to nine million hectares per year, 20 per cent lower than in 1995, according to the latest FAO global forest survey. The decrease in the rate of forest cover is being attributed to new plantations in Europe and the US. Natural forests are disappearing in Africa and Latin America. "These differences are not due to population pressure on forest. Rather, they are due to economic development and national or land use policies,' said Jacques Diouf, FAO's director-general.

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