A TENTH of the world's known tree species face extinction, according to a recently published global survey called the "World List of Threatened Trees". The three-year survey found that more than 8,750 of the 80,000-100,000 identified tree species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the destruction of habitats through timber felling and forest clearing practices.

Almost 1,000 species have been identified as "critically endangered". Some of the species have been reduced to only one or a handful of individual trees. The survey was compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Union with the Swiss-based World Conservation Union and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The publication was timed to coincide with the Inter-governmental Forum on Forests.