This photo of Bruges Ballooning is courtesy of TripAdvisor (click here) The title of the pictures is, "Flying High over Belgium Forests."
There is absolutely no excuse for deforestation. Belgium is densely populated with a diverse set of cultures, yet they are keeping their promise to their children in protecting the environment and beauty.
These statistics regarding the Belgium forests is duplicated by the statistics of the World Bank (click here).
22.0% —or about 667,000 hectares—of Belgium is forested. (click here) Of this, none is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse form of forest.
Change in Forest Cover: Between 1990 and 2000, Belgium lost an average of 1,000 hectares of forest per year. The amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 0.15%. Between 2000 and 2005, the rate of forest change decreased by 100.0% to 0.00% per annum. In total, between 1990 and 2005, Belgium lost 1.5% of its forest cover, or around 10,000 hectares. Measuring the total rate of habitat conversion (defined as change in forest area plus change in woodland area minus net plantation expansion) for the 1990-2005 interval, Belgium gained 6.1% of its forest and woodland habitat.
Biodiversity and Protected Areas: Belgium has some 548 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 0.5% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 3.5% are threatened. Belgium is home to at least 1550 species of vascular plants, of which 0.1% are endemic. 0.0% of Belgium is protected under IUCN categories I-V.
